Has anyone used Connect the Thoughts?

[Athena]

I saw these on the homeschoolestore ad this week and I liked the look of the Artist's Basics course. Has anyone used any of the courses?

Thanks,
Christy

[Mama Lynx]

I seriously considered their history, but in the end decided against it.

My kids enjoyed the basic creative writing course, and I may use some of their science, and their music appreciation course.

[Melissa B]

I like the lower level history program. I wouldn't use it as a spine and it would be expensive to do four levels a year as a supplement. But we are using the two Greek levels this year with our year long study of Ancient Greece and I really like the added element of discussing value/opinion/viewpoint. We do not do much in the way of projects, so this program makes our study more personal for the children.

I would not consider any of the programs I have seen to be "academic."

Sorry, I haven't seen the art program.

[Mama Lynx]

That's exactly what I like about them - the value/opinion/viewpoint discussion questions. My son *loves* these. It does make the study more personal, and I love that. I bought a few pieces, and will use ideas and questions as we go along.

I was not impressed with the textbook for the upper levels. It's not a bad textbook at all, but it is a textbook. I didn't want our history study to be mainly reading a bit of text and then giving an opinion. But as I said, many of the questions and ideas are excellent and I'm using them :)