My oldest son is fascinated by ancient Greek, Hebrew, and Roman history, their cultures, weapons, and their languages.  He is in high school and working towards his graduation transcript requirements. Thankfully, Memoria Press has many wonderful curriculum options that meet his variety of interests as well as requirements. 

He was thrilled to receive First Form Greek Complete Set by Memoria Press to review in our homeschool.  This course includes everything he needs to learn the ancient Greek language and it will meet his high school transcript language requirements.  This course fit perfectly in reaching his interests and goals. 

First Form Greek Complete Set

First Form Greek Complete Set

Grades 7-12

Retail $125

The First Form Greek Complete Set includes resources for both the student and the parent teacher.  It includes everything you need for learning ancient Greek.  Even though this is a beginner / intermediate level course for older students, it is recommended for the student to have some prior knowledge of Latin Language and to have learned the Greek Alphabet. Spending extra time learning Lesson 1 in the book will also help a new student learn this program if they have no prior experience.  See the course recommendations on the website for more details.

The First Form Greek Complete Set contains the following:

For the Student:

Lessons DVD

Pronunciations CD

Student Text

Student Workbook

Flash Cards

For the Parent / Teacher

Teacher Manual

Teacher Keys

Quizes & Tests Booklet

First Form Greek covers general vocabulary and grammar in a logical organized method.  The goal after finishing First Form Greek, is for the student to have mastered:

130 vocabulary words
Six indicative active tenses of the “omega” verb
Present tense of the “to be” verb
Two noun declensions
First & second declension adjectives
Personal & demonstrative pronouns

If your student desires to go further in their Greek studies, after completing First Form Greek, they will be better prepared for further studies in Greek New Testament and Septuagint or Classical Greek and understanding of Greek authors.

Items in the Complete Set:

Teacher Manual:

The First Form Greek Teacher Manual has everything the parent teacher needs to teach this class.  You don’t need prior experience, all the answers and explanations are provided for you and you can learn as you go.

The Teacher Manual contains:

a full copy of the Student Text with answers in color,

lesson plans for each day,

recitation schedule for each week,

oral drills,

parsing and analysis of Greek sayings,

references to similar linguistic features in Latin.

additional notes.

Quizzes & Tests booklet:

The Quizzes & Tests booklet contains:

reproducible weekly quizzes

unit tests that ensure material is being mastered,

and a grading rubric for the teacher.

Teacher Key:

The Teacher Key booklet contains:

answers to the workbook

answers to quizzes

answers to tests.

DVD Set:

The set of 5 DVD’s contains:

8 hours of instructions covering

10-20 minutes step by step lessons used at the beginning of each week.

Teacher: Elizabeth Pierce

Oral Drills

On Screen Examples

Onscreen Charts

CD:

The CD contains:

Pronunciation,

vocabulary,

sayings,

grammar forms for each lesson.

Student Text:

The Student Text contains:

26 Lessons + 5 Unit Reviews,

Lessons are on two facing pages.

 The student text provides a presentation of grammar in five units that cover 26 step by step lessons.  It includes appendices with English grammar, prayers, conversational Greek, a vocabulary index, etc.

Student Workbook:

The Student Workbook is focussed on logical practice and mastery of concepts and contains:

6 pages of exercises per lesson,

Lesson exercises to be completed in 4 days

Blank drill forms

Weekly reviews of vocabulary and grammar on day 5.

Unit reviews.

Flashcards:

Flashcards contain:

vocabulary,

Greek sayings,

grammar forms.

Our Thoughts Using First Form Greek

All of the resources in this set are wonderful high quality products.   So much is included to help you be successful and master Greek language skills.   Even though they have provided everything you need, this course is not easy!  It is very challenging and learning this language is harder than it looks!

This course is very well made.  I would personally expect to find such an indepth course in college, so high school students interested in this are really blessed to have such a high quality resource to work with.  I took French 1 and 2, German 1, and some intro in Latin for singers, in college and struggled learning languages because their were few resources.  I personally would have been thrilled with all the resources that are included in this set if I had this class in college!  It is very well put together.

My son and I found the DVD lessons to be an invaluable resource for this course.  I don’t think we could get through the class without them.  I know nothing about the Greek language, and it is very helpful to have a teacher on the DVD teach the lesson and demonstrate the correct pronunciation.  I am also thankful for the Teacher Manual and Test Key, because I would be lost without them when grading and trying to search for answers to my son’s questions.

Another thing I like about the text book is that it includes scriptures and talks about Jesus and encourages our faith.  I also like that it includes several pages of culture and ancient history with photos.

My son is very intelligent and focused in his personal learning objectives.  He devours every piece of information he seeks out.  He amazes me at his desire to learn knowledge.  There isn’t a day that goes by that he hasn’t done some extensive research into a subject.

He has taken an introductory class for Latin, and has learned a few Greek phonemes.  We moved in the middle of his Greek phonemes class, but expected he knew enough about Greek to take this course and do well in it.   We both thought he was better prepared to start this class than he actually was.

He went at it full force in the beginning and gave it his best effort for a few stressful weeks.  But he soon got discouraged because learning Greek was more challenging than he planned.

I would have probably given up by now trying to learn this language in my teenage or young adult years. When something was over my head, and I felt like I was failing, I would cut ties with it unless I could find a tutor or another solution to help me learn it.  I was blessed in college to find wonderful tutors and later able to become a tutor myself because I had such good caring examples.  My perspective about learning difficult things has changed as I am much older now, and the mother of six kids.   My attitude now is “don’t sweat the small stuff” and “don’t take everything life hands you so seriously” and pray and ask for guidance and keep going until you reach your goal.

After thinking through it, he decided to let go of the pressure of trying to do a lesson a week and continue his studies at a more relaxed and slower pace.

What we found that is currently working better for him is to spend more time watching and re-watching the video lesson of the week as he begins his Greek study each day to get it into his memory before reciting the words and phrases and trying to work in his workbook.  He has everything he needs so he can work independently at his own pace.  Next to him he set up his laptop to watch the DVD lesson as much as needed, and he has his text book and workbook right there too.   After watching the DVD lesson he reads the text lesson.  Then he can work on recitation, flash cards, and write in his workbook.  I only ask him to work 1 page a day in his workbook instead of the recommended two pages.   At this slower pace, each lesson will take him two weeks to complete instead of 1 week.  That is fine with me.

He is learning at a slower pace, and most importantly, at his own pace.   That is the beauty of homeschooling, you can adjust where you study and adjust the curriculum to fit each kid’s skills and interests as needed.  He is trying to absorb as much as he can in these high school years without getting overwhelmed as he tries to complete everything on the recommended highschool transcript for college.   He is wise in his young years to not give up, to try to think outside the box, and to keep pursuing his goals.  He is learning that you can adjust, life is flexible, and don’t sweat the small stuff.

I would highly recommend this course for folks who have taken introductory courses in Greek and those who are planning to study Greek on a college level.  Memoria Press has several lower level Greek courses to get started with if you have never had Greek before.   We plan to use the Elementary Greek courses and the Greek Alphabet course for our younger kids before letting them jump into this class that our older son is doing.   Learning Greek will be a bit easier if they tackle those courses first.  Be sure to check out the website recommendations and all of the various Greek language products they have to offer for different skill levels and ages.

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Homeschool Review Crew

Be sure to check out what other families on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using products from Memoria Press with their kids.