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From mythology to West Civilization and philosophy


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DD9 really enjoys the SOTW. She read through all four books and listened to the CD multiple times. Now she is going through in much slower pace. My thought is I would like to introduce her to Western Civilization via the mythology and later on philosophy during this iteration. Currently she loves the Greek mythology. I am looking for ideas on how to tie the mythology to the Western Civilization. What I can think of are: showing the archeology treasure/famous paintings, statue and associating that with Greek gods; listening to stories such as Helen of Troy and Odyssey; finding a comic books on civilization. I found following books might be interesting:

- National Geographic Essential Visual history of World Mythology

- The rising of Rome by Great Courses

I tried a Brief History of Nearly Everything and she is not interesting (maybe due to age?)

Do you have any recommendations?

 

 

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If you like videos I have some you-tube channels/series to suggest:

I love Extra Credits History, but I've only just sampled a little bit of their newer mythology series.  Seems really good so far.  Very appropriate for a 9 year old, but interesting even for adults.   Their history series is humorous but respectful, and I expect their mythology series to be the same.

I just stumbled on Overly Sarcastic Productions because my eldest (who's not even homeschooled) started watching these for fun and wanted to show me.   One he showed me was Journey to the West (on one of ancient Chinas 5 great works of literature).  But they also have a whole series on myths and another one on legends as well as a bunch of other series on history and literature.  I have not watched a ton of these and can't remember if there was anything I wouldn't expose a 9 year old too, but I think a 9 year old would appreciate the humor and connections they make from ancient stories to modern movies/shows/etc.

TedEd also has a bunch of good videos on various myths.   Some just tell the story, while others analyze or make connections between different myths (like the Myth of the Minataur compares that myth to an islander myth and how they both related to seismic activities but the mythology that stemmed from it turned out very different).   TedEd also has some excellent philosophy videos.  

I've used several of School of Life's videos on philosophers.   I notice they have some other video topics which are not kid friendly, so I suggest previewing these (though I don't remember anything objectionable in the videos I've used.)

Crash Course has a series on Mythology and another on Philosophy which I have not explored at all, but I like a lot of their other material so I thought I'd mention it.   (You may want to preview, though, cause while generally clean they occasionally slip in a slightly racy joke). 

As for books,  Illustrated Book of Myths by Neil Philip is a favorite of mine.   They are told well, have good illustrations, and also often have sidebars with historical artifacts, pictures of the area the myth came from, or stuff like that which directly connects this with history. 

 

Edited by goldenecho
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  • 1 month later...

thank you both for the great recommendations! TedED is the all time favorite!

Any more recommendation on how to lead kids to civilization through story format? I just found following DVD from library but it might be for older kids:

Civilization: the West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson from BBC.

 

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