In our experience, all of Margaret's observations have been accurate thus far. However, I did have one note on GCC's financial aid. Their tuition is very low, but that is often the extent of the aid that you receive. In the end, my sons' (Two of my sons have applied to GCC) costs at GCC were higher than the other schools to which they applied. My oldest son is currently at Hillsdale, and they are very generous. His merit aid has increased every year he's been there. My boys both applied to GCC and Geneva, and they both ended up at other schools. Geneva isn't as academically challenging as GCC, but it actually ended up as the second choice for both of my kids. My son at Hillsdale debated for a long time between Geneva and Hillsdale because of the strength of Geneva's accounting department. (He ended up at Hillsdale for the strength of the academics across the board, and is enjoying the challenge.) Something about the atmosphere at GCC didn't resonate with either of my sons, despite the fact that they have many friends who have been happy there.

Caroline, It sounds like you are making great progress with your students. When my kids were young, we found that the easiest, most effective way to review vocabulary was just to play memory, go fish, or old maid. I'd make a set of English cards and a set of Greek cards, and once a week we'd play a few games to work on all that vocab. Other simple games, like copying the Bible verses word-by-word onto cards and then arranging them in the proper order, can be helpful. I also made a memory sheet with all their declensions and conjugations which I laminated and then required them to fill in the endings/forms with a dry erase marker. I keep hoping that I'll find the time to write a set of simple readers, but haven't been able to pursue that idea yet. Maybe soon.... Until then, it looks like Hunter has given you some great ideas for additional texts and readers. Hope that helps! Christine Gatchell

I've rushed to more than one meet just so I could be there in time to see Aaron run the 3200 (the first event in a track meet). I have a soft spot for kids who are willing to work hard for their goals, and Aaron struck me as one of those kids even before I knew his story.

I haven't posted here in years, but when I saw this, I just had to respond. My boys have been running with/against Aaron for the past 3 years, and he is a nice kid. What an inspiring story...I'll be cheering even more loudly for him now. If you see him, tell him that the Gatchells' mom says congratulations from the other side of the county.

My daughter and her great-grandmother did something similar. My daughter started by writing a letter to her Memere with some sort of a small story and then asking her Memere a related question. (The first letter told the story of my daughter's birth, and then she asked Memere if anyone had ever told her about her birth.) My grandmother wrote wonderful letters in response and always directly answered the questions. Pictures of them as girls were exchanged, along with drawings by my daughter, and family recipes. We collected the letters and bound them as a gift for my grandmother's 80th birthday. We intended the whole time to create a book, but my grandmother was unaware of that until we presented it to her. My daughter was 7 or 8.

I can't find it either...unless it is simply referring to the biographical sketches in the poetics document?

We really like this website. I assume it covers the content your son is struggling with, and there is a lot of extra practice--and solutions! http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/

For anyone interested in using Machen, the link that Karen gave is really nice. It has a free pdf of Machen's book, which, if nothing else, let's you have a good look to see if it would work for you. Melissa, you said that you didn't want to overwhelm your son and squelch his growing interest in Greek. Machen's book is old, and the layout alone shows its age. That may be a deterrent to your son. However, sometimes kids surprise us. My daughter, who only tolerated Greek while she was using EG (I know--the nerve!), absolutely loves my crumbling copy of Machen. Greek is now her favorite subject.

Thanks for clarifying that. I haven't actually seen the second edition of Machen, so I didn't know that they wouldn't work together. Are the exercises different in the second edition, then? I guess I should pick up a copy and check it out, since I do always recommend Machen as a possible follow-up to EG. And I'll be sure to take extra special care of my own dog-eared first edition. I'm the third owner (at least) of it already, and the spine is showing its age. No plans to write more levels of EG. If I could do anything, I'd love to write some sort of readers to go along with EG. Unfortunately, even that is more than I can commit to right now.

