Favorite Teaching Company courses?

[Ann@thebeach]

I'm sure this has been asked before but searches didn't come up with much. Some of you probably have them in your subscriptions so links would be appreciated.

 

But I would love to hear some of your favorite courses.

 

Did you use them as a supplement or a credit class?

 

I am looking at Classical Mythology and a Brief History of the World so far.

 

And is Linwood Thompson good or bad to listen to? This would be for a 13-15 tr old boy if that matters. I'm leaning towards the audio when possible.

 

Thanks!

[regentrude]

We LOVED everything by Elizabeth Vandiver!

We used The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), Greek Mythology (24), The Aeneid (12) and a selection of her Greek Tragedy lectures for DD's Great Books history/English studies this year.

[Margo out of lurking]

:bigear:

 

I'm planning to order Understanding the Brain today or tomorrow. It comes in a set with Optimizing Brain Fitness.

 

If I spend $20 more, I get $30 off (but I have to pay $5 more for shipping). I'll be looking at the suggestions. I wish the website had a search by price function.

 

And I'd really like a free shipping or other coupon code on top of the 70% discount . . . anyone?

[MIch elle]

and my favorite is Foundations of Western Civ. 2

[Julie in MN]

We LOVED everything by Elizabeth Vandiver!

We used The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), Greek Mythology (24), The Aeneid (12) and a selection of her Greek Tragedy lectures for DD's Great Books history/English studies this year.

 

:iagree:

 

My ds has also loved Physics In Your Life and Physics Beyond the Edge.

 

I've found the history and music courses I've listened to interesting but I don't think I could have listened until after I had some basic understandings down in my own uneducated mind (US history, Hitler, great music, etc). I usually feel the teacher expects a certain level of understanding, so he doesn't give an overall structure, but instead delves deeply into smaller (but interesting) areas.

 

I sometimes find the science & religion classes can turn me off by a flip statement that casts off my Biblical worldview out-of-hand, although these cases are brief and might be easily ignored if I wasn't so easily annoyed by it :tongue_smilie:

 

As far as the high school courses, I'd say (1) they aren't complete or in depth, but were useful to fill in some gaps for my dd (didn't really add a lot for my ds); and (2) some folks hate the teacher dressing up & some think it's fun.

 

Julie

[Brenda in MA]

We've enjoyed all the ones we've watched.

 

Last summer, we watched "Experiencing Rome: A Visual Exploration of Antiquity's Greatest Empire" as a supplement to our Latin studies and really enjoyed all the photos and descriptions of the culture and daily life in ancient rome.

 

We just finished "World's Greatest Paintings" as part of my son's high school art credit. We both loved the instructor and his enthusiasm for art. He did a great job giving the background on the works he chose, explaining trends in art, and showing how some painters were influenced by earlier artists.

 

We've also watched a handful of the lectures from the History of the United States, 2nd edition and enjoyed those as well. Although we did not use this series as a spine for a study of US history, I think it would make a good choice for that purpose.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[Jamee]

We really enjoyed Secrets of Mental Math. Loved it so much, DS was watching it on his own!

[Faithr]

Here are the ones we've used and appreciated. We tend to get the videos.

 

World War II: A Military and Social History - professor was a bit dry but the material fascinating!

Foundations of Western Civ I - Professor Noble - wonderful!

Augustine; Saint and Sinner - Professor Cary I think. Quirky, goofy guy but wonderful teacher!

St. Francis - Cook and Herzmann - a bit goofy too but great stuff.

Dante's Divine Comedy by Cook and Herzmann - ditto!

The American Identity - Patrick Allitt - I'm in love with him! And this course!

Fundamentals of Understanding Music - my music loving sons adore this

How the Earth Works - At times too deep for me, but I still learned a lot! Fascinating stuff. Makes you rethink everything!

How to Be a Superstar Student - my college student credits this course with helping her get on the Dean's list first semester. She just did what he said!

[In The Great White North]

Foundations of Western Civ I - Professor Noble - wonderful!

Augustine; Saint and Sinner - Professor Cary I think. Quirky, goofy guy but wonderful teacher!

St. Francis - Cook and Herzmann - a bit goofy too but great stuff.

Dante's Divine Comedy by Cook and Herzmann - ditto!

 

We're doing the Middle Ages this year so I'm looking for videos. Could you tell me if these have a denominational bias?

 

And is the video version an improvement over the audio? (They say either works and I don't want to be staring at a lecturer reading his text.)

