October 16, 2006
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Bountiful Booty
I love being the baby of the family. With six older siblings, I am the happy recipient of hand-me-downs. Don’t think clothing here. Think cookbooks, piano music, and most recently, Teaching Company Tapes. Oh yeah! My PA brother has a plethora of these tapes. I bought a suitcase, filled it with tapes and brought them home.
This afternoon my son and I are making applesauce while we listen to Robert Greenburg’s How to Listen to and Understand Great Music. We laughed aloud when he explained the difference between German language songs and Italian songs. Greenburg plays music on the piano and from CDs to illustrate his points. My heart jumps as I hear my 15-yr old son hum along. He knows this music! He likes this music! Sigh. But then, who can help but liking Bach?
Explaining the history of music inevitably includes the history of the world. I am so thankful for the past 12 years of homeschooling. I can follow and correlate, synthesize if you will, the lectures in a way that I can’t imagine doing had I not had the learning that comes with teaching. It is so satisfying to build upon previous learning; to add a room or a story to the edifice which is our life.
Isn’t this the most exciting thing? Bring on the long nights; bring on bathrooms that need cleaning; bring on shirts which need ironing; bring on dough which needs kneading; bring it on, baby! I. am. ready.
Comments (7)
Oh boy, oh boy! What providential blessings you brought home!
Don’t you love that Robert Greenberg! Every summer I usually do some inside painting and listen to TTC tapes while I paint. You’ll love them.
Enjoy!
For some reason the post I wrote disappeared. You are a lucky girl–and what a great brother! Would he like to be adopted? My favorite of the Teaching Company lecturers is Allen Guelzo who does a little more than 1/3 of the US History 2nd edition set. This year we’re using his The American Mind set which I think is exceptionally well done. The only lecturer I’ve *not* liked is Fagin who does Battles of the Ancient World (professsor at Penn State, btw) I also like Allitt, Daileader (he’s my second favorite), and Noble.
Patti
Janie, I thought of you when I was combing through his stack. Didn’t you walk and listen to TC tapes last spring? And yes, I *love* Robert Greenberg. I’m listening to several tapes twice because they are that good.
Patti, I hate writing a comment and losing it. You are obviously quite familiar with the libraries. I get the catalog regularly but haven’t invested in too many courses. I picked out ones about the Medieval Period (what we’re reading this year) and all the music ones to help me in teaching piano. I’m noting your preferences for future reference. Thanks for sharing them!
Our library is getting more courses but often they are not subjects I have a high degree of interest in. I loved the first part of the Understanding Poetry course, but the more modern the poetry the more the lecturer found phallic symbols in ….everything! Puh-lease!
Sounds like you hit the jackpot!!
Now who says the *baby* in the family never gets anything!!??
Wonderful! You are blessed to be able to homeschool your children. Of course it was not the “in” thing to do when my children were growing up, and besides that I was teaching in a public school at the time – economic necessity – so it would not have been possible anyway. But I both admire and envy (just a little) those who are doing that today.
Those tapes sounds great! My kids are younger, and we just started studying the classics this year using the Stories of the Great Composers book and CD, plus other resources from our public library. I’ll definitely be keeping the Greenberg tapes in mind for when we’re further along in our homeschool journey.
I have the sample of the first cd for the Greenberg lectures on Music. I have craved these tapes/cds for the longest time and rejoice with you! On the sample there were several others that I thought were waaayy beyond me (some of the higher sciences and a philosophy lecture) but I found the speakers to be interesting to this not- too- ‘science-y’ gal. The next sale catalog I get I want to order something…
Liahi had the Super Star Student videos and we used it several times around. Very inspiring!