Hikin' Mama Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I got a catalog in the mail, and the prices are greatly reduced. Many of these look interesting, but I don't want to buy them if they aren't all that "great." :D Thanks in advance for your responses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 We love them! We have used (all audio): For Ancients: Elizabeth Vandiver: the Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Greek Tragedy, Classical Mythology Those are fantastic! She is a great lecturer. For Medieval: Philip Daileader: the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, The Late Middle Ages Very good! also used Dante Divine Comedy For Music: Robert Greenberg How to listen to and understand great music. All of us are enjoying this course very much. We were less thrilled with: Rome a visual exploration. Kenneth Bartlett Italian renaissance on video (will try again as audio) We were completely disappointed with Cardulla's High school chemistry and will return this course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 The Teaching Company is one of our all-time favorite resources. I gush about the materials often - here and in real life. So far I have only met four people in real life who have even heard of them, but those four folks are hooked too. :001_smile: Stay away unless you are ready to commit to an addiction. ;) Peace, Janice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I'm broke and still own, I think, 5 courses. If you watch for the sales and buy audio downloads you can get good deals. Wait, I checked, I have 8. :lol: You might check your library, sometimes you have look by program title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Yes. We love them. Some libraries do carry them but not here. I don't know that all students are going to enjoy the style because they are pretty straight forward and most don't have a high amount of visual content - they are really lectures. They do have really good return policies so if you try it and don't like it they will give you a refund. Also, know that the sales are very frequent. If you buy one product you will get PLENTY of catalogs and chance to shop for more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice in NJ Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Margaret, Wolfson put together a new physics series that just came out. It too is very good. It's not on sale right now, but will probably return to the sale rack soon. :001_smile: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1280 Peace, Janice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hikin' Mama Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 You all have convinced me. Now I'll just have to pare down my list of wants. Several of them looked interesting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Sometimes the courses can be bought used on amazon or abebooks. This is often cheaper than even at the deepest sale prices directly from the Teaching company. The courses we bought used were all in excellent shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 :thumbup1: :drool: I love shopping their super-sales...My library carries a few courses, but they are always checked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 We used the Economics course: 36 30-minute lectures by Timothy Taylor. I found it as a 3-DVD set in like-new condition, used on Amazon for about $35. The Great Course Economics covered Micro and Macro Economics. I created a short quiz for DSs after each lecture, and they used it to practice note-taking from a lecture and studying for a test from notes. We also counted it towards the 0.5 credit of Economics required by our state, along with the 12-hour DVD-lecture series and accompanying workbook of Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal Finance (EXCELLENT, specific information on personal finance for teens, college ages AND families!!), plus we read the middle-school-level book "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy." It all worked together to make a GREAT Economics course! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachnut Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 We used the Economics course: 36 30-minute lectures by Timothy Taylor. I found it as a 3-DVD set in like-new condition, used on Amazon for about $35. The Great Course Economics covered Micro and Macro Economics. I created a short quiz for DSs after each lecture, and they used it to practice note-taking from a lecture and studying for a test from notes. We also counted it towards the 0.5 credit of Economics required by our state, along with the 12-hour DVD-lecture series and accompanying workbook of Dave Ramsey's Foundations in Personal Finance (EXCELLENT, specific information on personal finance for teens, college ages AND families!!), plus we read the middle-school-level book "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy." It all worked together to make a GREAT Economics course! :) Lori, what a GREAT idea! Do you happen to have a syllabus/outline/etc. for this economics course that you could share? I was thinking of outsourcing the economics course, but I like the materials you pulled together. This looks very doable as a 0.5 credit course, maybe over the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheWhoWaits Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 We've used them, but I was expecting more from them. I honestly don't think one teaching company course is rigorous enough to deserve a credit as an entire high school level course. They are wonderful as supplements, but not on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtmcm Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 DD15 is currently using 4 Great Courses: Great American Bestsellers - we watch the lecture on Monday and she spends the week reading the book and discussing with me. We're very pleased with this. The instructor does "spoil" the ending of every book. I guess he assumes people are watching his lecture so they don't have to read it. Analysis and Critique: How to Engage and Write about Anything - DD watches on Tuesday and completes the exercises provided in the book. DD is enjoying this - even DD12 was watching today and said she wants to do it in high school. Physics in Your Life - DD watches 1-2 lectures each week to accompany Conceptual Physics. She enjoys it and looks forward to watching these. I'm not sure how much new info she's learning, but I assume it reinforces the info from the text. Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making - We haven't started this yet. We completed Government in the fall and start Econ for spring. We're supplementing with Penny Candy, The Bluestocking Guide and The Money Mystery. DD will read on M-W and watch a lecture on Thursday. So basically, I've broken up her schedule so she watches about 1 lecture per day for the various courses. We also have Super Star Student - both the 1st and current editions. I personally prefer the 1st edition if you can find it used on Amazon or eBay. The current edition is much more hip and whizzy, but I don't seem to come away with the concrete action items like are presented in the 1st ed. In my opinion, the 1st ed. is geared towards more linear-analytical thinkers and the current version may appeal to global-spatial learners. For instance, the 1st ed emphasizes outlines where the current ed suggests using idea webs for taking notes of a textbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 (edited) Do you happen to have a syllabus/outline/etc. for this economics course that you could share Not really -- we just sort of did "the next thing" since everything was so simple. :) However, if you wanted a schedule, it would be pretty easy to go with something like what I wrote out below. At the pace below, semester 1 would take about 25 minutes per day, 4 days a week, while semester 2 would take about 45 minutes per day, 2 days a week. If you want to do the whole thing in one semester, then just "double up" -- do twice as much of the Penny Candy and Dave Ramsey each day to be finished in 9 weeks, and then do 4 (instead of 2) Great Course Economics lectures per week to finish in the remaining 9 weeks of the semester. Personal observation: the macro and micro economics lectures, while well-done, were still fairly abstract and dry -- the topic itself, not lectures -- so I don't know as though I would try to do more than 1 per day in order to chug through over the summer... Just my opinion! Cheers! Lori D. Semester 1 week 1 day 1 - read/discuss Preface and chap. 1-2 of "Penny Candy" day 2 - read/discuss chap. 3-4 of "Penny Candy" day 3 - read/discuss chap. 5-6 of "Penny Candy" day 4 - read/discuss chap. 7-8 of "Penny Candy" week 2 day 1 - read/discuss chap. 9-11 of "Penny Candy" day 2 - read/discuss chap. 12-13 of "Penny Candy" day 3-4 - optional: quiz, research a specific topic from the book, write a paper, do a project, etc. weeks 3-17 - Each day, 4 days a week, watch a segment from the 12-unit long Dave Ramsey Foundations in Personal Finance. - Fill in the workbook pages as you watch. Discuss at the end of each segment. - Do the quiz in the workbook at the end of each unit, and discuss. week 18 - Set up a checking account, savings account, and write out a budget. Semester 2 weeks 1-18 - Each session, 2 days a week, watch a 30-minute lecture. - Pause DVD as needed to take notes and/or discuss. - Just before viewing the next lecture (or on the "in-between-day", if doing Econ on MW or TTh), study notes and take a 5-minute quiz on the previous day's lecture (which you, the teacher, made from your own notes and the study guide booklet that comes with the DVDs, right after watching the lecture). Edited January 4, 2012 by Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachnut Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Lori, thanks for sharing the schedule ... and for the insights about not moving too fast just to squeeze the course in during the summer. MUCH appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Sometimes the courses can be bought used on amazon or abebooks. This is often cheaper than even at the deepest sale prices directly from the Teaching company.The courses we bought used were all in excellent shape. I've had great fortune in finding these at used bookstores or library sales. I will look at every used bookstore or sale and buy them when I find them. I also have a wonderful friend who is willing to swap sets when we're working on something particular. If you're willing to listen to these on tape, I think you can find them quite inexpensively. Of course this won't work well for the graphic heavy courses like art and some of the sciences. But history often does well audio only. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I've had great fortune in finding these at used bookstores or library sales. I will look at every used bookstore or sale and buy them when I find them. I think libraries in general (buying or borrowing) are a great place to *try out* a course. And definitely folks are clearing out their cassettes and VHS tapes for cheap. However, for newbies who haven't used these courses, beware that often times around here, - The libraries separate the sets into pieces, and you might not be able to get all the pieces, or at least not in order, and might not be able to renew for purposes of waiting until you get an earlier piece of the set. Used library sales also often have just part of a set. - Our library often doesn't have the guide book, unless it's a very new purchase and the guide hasn't been lost yet. Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Ones we have used: Books that Have Made History; Books that Can Change Your Life with Rufus Fears - excellent!! We didn't watch everything, but we did about 12 lectures that year. We had skipped several that we felt our young high schoolers were not ready for. Great American Best Sellers - very good! We used this in an attempt to dovetail with our American History with the Great Presidents course. We liked this one much better. Argumentation: The study of effective reasoning - my boys listened to it in the car during their commute to a literature club. They liked it. Interpreting the Twentieth Century: The Struggle Over Democracy - we did this one as a co-op and enjoyed it. While our boys weren't crazy about the lecturer (they didn't like her hair that never moved and some of her mannerisms.) However, over all, they thought it was an intriguing course. Great Presidents - We thought the lectures were pretty good, but it didn't serve our purposes as a unique spine to American History. Popes and the Papacy - my daughter and I have been listening to it as I started it for me while on a long car trip with her. She is surprised at how much she is liking it and how it has dovetailed into her study of history thus far (we are studying the Reformation using the History Portfolio: Renaissance.) Chemistry - my kids didn't like this as much. They thought it would be a good supplement for kids who struggled with the math, though. We lent it to a friend who really likes it. I have a few more on my shelves that we haven't gotten to, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.