The Story of Greece is by Mary Macgregor. The Story of the Greeks is by H.A. Guerber. There is an edition from Nothing New Press that has been revised by Christine Miller, and that is the edition that Sonya is reading to use in the new module guide. I don’t have that revised edition.
I’ve read both of them and enjoyed them. Both cover the same events in the same order in a similar fashion. I read The Story of Greece first, and it seemed like she focused in on details that made the stories more interesting to me. (Although, to be honest, maybe it was so fun to read after I had tried to read Famous Men and was confused how they fit into the history of Greece!) The reading level is 10-14 year olds (for both of these books), and either would work wonderfully well as a family spine read-aloud for all ages. =)
The Story of Greece doesn’t focus on the gods very much – several little anecdotal-type stories to show how the Ancient Greeks tried to explain how things were created, but they are not scary nor do they focus on the god as being a true god. More like a fairy tale of them… and then she starts with several cool stories about the Trojan War and the age of the heroes, then moves on through the historical periods and winds up with Alexander the Great, then spends a few chapters explaining the fall of Greece from there.
As an aside, I also started reading A Wonder Book by Nathanial Hawthorne and was delightfully surprised. I am enjoying it very much. I wish I had chosen this one over Jason and the Golden Fleece to read to my kids.
Just wondering about those revisions?? Will they be made any time soon?? No rush, of course…we will be in Mod. 2’s time period next year, so I was just wondering.
I’m really excited about the revisions, which will include brand new geography lessons and some interest-catching supplements that bring in ancient artifacts and architecture. Plus, we’ll be incorporating your suggestions for a different spine; most likely, The Story of the Greeks from Nothing New Press for Module 2. My goal is to have the revised lesson plans ready so you can use them in the fall.
Right, we will continue to have the current version of the lesson plans available for those who already have those books and want to use them. We don’t want to leave anybody in a lurch.
There will be gaps in any study you do; we can never learn everything about anything. I’m sure both versions of lesson plans that we publish will have gaps in them. The main goal is to allow the children to “live” in a time period and get to know what people and ideas were like during that era; and that goal can be accomplished through a variety of books. I’ll be changing a few of the books based on feedback from the ladies on this forum who have been kind enough to post which books they have found most enjoyable and that worked best to help their children make a personal relation with the time period. The new books might include some different information, since they were written by different authors, but we’re not replacing books because of a missing body of information, no. Does that help any? I just wanted to reassure you of where we’re coming from in making these changes.
@my3boys: Here is the blog post I did using The Story of Greece from Yesterday’s Classics. I included some illustrations, art and architecture pictures, Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures, YouTube videos, and lists of the YC books in order of the Greek History as near as I can. This is just the history portion. I am basically following the Mod 2 guide for Bible and Geography, adding in videos and pictures as I find them. (We’re pretty visual around here, I guess. I like using more of our senses!)
@sheraz – Thank you so much for sharing your amazing Greece resources. I just recently bought the YC collection, and was a bit overwhelmed about prereading all the Greece books. Thank you for helping me filter and focus as I start planning for next year. 🙂
And Sonya, the new handbook sounds fabulous. I am looking forward to it!
@titus2mama, you always have the opportunity to download a sample before purchasing. You should be able to see all of what is in the guide in the details section of the history modules, as well, it just doesn’t have the lesson plan(s).