Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources What language would you take?

Did you find anything fun for Greek, OHGranny? I've been looking out some funny little bits and pieces for Greek for the lads--once they learned the alphabet, they've been having fun leaving each other messages "in code" (English words but in Greek letters). There's a fun old textbook for littles online called "Greek for Little Scholars" (Philotechnic Institute 1866). We've also been learning a Delphic maxim per week for a little while (Be yourself; Love friendship; Pursue honour, etc.). Since they're nearly all imperatives, it simplifies the grammar! I found a lot of other cool stuff at the Greek Teachers' Corner ( www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~glawall/grkteach.html ). (The Hokey-Pokey in Greek, anyone?)

I've been using the Leslie Collins Edwards "Reading Course in Homeric Greek" for myself--I've been feeling a bit brain-dead this year and wanted to try something new to shake up the synapses a little, so I'm nibbling through a little bit of the Odyssey in Greek, with lots of help from the textbook and some stuff online. I think mostly people start with Koine or Attic (for both of which there are many more materials available--Koine looks to have the most stuff aimed directly at young people), but I thought that since what I really want to do is to be able to read a little of Homer, I might as well do Epic instead. I can't remember how old your grandson is, but this book, although a university text, is very clear, and has been reasonably smooth sailing (on the wine-dark sea...) so far--maybe he'd like it, too? There's another Homeric Greek book by Clyde Pharr, which I think is available online, that uses the Iliad, and a British text, published by Duckworth, that also does the Odyssey.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts!

peace
minnie

PS, Well, now that I've also learned to read English, I see that your grandson is 9!