In thinking about giving our kids a classical education I realized that by doing so we will also be educating ourselves.
My son Micah is due to begin learning Latin in the fall. I have decided to learn along with him (though I’ll be at work during the day while Shari is teaching.) I considered trying to get a head-start, but decided instead to plan ahead for a few years down the road and learn Greek. Oddly enough, I learned the Greek alphabet in grade school as a project that myself and another young schemer dreamt up for using as a secret form of communication.
A month or two ago while visiting a Greek Orthodox church I found that I still remembered the letters and their pronunciations and could figure out who the icons were on the onion dome since the names we use for them are simply transliterations.
There are quite a few great resources on the net for learning Greek and Latin. My personal favorite is Textkit. For pronunciation practice I found some great tutorials with audio samples. My plan is to learn Homeric Greek so that I can start with Homer. My goal is to eventually be able to read the Septuagint, the New Testament, and the Fathers of the church in the original languages. I am starting with Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners by Clyde Pharr, which is a free download from Textkit.
During the summer in order to make up for lost time Shari and the kids are working through The Story of the World Volume 1. I have begun a nightly reading ritual and began with The Great Divorce by C.S.Lewis, which was a little over Hannah’s head and sometimes Micah’s, but still worth reading. Now I’m reading a children’s adaptation of The Iliad. We have also begun following the Orthodox lectionary, which has daily readings from both the Gospels and the Epistles.
