It's Greek to Me!

The very first book my mentor asked me to read was The Iliad. Frankly, I wasn't thrilled about it. Since I was ready to be mentored though I agreed and decided to trust the process. What a rewarding experience that has turned out to be!

As I progressed from The Iliad, to the Odyssey, to the Oedipus Trilogy and then any other Greek play or writing I could get my hands on I started realizing how much I love them. I came to feel a great need to share them with our children. The more I read, the more I knew they were important.

But why? When they first started becoming important to me I didn't know why they were and I certainly couldn't articulate the reasons. Over time though I am starting to be able to give voice to those feelings. Here are some thoughts taken from Oliver DeMille in A Thomas Jefferson Education.

1. The Classics Teach us Human Nature. Just as we read Shakespeare to see human nature, the Greek classics play out human nature in all its glory. In the Iliad we can see how Achilles' pride was hurt and how that affected the Trojan War. In the Odyssey we see the power of mind numbing activities can have over our life with The Lotus Eaters. In the Oedipus Trilogy we see an example of parents trying to run from a prophecy about their son only to have it fulfilled despite their desperate attempts to prevent it. The prophet is always right! In the Odyssey we see cleverness can win the day in several examples including Odysseus' escape from the Cyclops. Jason learns in Medea that ending a marriage can lead to an end of everything else in life. Agamemnon teaches us what happens when we stop valuing our children. There are countless stories of greed, revenge, pride, cruelty, and many more played out for us to learn from.

2. The Classics Bring us Face-to-Face with Greatness. We can stand in their shoes at a great moment and we can see what they did with it. You'd be hard pressed to find a greater example of absolute courage than Hecktor in The Iliad. That guy rocks! You weep with Priam's wife as she sees her daughters carried off as war booty in the Trojan Women. You stand at the docks with Cassandra as she faces her doom with her chin held high in Agamemnon. You see the hope and the courage in Penelope as she outwits the suitors in The Odyssey. You feel sick with Oedipus as he learns who he really is and how he deals with an utterly horrible situation in the Oedipus Trilogy. So while you can most certainly learn these examples from so many reads through out history, you can also devour these examples of pure greatness within the pages of the Ancient Greek texts. As we do we can ask our selves, "What will I do when I stand before Greatness?"

3. The Classics Force Us to Think. The Greek Classics force us to look at ourselves and realize what it means to be great. It forces you to think wild dreams and awaken "all that is finest" with in you. To face your mission head on and THINK now what am I going to do? Am I going to hide behind everyone while they fight your war like Paris (The Iliad)? Are you going to stay with Circe or are you going home to your wife (The Odyssey)? Are you going to mock the Gods or worship them? (figuratively of course) This was Hippolytus' problem and Aphrodite sure didn't like that!

4. The Classics Connect Us to Those who Share Our Stories. Our Western Civilization is based on the ideas of the Greek Culture. Through their literature we can learn from them why we do the things we do. The Greek religion was also a corrupt form of the gospel. They learned their worship of the Gods from the Egyptians. And the Egyptians learned their worship of the one true God, the Sun God, Aten, from Abraham. Through time all of these teachings were corrupted. You can see in so many of the writings about their religion where the basic ideas came from. How have we corrupted our teachings? Are we trying to live in this world/Babylon expecting our worship to stay pure? It didn't work for the Egyptians and the Greeks! Who could Persephone represent? Who might Prometheus stand for? Also because Greek literature comes first you can see all the ways they have influenced our culture and all the Western writing after them. References to Greek classics are scattered through out all great literature. Greek ideas are scattered throughout our culture today as well. For example, The Little Mermaid contains multiple references to Poseiden and those things associated with him. (Tridents, sea horses, etc). Jared figured that one out all by himself.

These are just some ideas for now. Greek literature contains powerful examples of our own human nature. It causes us to ask our self what we would do in that situation. I believe that Greek literature should be a core study in families.

