Story of the Greeks – struggling please help

How much are you reading in one sitting? Perhaps just start off reading one paragraph and having them narrate back? Also, my children like to see pictures of what they are learning so sometimes I will google a picture(s) or take out our mapwork to show them before/during our reading time (if they are not provided in the book).

I have two about your age and one quite a bit older and we are doing okay.  I stop during our readings to discuss what is going on, maybe something connects with a book they’re already reading, like, Herodotus/The Parthenon. We always use a white board to write names of the people, real or imaginary, cities, etc., to attempt to keep it all straight.  I’m not overly worried about keeping it all “straight” but just gentle exposure to the Greek culture/history.  I’m actually enjoying this book much more than I did the Ancient Egypt one…don’t know why, but I am. 

Oh, as far as pushing through, I don’t know.  I’m sure there are plenty of other chapter/picture books you could read to expose them to the Greeks…Heritage History has a bunch of them.  We plan to watch the Drive Thru History at some point, as well. 

HTH

Thank you, missceegee, for typing that.  I have begun to hate spines in general, not being able to find one that I think would really connect for dd7.  I’ve started to realize that it may just be that she is only 7 and it will be a couple more years before she can fully digest and narrate back history material from a book that is meant to be read by the whole family. 

Echoing Missceegee and Rachel…there are other books if you want something different.  Don’t forget, though, that children can listen to books several grades higher then they read and are capable to learning from it – you just may not get a “perfect” narration. Make sure that you are reviewing what you learned last time to help them tie together.  

Other narration ideas: let them do coloring pages of the person you are learning about, have them draw a picture of something they heard in the story, make something with legos or clay from the story…etc.

Using a map that they can follow the stories on is important. I even found that for myself when I was reading these on my own before the modules changed.  

The Heritage History study guide has several invaluable pieces of info in it…not the least is the list of famous people and what they did in summary/timeline form. 😉 (Love their maps, too.  And the major events timeline! The whole thing was helpful simply because it made Greek History less confusing for ME as the teacher, lol!)  

The books that Rachel recommended are available from Heritage History and/or the Baldwin project. Some are available as audiobooks from librivox.org.