It's all Greek to me.

I must confess my fondness for teaching the kids Latin lies a great deal more with my own comfort and knowledge of the language than with any fancy classical reasons. Though there are plenty of good reasons, when it comes right down to it, I just want to be able to check their work without too much reliance on teacher manuals..

So while I managed to rationalize the language question into some sort of 'start with the root'.  The real honest truth is, I started with something I enjoy, Dude enjoys, and we can all learn easily.  I knew one day a new language would come up, and I kinda was secretly hoping it would be French, another language I am half decent at (reading anyway, I can barely speak English, and any follower knows I certainly can't spell)

With the kids recent readings into Percy Jackson and various myths, Greek has been a language of topic around here.  I even found some myths of women, like Persephone, so Princess was more involved.  Somehow my daughter isn't into sword fighting,  I have no idea how that happened.  It isn't from lack of trying on her brothers part, believe me.

Alas, we have explored a few fun youtube songs on Greek, I have researched a bit on the pronunciation controversy.  And it all ended up with Princess wanting to learn Greek.  She tells me Dude gets to learn Latin and she wants a language to learn.  Her first thought was Spanish, but the more we play with Greek while I seek for a good program, the more she wants Greek.  So much for me knowing the language already.

So far I have narrowed my search down to these two programs.

Song school Greek, from the same company that does Dude's Latin, but says it is geared for younger elementary.  Princess is 19 months younger than Dude.

So far we are very happy with the Latin, I even hear Baby Girl chanting the nouns and verbs with their meanings.   We haven't gotten into translating much yet, but so far he at least has picked up a few English words from his study.  Plus he truly loves it.

The Song School program has one year, and then it follows with one year for slightly older students.  If we take our time it should almost bring her up to an age, and writing level so she could use an highschool type program when done if desired.

So far Dude has been using up the activity pages, but writing in a notebook for the workbook, making most of the program reusable for the next kid who wants to try it.  I figure the same type of thing could be done with the Song school program.

Or Elementary Greek year 1, partly because the price is nicer while still including a CD.  I find listening in the car a great way to pass the time and let the whole family join in the fun of learning (Daddy is getting quite good at Latin vocabulary!).  This series includes 3 levels, so there would be something to do for at least three years if she chooses to stick with it.  Though it claims it is a program through adults, so there might not be anywhere to go after.

I decided to answer the pronunciation controversy by ignoring it.  I figure since the kids are not traveling to Greece, nor becoming biblical scholars anytime soon, it really doesn't matter.  Same way I answered the Classical vs Ecclesiastical issue in Latin.  No one will be correcting my kids on that dead language anytime soon, so I really don't care, and both Daddy and the kids were well used to Classical before I thought to ask them to change.  So Classical it is.

In case you wondered, Dude has already begged to be allowed to learn Greek with Princess.  I told him (For Princess' sake) he had to wait till she was done with her year before he could start the workbook.  That will give her some time to not be in competition with him.  And let him focus on Latin for at least a year.  I also told him he could go slower on Latin B, so he could do Greek along with it.

Now to figure out which Greek to try.