I'd never thought of using EG and Machen concurrently, though I can see how it could work well. The chapters line up easily, and Machen would provide extra translation practice and give a bit more depth to some of the grammar. The main problem I see with this is price, unless you could find a used copy of Machen inexpensively somewhere. The current edition is pricey, and if you don't know Greek yourself, you'd probably want to get a study guide with an answer key. http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Greek-Beginnings-David-Thompson/dp/0024206504/ref=pd_sim_b_4 (This study guide is not pretty to look at, but it is really a wealth of information, and provides answers for all the translation exercises.) If you are hoping to complete two years of high school Greek, you could finish Machen's book for the second year. On the other hand, if you are only aiming for one year of Greek, then I would actually stand by my first recommendation, which is to simply add in translation exercises with a book such as this: http://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Greek-Reader-Reading/dp/0521654475/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296707682&sr=1-10#_ You could also use Mounce's book concurrently with EG, though I like to warn people that Mounce and I take slightly different approaches to declining the noun, which could lead to some confusion. You would find that chapters don't line up perfectly, but it could still work. Mounce's materials come with so many helps, including answer keys and a CD. (Pam, the link above is for the JACT book. I think you could use Mounce's book for grammar instruction, parsing, and other exercises, but just replace his translation exercises with these, if they seem to work better)

I just thought I'd chime in with my thoughts about high school credit for EG. I get asked this question frequently, although there isn't really a clear cut answer. EG covers a little more than half of the content of Machen or Mounce (being more closely aligned with Machen's TOC), but requires a lot less work. The grammar is there, but the ways the student is asked to apply the grammar is more simplistic than you'll see in typical high school/college level texts. While I feel it would be technically acceptable to give one credit for the 3 levels of EG, I think the course would better reflect high school level work with some additional translation. I typically recommend JACT's Reader in New Testament Greek. It is easily accessible to a student who has completed at least half of EG. Christine Gatchell

I'm not here much, to be honest. But it's a handy place to hang out when I'm avoiding other work. :) I'll pass the book on to you once I get it back from Rebecca. (I like it. I'm sending it on its rounds to find others who like it, too!)

Have you ever seen The Lively Art of Writing? I think it would make a fantastic stand alone writing course, especially with the understanding that some writing of essays will be done in conjunction with TOG and SP. I plan to have my boys work through this book this year. (You are welcome to look over my copy, if you wish.)

Well, he wouldn't exactly be ready to just pick up the NT and start reading. BUt he would be able to pick out lots of words and constructions he knew. It was pretty thrilling for my oldest son when he got to that point. There is still a fair amount of grammar that needs to be covered to give your student a good reading fluency. Participles are used heavily in Greek, for example, and yet they are not covered at all in EG. However, a book like the NT reader I suggested in an earlier post is a wonderful thing. This particular book has a collection of twelve readings, each a few chapters long, from all parts of the NT. Each reading is further broken down into sections of several verses. These sections each have their own vocabulary list. In using this, we've found that the vocabulary lists are well suited to my students' knowledge levels after 2 or 3 years of EG. For example, participles are included in the vocabulary list and translated for the student, but the student is expected to know and recognize the imperfect and future tenses. We have another Koine reader which I like for the variety of passages, some from the NT, some from the OT septuagint, and some from various non-inspired early church documents. But we've found this much harder to use, because it's vocabulary lists assume a much greater foundation of knowledge than my students have. So far, the JACT reader is my favorite, and if your son is really looking forward to reading the NT, then I would encourage you to pick it up. As far as what to use next, text wise, that would vary depending on the student. For a high school student who had mastered the grammar presented in EG, I would use Machen's NT Greek for Beginners. I would either lightly skim the first 10 chapters or so and then cover the rest of the book more thoroughly, or I would just start right around chapter 10. I relied heavily on Machen's book when writing EG, so you'll find that the presentation is fairly similar, and it would be pretty easy to pick up at chapter ten. Even starting there, there will be plenty of material which will be review, but it wouldn't hurt to review and skim as necessary. I would aim to finish the book to earn a credit for Greek 2. There are 33 chapters in the book, and up through chapter 17 the chapters will be at least partially review. For a student just beginning high school,or one who needs a more thorough review, I would use Machen's book over two years, and call it Greek 1 and 2. Alternately, I may use Mounce's Koine text or Athenaze, which is an Attic text. I would not recommend trying to skip any of the material in these books, though, since the presentation and content is so different from EG. I hope that helps some.

I'm glad to hear that your daughter is enjoying the course--and of course it's always nice to get good reviews from experts in the field!