Composer of the Week

One year I purchased a Costco 10-CD pack of great composers. Neat, because each CD was a different composer. My idea was to have a "composer of the week." We would just play a CD during lunch and maybe during math. I found portaits of the great composers on the web, that I would print. We read about them, sometimes online and sometimes from library books.

Another idea for music appreciation is "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music" by The Teaching Company, www.teach12.com. It was our favorite lecture series. The teacher has a wonderful vocabulary, and my boys would take college level lecture notes in real time, while listening to the wonderful music content.

Blessings,

Lee

Visit Heart of the Matter to read my February column on Planning High School Courses.

The Teaching Company on a Budget!

We never paid full price for a Teaching Company course, they were just MUCH too expensive for our budget. We used audio tapes primarily, and on sale they were $15-$35. You can also also find them at the library, though, so look their first. Some libraries don't list them under "teaching company" or "great courses" but instead list them under the course name "calculus made clear." It makes it harder to find that way. You can also find Teaching Company courses at used book sales and on Ebay.

One year I planned to supplement a textbook with a Teaching Company course, but I didn't buy the course in time for it to be one sale. I was able to find a similar history course that WAS on sale, though, and I thought it was wonderful.

My favorite course is "how to listen to and understand great music." The teacher has such a wonderful vocabulary, it was just great for the kids to hear their vocabulary words in context. We had the boys take notes from the lecture, so they would become accustomed to note-taking in college lectures.

Blessings,
Lee
www.TheHomeScholar.com
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The Teaching Company for Younger Students?

I have been asked whether The Teaching Company tapes could be used for younger students. In a nutshell, if a student is INTERESTED, then they may not be too young. The Teaching Company does have some high school level courses, but I never tried them. I'm sure those would be appropriate for many younger people (junior high level). In general, if a student is interested, I recommend feeding their interests.

I don't recommend The Teaching Company religion courses. The CS Lewis is a wonderful series, however. Some of the arts classes do have nudes. I'm sure the Psych class does Freud, which would probably be too much for younger students. The way that we chose was to buy it for ourselves, and then listen to it first. For the first course you do, I always recommend "How to Listen to and Understand Music" because it's fascinating and very non-threatening.

The courses are not a full curriculum, so you can't say that one of them is one credit, or whatever. You can count the hours you spend, and add up the hours until you have enough for a full credit. We used them as a supplement that way.

Blessings,
Lee
www.TheHomeScholar.com
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