Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! Level 1 Worktext Review

So I'm a nerd.  Really.  I like to really study the Bible.  You know- read it, look up cross references, and especially look up what the words mean in their original language.  So that's why I was very excited to receive Level 1 of Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! by Greek 'n' Stuff.

Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! Level 1 Worktext was written by Karen Mohs and is a very easy, very simple way to learn the 24 letters on Koine Greek (the Greek used in Bible times).  The Level One Worktext teaches one letter at a time.  The instruction focuses on how to properly write the letter as well as its name and the sound that it makes.  After each new letter is taught, practice exercises reinforce the writing and sounds of all the letters previously learned, so there is plenty of repetition.  Flash card templates are also provided.  The four lessons at end of the book teach students to write a very short Bible verse in Greek as well.  This book is available for $14.95, although the higher levels cost slightly more.

The Pros:  This is probably the easiest way to "learn" a foreign language that I've seen.  I just copied pages to put in their workboxes and they did them.  Of course, it's only teaching the alphabet, but since Greek letters are very different from our letters, there really is a lot to learn.  I would be interested in seeing how much a student is really capable of reading in Greek after completing the upper levels as well check out the sample pages HERE-it looks like they cover a LOT!. 

The Cons:  I mentioned I'm a nerd in the beginning because I enjoy the idea of learning how to read the Greek words for myself, but I'm not really sure that is a skill very highly in demand or very necessary for most homeschoolers to acquire.  But that is no reflection on the curriculum itself.  I would say this level is very, VERY simplistic-perhaps insultingly so for older students although it is foundational.  (The suggested age is "students with pencil and paper skills" but the optional accompanying reader is preschool and up.)  But it also works, so maybe simplistic is good. 

The Bottom Line:  If you are interested in your children learning Greek, whether it was so that they could one day study the New Testament in its original language or whether it was to gain a  better grasp on our own language by learning Greek roots to our words, I would say this curriculum does that very painlessly and fairly inexpensively.  And I know even I learned something.  I had learned the Greek alphabet in my sorority days, but apparently we did not learn the correct pronunciation of several letters, nor did I know how to write any of them in the lower case (although I have the upper case down-who says sororities aren't educational, LOL).  You can view sample pages for all the levels (1-8) HERE and if you do that, you will see that the higher levels really start teaching your children to read and translate Greek.

To check out Greek 'n' Stuff's complete Greek curriculum or  to see their Latin curriculum or Bible studies, go HERE.  To see what other members of the TOS Crew had to say (some people reviewed upper levels of the Greek program while others got the Latin program or the Bible studies), go HERE.

Legal Disclaimer:  As a member of the TOS Crew, I received the Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek! Level One Worktext for free.  That book was the only compensation I received for my honest review.