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not loving Story of the Greeks or Our Little Athenian Cousin
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I am not thrilled with the emphasis on consulting oracles and gods in the Story of the Greeks book. The way it presents them makes it seem like they were real and helpful…really just like Biblical prophets…and I don’t like that. Also, I feel like my 5th grader isn’t going to retain anything but the myths (which she’s already quite familiar with due to reading Tanglewood Tales and D’Aulaire’s book of Greek Myths) and the major battles. She rarely remembers any of the names even immediately after I read a chapter. I’ve been debating about just doing an overview of Greek history using the chapters on Greece in CHOW and SOTW #1. There’s 7 or so chapters on Greece in each book. Would this plus the SCM go-alongs be enough for a year of history?
Also, I’ve been reading outloud Our Little Athenian Cousins to K, 2nd, and 5th graders. 5th grader likes it but the others aren’t interested, and TBH, I’m not finding it very interesting either. I’m guess the Spartan Cousins book isn’t going to be any better. Should I just assign them to the 5th grader as free reading and spare the rest of us going through it?
I don’t know what to tell you to do, except, if you don’t want to read that stuff, don’t. My 13 year old is sensitive to that sort of detail, so I think an overview was the best thing for her. We are into Rome now and can focus on the time of Jesus. I did read A Triumph for Flavius, which was about Romans having Greek slaves. It did get into some things about gods, because the Romans worshipped false gods as well, but it was a gentler story. She doesn’t have a good concept of time, but I tried to give her an understanding of the different empires with minimal reading about the Greeks, then through the story of Daniel (The Exiled Prince), and now reading stories during the time of the Roman Empire (Little Miriam of Galilee at present), she can follow it a little better. Because of what was in the chapter read today, we talked about how the Jews were waiting for the Messiah to come and be their king, thinking this would get them out from under Roman rule, but that was not why Jesus was coming. I know your question was about Greek stories, and I know the Greek part was important, but I don’t think it is necessary to focus on gods and goddesses. I want my daughter to better know the true God. So, I would say an overview is just fine. This is the joy of homeschooling. We can choose what we want to teach.
My son is only in 2nd grade, but I opted not to use those assigned books for Ancient Greece either. We have been using SOTW as well as other books from the library. We all loved Mary Pope Osborne’s “Tales from the Odyssey” and are now are diving into “Who Was Alexander the Great?” by Kathryn Waterfield. We have also done some of the Jim Weiss CDs about Greek Myths, which we all found fun.
You could also try Famous Men of Greece. We skipped a huge portion of ancient Greece and just started Famous Men at the point where actual historical figures were presented. We did very little mythology. My youngest was in first grade and I did not feel he was well enough grounded in truth to present mythology. I also censor my read alouds, anytime god is used I say false god, idol, or pagan idol. So if it reads they prayed to such and such god. I Would say they prayed to such and such pagan idol. I always feel like my little guy only half listens and I dont want him to be confused.
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