[Faithr]

I think any of these would work well as audio. You'd miss the maps and such for Professor Noble, but I've read that some people didn't like his manner of speaking (though we thought he was adorable) so it seems to me if mannerisms would distract you than audio would be the way to go. We like to sit down in front of a screen with our tea and our notebooks. I find it harder to do that with just audio which lends itself to being more independent, you know listening while you walk or exercise. But I always want to participate right alongside my teen so video works for us.

 

I'm Catholic so I pick things that jive with my worldview. Professor Noble is from Notre Dame. He's pretty objective though, I thought. The guy who teaches Augustine is Lutheran or something. Cook and Herzmann are really into the Middle Ages which was dominated by the Catholic Church. They are scholarly but not at all hostile to Christianity.

[In The Great White North]

Thank you - that helps a lot. Did you use a spine with these or was the Foundations of Western Civilization the spine?

[Faithr]

I used the course as the spine. We bought the complete transcripts. Professor Noble goes fast, so we also looked up stuff on various sites, wikipedia, etc to clarify some stuff. There are essay questions in the back of either the transcript book or maybe just the outline that comes with the series. I used these as essay prompts or sometimes my dd would want to write about a particular topic instead.

[8filltheheart]

Thank you - that helps a lot. Did you use a spine with these or was the Foundations of Western Civilization the spine?

 

I am using the Foundation lectures with Western Civilization: the Continuing Experiment vol 1: to 1715 which is by Noble (as well as others) next yr.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Civilization-Continuing-Experiment-Dolphin/dp/0618561919/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304517130&sr=1-1

[In The Great White North]

Oh, thank you.

 

I love the price, too!

[Tammyla]

I have a one time free shipping code; pm if you need it.

 

 

Secrets of Mental Math was received well here too.

[In The Great White North]

I will be contemplating history and literature for a few months yet. But thank you anyway.

[Ann@thebeach]

Anyone else?

There are a bunch on sale thru May 12.

 

I was able to listen to the first few lectures of:

Understanding The Universe: An Intro to Astronomy by Alex Filippenko

 

and I really liked it. Since it has a lot of graphics this is only on DVD but I bought it.

 

I also got the Classical Mythology that I've heard great reviews of.

 

I'm debating between a Brief History of the World

OR

Western Civ (1 or 2?)

OR

any other good world history?

 

Anyone listened to Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations? It's only 24.95 so I'm tempted.....

 

My local homeschool resource library has Joy of Science and I have that on hold so can't wait to listen to that.

[Aquinas Academy]

We LOVED everything by Elizabeth Vandiver!

We used The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), Greek Mythology (24), The Aeneid (12) and a selection of her Greek Tragedy lectures for DD's Great Books history/English studies this year.

:iagree:We used these this year, too. DD 14 and I have also been enjoying Physics in Your Life. But our all time favourite TC course is definitely How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. I can't rave about it enough. :)

[Ann@thebeach]

Glad to hear that about Physics in Your Life because I bought it used on amazon and waiting for it.

[In The Great White North]

I think any of these would work well as audio. You'd miss the maps and such for Professor Noble, but I've read that some people didn't like his manner of speaking (though we thought he was adorable) so it seems to me if mannerisms would distract you than audio would be the way to go. We like to sit down in front of a screen with our tea and our notebooks. I find it harder to do that with just audio which lends itself to being more independent, you know listening while you walk or exercise. But I always want to participate right alongside my teen so video works for us.

 

I'm Catholic so I pick things that jive with my worldview. Professor Noble is from Notre Dame. He's pretty objective though, I thought. The guy who teaches Augustine is Lutheran or something. Cook and Herzmann are really into the Middle Ages which was dominated by the Catholic Church. They are scholarly but not at all hostile to Christianity.

__________________

 

What did you think about Dailleader (who is on sale whereas Noble is not)?

[atozmom]

But our all time favourite TC course is definitely How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. I can't rave about it enough. :)

 

 

:iagree: Prof Greenberg is amazing!

[pqr]

Famous Greeks

[Miss Marple]

Has anyone used Biblical Wisdom Literature by Father Koterski?

 

My favorites: Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis, Vandiver's Iliad & Odyssey, Books that Have Made History: Books that Can Change Your Life, Physics in Your Life, High School History set (we liked the quirky dress-ups). I've got some that I will be using this coming year - hopefully they'll be hits as well.