High School TTC World History: The Fertile Crescent to The American Revolution

[vjivascu]

Hi,

 

I wanted to find out if anyone used this world history curriculum for their child. Did you supplement with any other books, etc.? I would appreciate any feedback/advice that anyone can provide regarding using this as a high school world history course.

 

Blessings,

 

Viorica

[Catwoman]

I wouldn't really classify it as a complete course. I think it's very informative and entertaining, but because it doesn't cover history in a step-by-step or event-by-event basis, it seems like more of an add-on to me. It doesn't seem meaty enough on its own. We used it as sort of an introduction to world history by watching a lesson every day until we'd finished the whole course, and we used the discussion questions to clarify the major points, but we didn't consider it to be anything resembling a full year's history course. (We didn't use a textbook with it, though -- we just used the DVDs and the printed discussion questions.) I'm sure others have used it differently than we did, though! :)

[kerenlynne]

DS enjoyed it a lot but it is definitely not a curriculum. Professor Linwood is kind of goofy but my son ate it up. If your student is more serious his presentations might seem lame. I agree with Cat that you can use the lectures as an intro to whatever topic you are covering and the discussion guide is helpful in going over what was covered in the lecture.

[vjivascu]

Thanks for your response. If you don't mind me asking, what did you use for your world history?

[Guest dbl_fla]

We used it as a supplement. It aligned very well with the Holt "Human Legacy" textbook we are using. We enjoyed it - I think the costumes and accents helped. Only downside is that it doesn't cover the entire year. We ran out of videos and still had a couple months and 200+ years of history to go.

 

Best recommendation I can give is that we are planning to use the US History course by the same instructor next year. Same strategy -- it will be a supplement.

[Catwoman]

We used it as a supplement. It aligned very well with the Holt "Human Legacy" textbook we are using. We enjoyed it - I think the costumes and accents helped. Only downside is that it doesn't cover the entire year. We ran out of videos and still had a couple months and 200+ years of history to go.

 

Best recommendation I can give is that we are planning to use the US History course by the same instructor next year. Same strategy -- it will be a supplement.

 

We used that one, too, and we really enjoyed it as a supplement, too -- it's the same kind of course and the same format as World History, so it's not really a "complete" course, either, nor is it something you could really stretch out over the course of an entire year. There aren't enough lessons for that.

 

I have to admit that when I bought both courses, I was expecting them to be more like "real" high school courses, with the acting/character stuff being add-ons to regular lectures. We enjoyed them very much, but if I'd planned to use them as my ds's only history for the year, I would have been disappointed in them.

[vjivascu]

Thank you all. It looks like I need to figure out which history book to use as my spine if I plan on using these videos.

[Catwoman]

Thank you all. It looks like I need to figure out which history book to use as my spine if I plan on using these videos.

 

I just checked, and there is no list of recommended books to go along with the course. I was hoping they'd recommended a particular textbook to use as a spine, but I didn't see anything listed.

[vjivascu]

Thanks for checking Cat. I do appreciate it. Are you familiar with Streams of Civilization? What do you think of this book (it's a two volume course)?

[Catwoman]

Thanks for checking Cat. I do appreciate it. Are you familiar with Streams of Civilization? What do you think of this book (it's a two volume course)?

 

 

You're very welcome! :)

 

I looked at Streams of Civilization at a used book fair once, but I didn't buy it. I hadn't realized it was a high school textbook set -- I was thinking it was for older elementary school kids (not even middle school.) To be fair, though, I didn't spend a lot of time looking at either volume, but for some reason it struck me as being "young," and it could have been something as simple as the formatting or the book covers; I don't really remember any more. I do seem to recall that it was quite Christian in content, though, so you may want to check and see if it lines up with your beliefs.

[FaithManor]

We used it with DD as an add on to Spielvogel's "Human Odyssey". I use many of the Great Courses to teach the kids to take notes from live lectures...they are always tempted to stop the DVD to write something down. I don't allow it! :D I never had a single college professor who slowed down to give us time to write, so I figure I'm doing them a favor. (My favorite music history professor make the smoke roll off our pencils!!!) The lectures are informative and entertaining, but like Cat said, but not systematic nor in depth enough to be a course alone.

 

Spielvogel was so dry and boring that DD asked us if she could burn the text at the end of the year. The boys all want to take the AP World History exam so we are using "Worlds Together, Worlds Apart" which is an AP approved text. It came in two volumes, softcover plus a reader that contained some primary source documents. They are tolerating it. I have not had them say anything particularly positive or negative but at least no one is threatening an act of arson! :lol:

 

Faith

[Julie in MN]

We used some of TTC high school history to fill in gaps when I would change history programs for my dd (far too often to admit). I agree with the others that it's only equivalent to once-a-week.

 

Streams is published by Christian Liberty Press, a Reformed Christian publisher. You can look inside on their website.

http://www.shopchris...ume-1-textbook/

They use volume 1 for 9th and volume 2 for 10th, along with tests, timeline, and chapter projects.

 

I personally really like volume 1 and used it with my older dd in high school (when we were using Beautiful Feet). I also used portions with MFW elementary/middle school years, I do like the text. However, you should be aware that their volume 2 is written by a different author and apparently has a skew on WWII and more modern history that you might want to preview, although the samples on their website don't go that far and I personally haven't looked at it in ages.

 

Julie

[kerenlynne]

We started with one text and ended up switching to World View History which is an on-line text to use as our spine. DS has LDs so for him the on-line format helps and they offer quite a lot of activities for alternative assessments that you can use for each level of student LD, REG, and T&G. The course was cheap so that was good. There is no teachers manual and no tests to go with it so you are on your own for grading and testing.

[vjivascu]

Thanks again everyone. I do appreciate all the input and advice.