We really like learning history chronologically, so we follow the classical cycle in our history studies. That means we are back to the beginning and the ancients for this new school year. I am re-using curriculum from our first time through. Great for my younger children, but I really need things to be more challenging for my middle schooler. She is ready to dig deeper into history and tie in philosophy and theology, too. I needed to find something that would meet these requirements and be easy to implement. We found the perfect thing in Roman Roads Media‘s Old Western Culture: The Greeks, a video course that calls itself “A Christian Approach to the Great Books”. We received the course on DVD ($224) for the purpose of review. It is also available online for streaming ($199).
It seems that as my daughter is getting older, we are moving towards Classical Christian Education. This means that the basis of the studies are found in the Great Books – classic works. This first year in the history cycle covers ancient history which of course means Greece. Year two of Old Western Culture is The Romans. Year three is Christendom. Early Moderns completes the cycle in Year four. Wesley Callihan is the instructor, author and storyteller of the Old Western Culture courses. He has a passion for history that is contagious. It is often just as entertaining as it is educational to watch the lecture videos. Wes has been a popular contributor to the growing Classical Christian Education movement.
The organization of The Greeks course is straightforward and easy to fit into our schedule. There are four units spread over 36 weeks, 9 weeks per unit, 5 days per week requiring 1 to 3 hours per day. The units are numbered with 1 for The Epics, 2 for Drama and Lyric, 3 for The Histories, and 4 for The Philosophers. This implies order to these units though I don’t see anywhere a reason to not use each unit in the order you desire. There are 12 video lectures for each unit, roughly 30 minutes in length. We received these on DVDs, four DVDs per quarter in a nice case. There are also plenty of reading assignments and a paper for the quarter. It is clearly indicated in the pdf schedule when the work on this should begin. If used as scheduled, completing each of the assignments and all of the readings, the course will earn the learner 2 high school credits. One for literature and the second can be either history, English, philosophy, or doctrine/theology. The schedule is color-coded so it is easy to see when to watch each video, what sections to read when and which discussion questions (reader vs lecture) are to be completed. These directions make it easy for the learner to be responsible for their work.
We chose to begin with The Epics (which is the first one, and this slightly OCD mama was very happy her daughter decided to do so!). The Great Books used are The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. We purchased a Kindle/Audible version of The Iliad to have the Whispersync option. This means my daughter could read as she listens or just read or just listen while keeping the same place. When she was listening, we all listened whether from the computer, iPod or iPad. There are recommended versions and links to others (most of them free!) on the materials page. The basic story was familiar to all of us – especially the younger brothers from watching the movie Troy. Of course, that Hollywood-version only tells a narrow and often distorted take on the classic story. Because we are listening/reading together, we are getting more out of it than merely reading silently. Homer wrote these as poems, and there is something to the hearing. Not to mention, this makes the reading much easier on my dyslexic daughter.
My daughter is also getting much more through the discussion questions found in the student workbook. The student workbook can be purchased as a printed, spiral-bound book ($12 per quarter), downloaded freely from the materials page or accessed right in the DVD. We received one of the printed workbooks for the third quarter, The Histories. It is black and white, which means that color-coded schedule is no more. The schedule is also available as a separate file to download (in color) if that is important to you (it obviously is to me *grin*). When viewing the DVD on the computer, we could access the discussion questions also. This has the added benefit of being able to click and review the relevant portion of the lecture directly as needed. We also have the Guide to the Art as a booklet included in the DVD case. The exact same pages are available to download. The printed guide is on nice paper and conveniently fits right into the DVD case. Around here, that is a big deal. It will be less likely to get lost. But if it is misplaced, we can always print the pdf or view it right on our computer or tablet screen. The components for this course are so versatile!
The other units follow the same format of 12 lectures with readings and discussions over the course of 9 weeks each. At the end of each unit are two exams or tests. You can use both or one in the manner that fits your learner. Two of the suggestions are to use the first as an open book test for review and prep the second. You could also offer the second if the grade was less than expected on the first. The tests (and an answer key as a separate file) are available to download as pdf files. It would be nice to have those exams as “type-it-in” files. The questions are essay questions and my girl, at least, is more apt to write more when she can type it versus write it out by hand.
Once we finish The Epics, we will move right in to Drama and Lyric. In this unit, we will study tragedies, comedies and minor poems. There is a text for this one that contains much of the readings made available by Roman Roads Media – as a pdf to download free, Kindle for $2.99 or in print for $22.00. I remember reading Sophocles: Oedipus the King in a drama class while in college. This course is definitely at the Classical Education high school level (which is more academically challenging than typical high school class). The recommend age for students is 8th -12th grades or 14 years and older. Mature themes such as paganism, nudity in the artwork, sexual immorality and of course, those battle scenes (Homer paints quite the word pictures!) are not suitable for younger learners. Even though all of us have been listening to the audios of The Iliad, I will not be allowing the youngers to tag-along for much of the rest of the course. They may be included by other books at their own level so discussions could be interesting, but this is strictly a high school course.
The Histories will be our third quarter. Herodotus will be covered in addition to Thucydides and Xenophon. This might be another we all enjoy listening to the audio version of the readings, we’ll just have to see. Lastly, we will cover The Philosophers in the fourth quarter. The works of Plato and Aristotle will be studied in-depth. Throughout each of these units, the art that has been created depicting the people and events we will be learning about is featured throughout the lectures. The Guide to the Art booklet can be utilized to spark further art history studies. We will probably add in some external resources for this as time allows. I love any opportunity to include art!
This is such a full, rich course. I hope this has given you a glimpse at just how thorough the course is. There are samples for your own perusal. Not studying this age in your history cycle? Year Two Romans is in the process of being released. Roman Roads Media also offers The Grammar of Poetry – on my wish list! Other Crew members also reviewed some of the Compass Classroom products that are offered through Roman Roads Media. We have used – and loved Visual Latin. Great program for the reluctant learner (or mom!).
