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Looking for alternate Greece study
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We just started with Module 2 and right away dd6 is saying she doesn’t like hearing stories about people worshipping other gods because “we are not supposed to do that, it’s not right”. Now, dh and I have no problem talking about these things or expsosing our kids to this stuff. I had planned on following the guide as written with FMoG as I had liked that one better than the Geurber book when I previewed them. I even wondered why the first three chapters about the gods were skipped in the module and was going to include them anyway until my ocd-ness of wanting to stick to the schedule kicked in. 😉 Now I’m wondering if dd’s sensitive nature is just not going to mesh with this. As far as I can tell most of the spines available spend a fair bit of time on gods/godessess, and even stuff like the Trojan War is fact and fiction mixed up. I did read On the Shores of the Great Sea a couple months ago and don’t remember much mythology in that though it was a fairly overarching history. Would it work to read the Greece chapters from that book with the other gr. 1-3 books from the module? Would that be enough? Has anyone else run into this issue with their young children? How did you cover the history of the time period well, without talking much about mythology? Again, we don’t have a problem covering it or having those discussions, but I don’t want to distress dd over the whole thing when we will be coming around to it again eventually anyway.
Thanks 🙂
Maybe you could just continue your studies without the Myths and just introduce the Greek History back in when you get to the real historical people. It has been a few years since we did Ancient Greece that I can’t remember when they start being introduced. You will have to deal with Legend though such as the Trojan Horse. Then when you come back to the Module when much older she wil be able to discern and have a strong biblical basis to know the difference of the Greek Myth and the Legend, to actual historical accounts of the Greeks. Just a thought.
Kim.
On the Shores of the Great Sea is not a very detailed spine of Ancient Greece. At 6, it would be a great way to introduce her to the more prominent stories. It starts about chapter 10-33 for Ancient Greece. Actually, chapter 10 starts with how the Phoenicans taught the Greeks about sailing, etc.
The Story of the Greeks does briefly cover the myths and legends of the heroes, but they aren’t very detailed about most of it. If you started after the Trojan War, you wouldn’t even have to really explain the gods to her at all. That would be chapter 20 of The Story of the Greeks where it picks up with a short biography about Homer nad just mentions that he wrote the stories about Troy.
I wouldn’t even use Famous Men of Greece until she comes back around to Ancient Greece.
The other books for Grades 1-3 would be fine. You could start with the one about the Trojan War and go from there.
Sheraz – I was also looking at ‘The Story of Greece’ that you used in the Greece study available on your blog. Do you have any thoughts on the differences between that and ‘The Story of the Greeks’? I downloaded the sample for my kindle and it seems to read fairly well. I should try reading a couple chapters of the free Geurber book again, I just remember not caring for it.
Having read them both, I am still partial to The Story of Greece. It is so readable and shares more details than The Story of the Greeks, without being tiresome. The stories are still fairly short and I think they are engaging (keep in mind that I find history fascinating, lol). According to Heritage History, if you were to print out the pages from both on single sheets, The Story of the Greeks is 115 pages and The Story of Greece is 167 (several of those are going to be great illustrations).
My dds MUCH prefered it to the FMoG, but again, I think that was because we started with no idea who was who (or what) so The Story of Greece made what stories we had read tie together much better in a story form.
You know your daughter, so you can try it on her and see. If she didn’t go for the extra details, you really could try On the Shores of the Great Sea and add Stories from Greek History by Ethelwyn Lemon. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds like it would work. Here is a link (it prints out to 36 pages):
http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage-store.php?pid=ebook_lemon_greek_1
My dd was quite sensitive to the whole false god thing too, and felt impatient and sad about those stories. However – she LOVED A Wonder Book by Nathaniel Hawthorne – which is based on the stories of the heroes. But it is plainly told as stories and not so much as a “true story” thing. It really has a different feel than the others that I’ve read so far (I’m reading through the YC and HH collections). She is asking when we will start Tanglewood Tales. These might be more sucessful with older children than 6, though.
sheraz, I just have to say that I love reading your comments on history and your book commentaries. I wish there was a “like” button I could click on for people’s posts. 🙂
@Lady in Pink:
My dd7 really enjoyed “Our little Athenian cousin from long ago” and “Our little Spartan cousin…”. They don’t give a comprehensive history, but give a nice view of what life was like in those two parts of Greece. At this age I wasn’t worried about details of history. The cousins books do acknowledge the gods, but don’t dwell on them.
We’ve also done On The Shores, but only after we did the cousin books (Athens, Sparta, and Rome) and Boy of the Pyramids. Then On The Shores made a nice way to place the three cultures in relation to each other and their other neighbors.
jmac17 – I was looking at those two books as well. I enjoyed the samples on kindle so I may go ahead and order those. 🙂
Now I’m thinking about going through those two books along with the gr. 1-3 books and then doing some of On the Shores or Story of Greece after that if we are up for it. Hmmm…. Or maybe On the Shores with the gr. 1-3 books and the Cousin stories alongside. None of those seem very long or intense and I have 2 days/week scheduled so I had planned on doing a spine one of the days and the extra books the other day.
I think that sounds like a great plan. I think for a 6 year old you’d be pretty solid with On the Shores Greek Chapters, the grade 1-3 books and adding in the Cousin books.
I just asked 8 y/o DD what she thought of FMofG. We are finishing up Term 1 now. She is not loving it. She said she wants more illustrations (colored). It did help to give her a coloring page yesterday while I read about Cyclops. Would it be best for me to go on ahead and purchase the new module when it comes out or change things as we work through the present module? The issues with the gods and goddesses do not bother her, so reading legends is not a problem. I think the challenge is knowing fact vs. fiction, although she can identify the obvious fictional things that are outrageously false. And one thing we have enjoyed discussing is how some of the stories are similar to the Bible stories we have read, but they change the facts to make them fiction. I am definitely dropping FMofG after this term. Just trying to decide if I should tweak what we have and change our spine or go with the new module. We will plan to pick it back up in July, so I doubt we can start the new one then since I won’t purchase it until late July at our local curriculum fair.
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