Poor, poor Teen Son. He registered for community college, paid the bill, bought his books, and they canceled his favorite class: cell biology. Perhaps it's just as well. Sixteen hours is a lot to carry in addition to his job at the Capitol.
But Teen Son, being the kinda guy he is, decided to teach himself cell biology. And I decided to help him along.
The Teaching Company is a cool resource for home educators. They find the best college professors in the country and videotape their lectures. It's THE new, in-thing to do if you're a hip and happening homeschooler.
So, I decided to join the hip crowd and get Teen Son some of them there fancy DVDs at The Teaching Company. Besides they're having a sale!
Actually, they're always having a sale. If you're coveting a certain DVD or CD course and are patient enough, you'll find it on sale eventually. Just check the website each month or sign up for the email list.
Back to my story. I purchased Biology: The Science of Life, a 72 lecture (30 minutes each), 12-DVD set. The regular price is $700 and I got it for $180! I figure that if Teen Son watches (and takes notes from) one lecture each school day, he'll be done before summer. Cheaper than community college!
Egged on by my friend Sheila, who spent her recent inheritance (really!) on The Teaching Company DVDs and CDs, I didn't stop at biology. I went on to buy Popes and the Papacy: A History as well as Understanding The Fundamentals of Music. I'm hoping to talk my friend Linda into having our older kids complete the papacy and music courses together.
There were more courses that looked great for our family, but they'll have to wait. In the meantime, if I don't like the DVDs, they have an awesome lifetime guarantee!
Oh, one more thing. Rob had a scathingly brilliant idea. Start a foundation built on The Teaching Company and homeschooling. The foundation would purchase as many courses as possible and then provide a lending library for homeschoolers. Kind of like an educational Netflix.
Hey, I wonder if Netflix offers The Teaching Company DVDs. Anybody in the know? My public library has a few titles, but they all come together as one set and we can't watch 4 to 12 DVDs in the week we're allotted.
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6 comments:
Netlix has some DVDs, but not very many. We used the Algebra series from Netflix until we bought it when it was on sale. (Actually we traded it in for a previous set we had purchased on sale, but didn't like - they were SO easy to work with on the trade-in!!!).
I would like to be like the old Gillette or Schick razor commercial where he says, I liked the product so much, I bought the company!
You may find my Teaching Company user forum helpful where I review all lectures from their new courses:
http://teachingcompany.12.forumer.com
enjoy it,
Doug van Orsow
forum admin
Your son may get the technical knowledge of cell biology, but will he get the college credit?
No, he wouldn't get college credit but he's co-enrolled in community college as a high school, homeschooled senior so I'll give him high school credit. When he gets to the university where he's planning to major in science he can test out of it. Plus, he'll be competing in cell biology in science olympiad this year so the knowledge will come in handy.
The only name I recognize from their catalog is Bart Ehrman, the ex-Christian editor of the Apostolic Fathers who's now anti-Christian. May want to be cautious of his lectures.
Your sone may be able to get college credit through CLEP.
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