Mortimer Adler's Great Ideas set

[Mrs. A]

So my dad gave me a set of these and they look really interesting. They don't contain the original texts of the authors mentioned/discussed beyond some significant quotes, but the idea behind the set seems to be a thorough introduction to various great works on a variety of topics. Curious if anyone has these and has used them with their children in any way? I'm very intrigued and am hoping to find a way to incorporate these into our studies. 

[Lori D.]

Not seen these before.

Slightly similar are Invitation to the Classics (Louise Cowan), as well as Susan Wise-Bauer's The Well-Educated Mind. There are no excerpts in either of those, but we frequently used those (as well as other resources) in high school to provide a bit of background info to the author/times of whatever Literature we were reading.

Also somewhat similar, but often with complete works or longer excerpts are the Norton anthologies (and other college anthologies). I have used selections out of the Norton anthologies that we own. I found the Norton anthologies to also be helpful because of the introductions to the works or authors. However, these are written at a college level, so I had to gear accordingly for DSs interest/abilities as we were using bits of Norton anthologies while they were in high school.

Much more helpful for *us* (during the late elementary/middle school/early high school years) was our set of the Collier Junior Classics Young Folks Shelf of Books. These contain complete selections and some excerpts of many children's classics, and classic myths, folktales, legends, etc. There is no additional text of information about the the works/authors.

Here are three other children's anthology sets that are quite good for using as read-aloud selections or solo reader selections while homeschooling. Again, these contain complete works or excerpts, no additional info, with the exception of the first anthology which also has some teaching info/background info embedded:
Journey Through Bookland -- most of the volumes are also available free online at the Project Gutenberg website
My Book House
The Children's Hour

If the idea of using vintage children's anthologies with classics in them at all strikes your fancy as something to include in your homeschooling, you might like to read through these past threads:

which set(s) to get
"Anthologies: The Children's Hour vs. Young Folks' Library vs. ?"
"What vintage reference and anthology type sets do you recommend?"
"My Book House vs Journeys Through Bookland - compare"

how do you use these
"Journeys Through Bookland" -- 8FillTheHeart's 1st thread on the anthology
"Just wanted to share again how much I really like Journeys Through Bookland" -- and her follow-up thread
"My Book House"
"How to use 'My Book House' set?"

ha-ha-ha! I always feel a little bit like a drug dealer when I recommend these anthologies and link these past threads. I LOVE these wonderful old anthologies! And BEST of luck in finding how to use your Christmas gift. Warmest regards, Lori D.

PS
And please disregard my post if it is not of help with your original question. I really didn't mean to sidetrack your question with ideas about resources that were not what you asked about originally. (:D

Edited January 28, 2019 by Lori D.

[Mrs. A]

Thank you, Lori D. I had seen some of the threads you linked but some were new to me! 

[strawberryjam]

I haven’t heard of these. I have the Great Books set from Brittanica which Mortimer Adler was involved with, and I find them to be a super handy resource. Managed to get almost a complete set at a used book sale for a steep discount. They are the full volumes of original works, I imagine the two sets would work well together so now I’m interested in the set you mention also.

[Mrs. A]

In the box my dad gave me were also 2 volumes of Adler's syntopicon as well as one random volume of War and Peace that looks like ot belongs to the Great Books set. The syntopicon looks really interesting, but I've only had time to glance at it thus far. 

[Kfamily]

I was curious if these are the ones that you mean: The Great Ideas Program?

I have 3 of the books that are on the left in the photo of this link. I've looked at them but have not made use of them yet. 🙂 

HathiTrust has a full view file of one of these: The Development of Political Theory and Government, in case anyone else wants to see it. 

Edited January 28, 2019 by Kfamily

[Mrs. A]

44 minutes ago, Kfamily said:

I was curious if these are the ones that you mean: The Great Ideas Program?

I have 3 of the books that are on the left in the photo of this link. I've looked at them but have not made use of them yet. 🙂 

HathiTrust has a full view file of one of these: The Development of Political Theory and Government, in case anyone else wants to see it. 

Yes, those are the ones.