For the past several weeks, the kids and I have been looking at Ancient Greece. This is our second time through, Zach at least having done this roughly 5 years ago. Obviously, he was very young and we didn't have the tagalongs we do currently. I needed the same simple myths he did as an intro for Lily and, to some degree Noah, but also more in depth resources for an older and much more educated Zach. Hence, we this time dove into "The Children's Homer" by Padraic Colum. Not sure I will do this again.
Whew. If I did this again, I think I would get an audio version. The
translator/author of this version clearly did not like commas. With
complex syntax at times, and sentences that can wrap several lines of
text, a few commas here and there would have really really helped this
mom and her kids keep the flow of thought together during this
read-aloud.
That said, it was a good version for my 3rd and 6th
graders who were new to Homer other than very simplified/picture book
versions. This was our "middle of the road" version for them, having
done Greece a few years ago with the picture book tales. So, they came
into it knowing the stories in brief. It does have illustrations
(simple line drawings) each chapter. The story is understandable, with
the very occasional vocabulary word new to my kids ("affrighted" being
an example).
A good choice but not outstanding to us.
Next week we are moving back into Egypt for later empires. I'm more than ready for a break from Greece after this book. But, we'll be back to the Greeks soon enough. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment