D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths (Memoria Press) {Review}
Memoria Press ~  (http://www.memoriapress.com/) is a long-standing favorite of the Creative Madness Mama homeschooling household. Most recently we have been blessed by the TOS Crew to review their very popular D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths set which includes a consumable Student Guide, non-consumable Teacher’s Guide, and cardstock Flashcards. To enhance our studies, even more, we also bought the Audio version of the book, and thus have read it and listened to it multiple times now.Â
Normally, each year I share a review of the entire Classical Core Curriculum from Memoria Press and the D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths set can most easily be found within the Memoria Press Third Grade Classical Core Curriculum in both their new standard as well as their Accelerated Core. (Whether I will be able to review the rest of the core, is still pending.) We thoroughly enjoyed using Junior Kindergarten, as well as, Kindergarten, and First Grade, and Second Grade in the full cores. Now, I am delighted to be able to share with you a bit about their extremely popular D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths set!Â
In both of the Classical Education plans we follow, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths is on the book list for an in-depth study in the third grade. Ever since I started hearing about using the D’Aulaires’ book, I have always heard that the Memoria Press guides are the best to go with the study and thus I found myself quite eager to get this set as it has been on our planned wishlist for years.
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths by Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
Memoria Press D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths Student Guide and Teacher’s Guide by Cheryl and Leigh Lowe
In Greece and Rome, the perennial problems of the human condition can be seen at their beginning, while it is still possible to grasp them, to understand them, and to really see the heart of the matter. Highlands Latin School
This has been the year for introducing my daughter to the artistry of the husband and wife duo of Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire. We started with Columbus, Pocahontas, went back for Leif and now are jumping ahead to the Greek Myths. While we have not studied all the books, their American biographies are on our list for this year and my daughter has eager spent hours just staring at the illustrations. In the next year, while we study Greece and Rome, heavily featuring Greek Myths, I just knew that she would be enthusiastic about the D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths and I was not disappointed.
While recommended for grades 3-6 by Memoria Press, the D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths is one the entire family can enjoy in all age ranges. When studying Greece and Rome, it is the Greeks that give light toward the historical parts of the human condition. It is through spending time delving into these ancient tales that my students will learn about characters for future lives and exhilarating tales to spark the imagination from Greek gods. The 85-page study guide from Memoria Press’ mother/daughter Lowe team uses drill work, characters and descriptions, comprehension discussion, vocabulary linguistics, maps, tests, and more activities to open the popular D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths text and bring the adventure further off the page, even including a clear and concise pronunciation guide. Â The Teacher’s Guide is a full copy of the consumable Student Guide with answers included.
How do we use it?
Snuggled on the couch and floor, we open the audio tracks on one of our mobile devices and the girls pour over the book illustrations and read along with the audio. I have looked ahead at the teacher’s book, and when I find a particular answer, I stop the audio and start a discussion with the prompts in the book. Right now, we are doing it orally, but it is the perfect situation for my entering third-grade daughter to do the work in the Student Book individually.
We have started reading some other fiction that incorporates Greek mythology, and as we come across the particular myth in the D’Aulaires’ book we go into animated discussion about their illustrations and descriptions versus what we were imagining from reading the other books, adjust our thoughts and talk about how we will come back into our storybook later.
I ask AppleBlossom, my nearly third-grade daughter, to get out the flashcards that we have sorted out for the chapter we’re working on and she reads them out loud and try to answer them without sneaking a peak. They are helping her cement the basic facts as we are going along on this new journey.
For this review, we have been delighted with our experiences with the Teacher’s Guide and Student Book from Memoria Press as well as the flashcards. The flashcards are a cardstock that was perforated and we separated them the day they arrived. If we are careful, I believe they will last several students.
In the twenty-five lessons and five review lessons, we will cover a set number of pages in the reading book per lesson and it varies, but makes a great lesson per days/ work. Continuing in Memoria Press fashion of a well-organized guide, the guides contain Facts to Know, Vocabulary, Comprehension Questions, and Activities. All the wonderful basics of Greek mythology are introduced in a lively and lovely manner throughout the reading. The vocabulary terminology is well presented for any student and makes a great addition bit of copywork for the student so inclined. The comprehension questions vary in number per lesson, and as always with Memoria Press as one of my favorite parts, they provide just the right amount of hand-holding for the instructor to help bring the reading material alive without making it dry.
Since my discovery of the Memoria Press Enrichment guides and even the original Junior Kindergarten Lesson Plans that included discussion questions I have been a fan of the comprehension exercised created by the team at Memoria Press and they deliver this again in the D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths set.
We absolutely consider ourselves classical homeschoolers and love memorization and the materials from Memoria Press that help to make it a joy to do such activities within our homeschool. While I did not spend much time personally with the flashcards, they have made a great hands-on study tool for my daughter and I caught her the other day attempting to quiz her toddler brother. The plans for the upcoming year are to spend it studying New Testament, Greece and Rome for our history lessons and I know that as we continue to work through the Memoria Press Greek Myths guides we are in good hands.
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