Greek...anyone? anyone?

[KrissiK]

Latin is the biggie as far as languages in our home. We're doing Memoria Press's curriculum, each at his/her own level. However, we've been dabbling in Greek as well. Last year my 3 oldest kids went through CAP's Greek Alphabet Codecrackers all together, and then this first semester we've just done MP's Greek Alphabet book. The kids like Greek, but are bored with just doing the letters. Which is understandable. So, I'm thinking that after Christmas we're going to need to move along a little. I've looked at samples of Elementary Greek and Hey, Andrew! and frankly, it's all Greek to me (sorry, couldn't resist!). I'd like the kids to learn some Greek, I'm not planning on being really hard-core about it, maybe going at about 1/2 speed. I wouldn't mind continuing with CAP's curriculum, but it is so expensive and I'm already using their Bible curriculum and we're finishing the OT2 book this semester, so I'm having to buy all new Bible curriculum, blah, blah, blah. So.... Anyone have experience with Elementary Greek and/or Hey, Andrew! and can give me some feed-back? Thanks!

[CardinalAlt]

I believe this one year online Biblical Greek for Kids course is still free... I worked through a few lessons to ease into my own Greek study :)

[CardinalAlt]

Oops, website... http://www.kidsgreek.com

[Hunter]

We had a recent thread on Greek

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/531710-elementary-koine-greek-resources-tips-and-advice/

 

My advice is to do Greek OR Latin. I've juggled both at the same time, and do NOT recommend it.

 

Latin is easier to teach. My son really loved Greek more, and there were certain reasons to prefer Greek, but Latin is a better choice for most families.

 

If a family is already invested in Latin, I recommend intensifying the Latin studies instead of adding Greek. Adding Greek is like adding algebra before finishing basic arithmetic. It's seems fun and advanced, but often is more of a distraction than helpful.

 

Our Greek studies took a LOT out of me, and that energy and money would have been better invested elsewhere. Also, instead of more resources, there are less, now, that I think are affordable and EFFECTIVE.

 

For a family that adores their BIble study time, or when one family member can devote themselves to preparing Greek lessons, or certain other less common scenarios, Greek is a good choice of a language. And in that case, it should be just Greek and not Greek and Latin.

 

Opinionated, aren't I? Sorry, if I'm overstepping. Just ignore me if I am.

[mumto2]

Just wanted to say we used Elementary Greek and liked it. Went well and was pretty easy to use from the perspective of a mom who isn't good at languages.

[Ethel Mertz]

DS is using CAP materials for all three languages: Latin, Greek, and Spanish. So far, he loves all three. I have a background in Spanish, Latin, and German, but am also enjoying the mental exercise of doing Greek. I imagine we'll continue with Greek until we run out of CAP materials.

[Zoo Keeper]

Elementary Greek has very reasonable pacing; the lessons break the info down into manageable chunks that do not overwhelm. (I found the pacing of Greek for Children to be too much too fast, especially since we already use LfC.)   An older student could (in theory) read the books, do the exercises, listen to the CD, do flashcards, by themselves.  My oldest *is* doing this and basically self teaching with EG.  I do have a "class time" with him once a week to go over things, keep him accountable, and do some oral practice.  It is working very well for him.

 

I do agree with Hunter that there needs to be personal motivation on the part of your kids to make learning Latin AND Greek (and math, and history, and, and, ....) work.  My oldest is doing Latin and Greek and loving it.  His younger brother who had done some intro Greek with him for the past two years is NOT doing Greek.  I'll try again with him in high school, but we just don't need any more drama with this child right now. ;) 

 

 

 

[KrissiK]

Thanks for the advice. Hunter, I hadn't really intended to do both, but for some reason all three kids really like languages. I had actually planned on not doing more after Codecrackers, but I got "we're not doing Greek? Why not?" And I so figured, well, if they want to do it.... And it's not that any of them are super academically inclined. I mean, they are all pretty bright, but we do school because we have to and then we can get on and do other things, KWIM. My boys who hate history (which I cannot figure out), love Latin. So, I just figured, we'll go with it. Learning Greek can't hurt them. But, I do just want to go slowly, work on it together and not make a big deal of it. I don't want them to start hating it.

[Hunter]

You can sometimes juggle multiple languages at the beginning stage, but to REALLY learn them, there comes this stage where you REALLY have to buckle down, and mom needs to take the lead and DRILL. This stage is not fun. It is VERY time consuming and sometimes expensive to push. through. It's so much easier to start a new language, than to buckle down with the one already started.

 

My boys wanted multiple languages, and I tried to accommodate until they decided they wanted to learn Japanese, so they could play the video games earlier, rather than waiting for the English release. They expected me to self-teach and fund this new interest, and this is when I finally put my foot down and realized that being a homeschool mom is a career and people with careers have rights, too, and need to be allowed to decide what they are going to teach.

 

Latin is much easier on Mom's pocket book and time. If mom buckles down, the child is much more likely to gain some proficiency with Latin, than with Greek. If you all are just PLAYING and PRETENDING to be trying to gain proficiency, they give yourself permission to play, and play. Playing is a noble goal. But, truly, if you want to make even a dent in learning a language, stick to one, pick one with lots of affordable resources and a Roman alphabet, and BUCKLE down.

 

Roman alphabets make things easier. I have been playing with fonts since the 90's and it's gotten better, barely, but still is a serious limit. Do you want to know what I was doing on 9/11 when the towers were falling down? Messing with Greek and Hebrew fonts. I have never forgotten that, and am amazed at how glitchy fonts still are. Non-Roman fonts are ALWAYS a step behind what is available for Roman fonts and they never catch up. The fact that non-Roman fonts catch up to OLD tech doesn't help you with your new tech.

[FloridaLisa]

Oops, website... http://www.kidsgreek.com

 

Thank you for this link. I'm glad to see some are studying Greek.  All 5 of my oldest did Latin. We started with Latin when they were young and they moved into online Latin classes and then a modern language through dual enrollment.   Although I've had Elementary Greek on the shelves for years, we were already on the Latin train and I just could never work in the time or space for Greek. 

 

So, I'm hoping to start off on Greek with my 7- and 10-year-olds. Thanks so much!

 

Lisa

[Guest]

I have to respectfully disagree with Hunter based on my personal experience, even though I look like some sort of a Hunter fanboi in many of my previous posts. ;)

 

We got "Hey, Andrew!" for ds now 22 then 7ish when it became obvious that he couldn't possibly keep up with his older sister in Latin and he was feeling bad about it. I just wanted to give him a language of his own so he wouldn't feel like he had failed. The lightbulb seemed to go off in his head when he realized that alphabets were a construct of the human mind and not an immutable fact of nature like rocks and his reading (in English) took off! He spent a year using Karen Mohs' Latin Primer before rejoining his sister with Mars Hill and she wound up with her own copy of "Hey, Andrew!" on her stack of workbooks by then.

 

We did not have a spectacular success that left them reading the classics in their original languages or being awarded full scholarships to Harvard at the age of 12, but they have both thanked me for exposing them to the languages and we all feel that it was time well spent.

 

 

[CardinalAlt]

Thank you for this link. I'm glad to see some are studying Greek. All 5 of my oldest did Latin. We started with Latin when they were young and they moved into online Latin classes and then a modern language through dual enrollment. Although I've had Elementary Greek on the shelves for years, we were already on the Latin train and I just could never work in the time or space for Greek.

 

So, I'm hoping to start off on Greek with my 7- and 10-year-olds. Thanks so much!

 

Lisa

You're welcome! The few lessons I did before switching to the author's textbook for adults were excellent.

[musicianmom]

Hey Andrew is practically self-teaching, and moves at a snail's pace with lots and lots of practice. 

Edited May 23, 2022 by musicianmom

[Mbelle]

My DS 12 is in SFL and we started EG1 this year after doing Code Cracker for fun last year.  EG1 is just a very easy intro.  Baby steps really and that's all we are going for right now. You do learn things and it might be just enough fun for your students.

[Loowit]

I am doing Hey Andrew with my boys this year and they are really enjoying it.  We are only spending about 10 minutes a day on it.

I have to respectfully disagree with Hunter based on my personal experience, even though I look like some sort of a Hunter fanboi in many of my previous posts. ;)

 

I think that Hunter has really touched the heart of the matter when she says the first thing you need to decide are your goals for classical language learning.  If your goal is to read the classics in the original language, that's going to take a lot of focused work, but getting a tiny head start by starting early (say, before age 13) isn't really going to help much.  I believe that those years are better spent on other activities, such as learning how to pronounce spoken foreign languages, or playing in ditches, etc.

 

However, if your goal isn't reading, but rather learning a bit about how grammar works with inflected languages, learning some vocabulary, then the elementary years are fine for that.