Book Crazy Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 So say that instead of covering history over next the year, you spent the year covering mythology, what are some of the not to miss books. What civilizations mythology would you cover? I'm really just thinking out loud here, I'm not sure what we are doing for history yet and I thought mythology would be something interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Theophan Academy Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 My ds (9) read Wonderbook and Tanglewood Tales this past year - great Greek mythology stories. Lots of people like D'Aulaires - they have one for Norse Myths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clwcain Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 I don't have any specific resources to suggest, but (depending on the age of the child or children involved) I'd start with Greek and Roman, followed by Norse. With those established, I'd probably work in Welsh, Irish, and Ancient Egyptian. If they still wanted more, I'd turn to Sumer, Assyria, and the New World. But I can see not getting out of the first three in a year. This, of course, assumes you don't have any interest in teaching the stories of Judaism and Christianity as myths. ;) But for understanding the ancient world as a predicate to the modern world, you need at least Hellenic, Norse, and Judeo-Christian stories as a base. Medieval and post-medieval English literature becomes far more comprehensible once you've added some of the Celtic mythologies. FWIW, and I'm open to correction, I consider "Germanic" myths to be covered under Norse. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Bulfinch's Mythology would be right at the top of my list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Book Crazy Posted June 3, 2008 Author Share Posted June 3, 2008 Thanks for the suggestions. I would like my son to know the stories of Judaism and Christianity, but I'm not of the best to cover them. We as a family are atheist, but I do want my son to know the stories from the bible, as there is a lot of reference to them in every day life. How would you go about teaching these stories? I have always loved Norse, Germanic and Welsh myths (maybe being English has something to do with it). The Nibelungenlied is one of my favorites, along with Mabinogion. I read Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight aloud to my son this year and he really enjoyed those. He was mad that he couldn't watch the Beowulf movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2GirlsTX Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Nothing overly specific, but Calvert has a mythology class in 3rd grade calvert. If you could get ahold of the 3rd grade mythology you could use it as a spine maybe. Just a thought...my daughter did mythology at your sons age and really enjoyed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 I would like my son to know the stories of Judaism and Christianity, but I'm not of the best to cover them. We as a family are atheist, but I do want my son to know the stories from the bible, as there is a lot of reference to them in every day life. How would you go about teaching these stories? For an introduction to various religions, I love Mary Pope Osborne's One World, Many Religions: The Ways We Worship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 We somewhat use the LCC method of having a day for ancient history and a day for 'modern' history. So right now, we are in Year 4 of the SOTW history cycle (modern), while also listening to Greek myths. We put the SOTW audio cds and Greek myths from audible.com on my ipod, and we listen and discuss in the car on the way to lessons, etc. SOTW is followed up the next day with map work for both kids and outlining for my 4th grader; at the moment we just listen/discuss the myths. My kids like the SOTW cds, and LOVE the audible myths (Tales from the Greek Legends and More Tales from the Greek Legends, read by Edward Ferrie. He also does Norse legends; we haven't listened to those yet). Audible also has various versions of the Iliad, Odyssey, etc if you want to delve deeper. Using the audio books frees up my read aloud time for other books (ones with names that aren't quite as difficult to pronounce). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 Thanks for the suggestions. I would like my son to know the stories of Judaism and Christianity, but I'm not of the best to cover them. We as a family are atheist, but I do want my son to know the stories from the bible, as there is a lot of reference to them in every day life. How would you go about teaching these stories? A book that's had some discussion on the high school boards is: http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Influence-Student-Literacy-Project/dp/0977030202/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212543016&sr=8-1. This would probably be a reference guide for you at the moment, but it might help you identify the most important stories to teach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latinteach Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 So say that instead of covering history over next the year, you spent the year covering mythology, what are some of the not to miss books. What civilizations mythology would you cover? I'm really just thinking out loud here, I'm not sure what we are doing for history yet and I thought mythology would be something interesting. I think it's good to start with Greek and Roman mythology. Knowing the stories and characters in these myths is important for understanding allusions in much of English and World literature (Shakespeare, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Milton, Dante). The Iliad and Odyssey are important stories from Greek mythology which have a lot to say about war and its aftermath. There are good children's versions as well as prose and poetry translations.) You can also teach science with mythology, of course, as many of the constellations are named after mythological characters. Bulfinch's Mythology is available online: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3327 * If you do a keyword search on Gutenberg, you'll find other free Greek and Roman mythology books as well. Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Should be available at your local library. Morford and Lenardon Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition College reference for Greek and Roman myth, standard text for most introductory university courses. http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195308044/ Some good novels based on mythology include: Cronus Chronicles, Anne Ursu Myth-O-Mania, Kate McMullan Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyTompkins Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 Our Young Folk's Josephus. I believe this book is available at no cost online. Try the Baldwin Project website. Additionally, I second D'Aulaires book of Norse Myths. Superb. Thanks for the suggestions. I would like my son to know the stories of Judaism and Christianity, but I'm not of the best to cover them. We as a family are atheist, but I do want my son to know the stories from the bible, as there is a lot of reference to them in every day life. How would you go about teaching these stories? I have always loved Norse, Germanic and Welsh myths (maybe being English has something to do with it). The Nibelungenlied is one of my favorites, along with Mabinogion. I read Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight aloud to my son this year and he really enjoyed those. He was mad that he couldn't watch the Beowulf movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Book Crazy Posted June 4, 2008 Author Share Posted June 4, 2008 These are all wonderful suggestions, thank you so much. Off to Amazon and the library website too see what they have. Thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgia Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 this year. My kids loved it. We read D'Aulaire's Greek Myths, Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, and the Odyssey (retelling, current). Also used library books on all things Greek and Roman, and Egyptian, did copywork on Greek gods, narrations...it was fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 My kids are really enjoying Mary Pope Osborne's retelling of the Odyssey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Book Crazy Posted June 4, 2008 Author Share Posted June 4, 2008 We have tried Mary Pope Osborne's, but we really did not like them. I have noticed that my son likes the original of a story read aloud by me, or books that are older, such as Alfred Church's retelling of the Iliad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmen_and_Company Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 As a Jewish parent, one of my favorite sites that I refer my non-Jewish friends and fellow hs'ers to for Torah & Jewish children's books is http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/muljewhol.htm Here's a sampling of some of our favorites: These are late grammar/logic stage dc. Torah (Bible stories)Miriam Chaikin Children's Bible Stories; From Genesis to Daniel Clouds of Glory : Jewish Legends & Stories About Bible Times Eodus = Yetsi' at Mitsrayim Joshua in the Promised Land Blu Greenberg, et al King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba Selina Hastings The Illustrated Jewish Bible for Children Eric Kimmel Be Not Far from Me; The Oldest Love Story; Legends from the Bible. Julius Lester The Beginning Began:--Stories about God, the Creatures, and Us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 This is what we're in the process of doing, though ours are integrated with history and not done in one year. There's more I want to cover, but this is what we've done/planned so far. Gilgamesh Geraldine McCaughrean's Gilgamesh the Hero Ludmila Zeman's Gilgamesh Trilogy Egyptian (particularly Osiris cycle) Lancelyn Green's Tales of Ancient Egypt Sara Quie's Ancient Egypt Greek myths (Iliad/Odyssey included) McCaughrean's Greek Gods and Goddesses and Greek Myths Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy and The Wanderings of Odysseus Olivia Coolidge's Greek Myths Roman myths (Aeniad included) McCaughrean's Roman Myths Penelope Lively's In Search of a Homeland China France's Carpenter's Tales of a Chinese Grandmother Linda Fang's The Ch'i-lin Purse Hindu mythology (yes, we ended up spending a long time here) Uma Krishnaswami's The Broken Tusk Uma Krishnaswami's Shower of Gold Harish Johari's Little Krishna Harish Johari's How Parvati Won the Heart of Shiva Harish Johari's How Ganesh Got his Elephant's Head Harish Johari's The Monkey's and the Mango Tree Erik Jendresen's Hanuman Bulbul Sharma's The Ramayana for Children Jatinder Verma's The Story of Divaali Vatsala Sperling's Ganga Hanuman (movie, animated -- we have an English version of this) Buddhist Jeanne M. Lee's I Once Was a Monkey (Jataka tales) Jonathan Landaw's Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha Christian (we're secular) McCaughrean's two Bible adaptations Fran Manushkin's Daughter's of Fire Norse Colum's Children of Odin Philip's Odin's Family Siegfried Barbara Leonie Picard's German Hero-Sagas and Folk-tales James Baldwin's Story of Siegfried Beowulf Sutcliff's Dragon Slayer Arthur Sutcliff's Arthur trilogy Edited to add: I forgot some.... Padraic Colum's The King of Ireland's Son (big hit) Gwyn Thomas and Kevin Crossley-Holland's Tales from the Mabinogion Colum's Trojan War and Adventures of Odysseus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnUK Posted June 4, 2008 Share Posted June 4, 2008 We focus on a different mythology each year. In doing that, we also review the previous year's myths by comparing them to the current year. There's always a Loki figure. I still assign some readings from previous years as well. I think that mythology is something that is very important to cultural literacy, so we spend time on it each year. As an art history student in college, not knowing the stories of the bible or mythology was definitely a disadvantage. --Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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