Here are some children's books that have taught about the Greeks and their literature that our family as enjoyed:

The Odyssey by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Gods and Goddess of Olympus by Alki
Usborne's Greek Myths
King Midas and The Golden Touch by Demi
Greek Myths: Ulysses and the Trojan War by Anna Claybourne
The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
Book of Greek Myths by D'Aulaire

Geometry

Family Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 1
Weekly Family Scripture Memorization: Moroni 10:34
Greek/Read-A-Loud: We read several chapters in Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief and finished it.
Greek/Movie: We watched Hercules (Disney) together and we pointed out all the Gods and situations we recognized. I'm not a huge fan of cartoons and my kids rarely get to watch them. So this was a treat!
Math: We received our new Lakeshore Geometry Activity Kit Grades 4-6 in the mail today. It is very cool. We talked about all sorts of Geometry concepts. They have very neat manipulates. We worked especially on graphing with positive and negative numbers. The kids are still playing with the kit right now. Here's the link, it says it's discontinued, but at least you can get an idea of what it is. Maybe you can find it on ebay.
Spelling: I quizzed the boys on spelling words from the book Dr. Fry's 1000 Instant Words: The Most Common Words for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling by Edward Fry, Ph.D. They wrote their answers down on wipe boards and then revealed their answers. They thought it was fun.
Club: We had cub scout pack meeting tonight. Jared earned some more awards.
PE: Playing in the snow and fort building.
Chores/Animal Care

Caleb: Read his scriptures, learned about sharks, wrote a blog post about sharks, and 30 min of Wii Sports.

Luke: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, spent a lot of time working on his creative writing story, did some silent reading in various books, and played Wii sports for 30 min.

Jared: Read his scriptures, practiced the piano, and made a skills list for cooking. Did a dictionary search and located the words coconut, hydrogen, Neptune, rain forest and coat of arms. These were just random words I picked and then he told me about them. We added some dates to our times line, worked on scout requirements, did 30 min of Wii fit, and listened to a book on tape for a reward. He has misplaced his chapter book and so didn't read it today.

Olivia: Read her scriptures, wrote in her journal, practiced the piano, worked on math skills, and read in Pride and Prejudice.

Deanna: Read my scriptures, wrote in my journal, read a conference talk, practiced the piano, worked on cub scout things, played ping pong and reread Prometheus Bound for my mentor meeting this weekend.

Alex: Read his scriptures, read in the church handbook, did cub scout things (Unit Commissioner), listening to Ranger's Apprentice, played ping pong, and went to work.

What's the most important? My brain on paper.

The beautiful thing about home schooling is that we are able to study and learn about anything we want! We can also focus on anything we want.

I've read so many wonderful blog posts and articles about some of the things that others have done. They have inspired me to great ideas within my own family. I love it! I have read about nature study, composer study, history of all shapes and sizes, science of all shapes and sizes, science experiments, music theory, art study, biography study, art techniques, creative writing, grammar including diagramming sentences, spelling, time lines, life skills, violin study, piano, a multitude of other instruments, literature (this list is huge!), money management, geometry, algebra, astronomy, Shakespeare, Greek, Latin, Sign Language, Spanish, French, Geometry, PE, logic, rhetoric, and the list keeps going and going and going......

I've been thinking what are the most important things for my family. I feel that I only have a short time with my kids before they are gone and I'm no longer their teacher. I need to narrow this list down! I've simplified it to the most essential and then identified within that what is the most important. I don't know what to label these?

Level 1: Core Phase Behavior
Level 1B: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic in it's basic sense

Level 2:

• Life Skills: House hold management
• Theology: Specifically narrowed down to the Gospel Principles Manual
• Literature: Greek classics, Shakespeare and Dickens
• Math: Money Management and Geometry (if our roof is X size, how many shingles do we need?, etc)
• Music: Piano and specifically Music Theory

Level 3:

• History: Specifically American History
• Science: Physical Science?

Level 4:

• Art
• Astronomy
• Foreign Language

The farther down the list you go the less I've actually thought about it. I have put a lot of thought in the first two levels though. A lot! What is the most important? If I didn't teach them anything else what is absolutely essential for our family.

My husband and I absolutely love history and so do our children. We don't even have to teach that subject in our home, they just know it. It just is. That is why that's not more of a focus. Science? I just didn't think it was the most important for our family to focus on. I'm certain that some families will have that focus instead of music like we have.

I'm not saying that we won't do science or art, I'm simply identifying my focus. Everything after that is a bonus. I just need to get my bases covered. I'm still thinking. Like I said, "My brain on a paper."

So have any of you narrowed down your focus and really thought about what is the most important for your family to know and understand?