Are you looking for a Christ-Centered approach to Classical Education for your high school student? We got to review our first deeply classical curriculum by Roman Roads Media called, Old Western Culture: The Greeks (full year program). Daniel Foucachon founder of Roman Roads Media. Wes Callihan was the lecturer and guide through the course. My two high schoolers both at the beginning of their Junior year were my helpers for this review.
I will come right out and admit that I am chicken when it comes to classical education. I hear classical and think traditional, memorization, tons of copywork, etc. Nope. Classical is going back to the basics of our culture and reading, learning, experiencing (drama) how our culture began. By ignoring ancient Greek and Roman knowledge we are crippling our children or at least giving them a bigger burden to learn when they reach college. The hang up I had about this time period is the decadence. One of my high schoolers is an 11 year old with delicate sensibilities. This momma has a duty to be careful with her gifted blessing while moderating her emotional abilities. Could we successfully find a Christian oriented high quality curriculum source for this time period? Yes,with some caveats I talk about later.
Old Western Culture: The Greeks didn’t shy away from the reading material that might stretch our boundaries. There was always a good reason and the program was careful to warn you we are talking about war scenes and other more adult topics. Classical painting where clothing is optional. This is a Christian based program but it does deal with in the classical books and material you will be reading things like paganism. None of these possibly sensitive topics are used lightly or without purpose. Such as in the The Epics we started right into The Illiad. It’s war. Not pleasant and based around sexual immorality. That is The Iliad. Sadly that is what has made this poem a main stay of society through all the years. It highlights the basics of human emotions and sin.
Before we even started several things caught my eye and encouraged me that this is not just a course for a great reader. The course is designed for great thinkers. While good reading skills will help you quite a bit there are options to help you get navigate through tons of reading.
The lectures are an easy to sit and listen to imparting a large quantity of material in a very auditory encouraging way. For those with sound discrimination and understanding issues like Auditory Processing Disorder use headphones. One of my daughter’s could sit and listen to the lecture or audiobook and get about half the material. Headphones fixed the problem of missed details like a gem. I also made her take notes while listening to engage her on another level of understanding and remembering.
Roman Roads Media took the time to put together an extraordinary in-depth but learnable curriculum. I have read currics that are great on paper but the teacher giving the lecture was not as great imparting that knowledge to you. Roman Roads is UNDERSTANDABLE! I wanted my 2 oldest to listen to the lectures together to see how they reacted. Soon it was my 2 daughters and mommy in between. All of us loving it.
We ran the course 4 days a week (our normal homeschooling schedule). The course said it would take 1-3 hours a day to finish. It was right but remember this is a double credit literature and social studies so that helps some. There were days that were lighter and had less reading. Then there were days with lots of heavy reading/listening. Frankly we could not keep up with the schedule as written by Roman Roads Media. We did keep trying.
The 4 sections of the year are broken down into The Epics, Drama and Lyric, The Histories, The Philosophers. We started from the beginning at The Epics. Launched straight into The Iliad. The basic progression of the curriculum is to listen to a lecture giving you basis for the reading section/book/culture. Then you get a quiz on the lecture to be sure you understood it. Then you moved on to reading. Finally you did another quiz. The kids are now tired of the word quiz but I have to admit it was a very quick and clear cut way to see who understood what.
We did not get to the term paper suggested. A paper that should be about 750-1200 words. Nor did we get to the final exam. The final exam is expected to take 45 minutes to an hour and a half. It is not multiple choice. There are answers given in the teachers guide but they are guidelines only since this is a written exam. Good news for us parents is in case we get into trouble they have a teacher to email to help us out.
How am I planning on dealing with the term paper and final exam? Term paper will most likely be no big changes since the girls will have time and reference materials. I might help out my ADHD dd by setting mini-deadlines to help her stick to the over all deadline, at least the first time. As for the final exam I will allow accommodations as if my child were at college or high school. Things like no time limit but still a closed book exam. Reading aloud directions for my dyslexic teen. I would rather she get the problem wrong based on her knowledge than how she read the instructions. These are basic common accommodations in schools, use them!
As the parent trying to set up the program smile and relax. The back end of this program is outstanding (still growing so expect big things soon). Filling in the proper information was simple and intuitive. I found it easy to navigate pages that lead me to printable workbooks, the lecture video series, and best of all the books needed for the curriculum. You aren’t expected to go and get the literature for most of these items. They have already found a free version, even a FREE AUDIO versions of books like The Odyssey! THANK YOU.
Time to talk a bit about the schedule and how you set this up for your homeschooling. The material is laid out in 4 sections. As per the schedule each section is set in a 9 week increment a total of 36 weeks for the whole. According to the program this means that your student will spend from 1-3 hours a day working. There is a schedule that you can just print out and staple into your lesson planner. Simple…..
Old Western Culture: The Greeks is definitely Classical Christian education at it’s finest. I admire the depth of knowledge and understanding this program will impart on the next generation. It is not for the weak of heart though. You need to be ready to dedicate yourself to an intense curriculum. The longer we stuck to the schedule the less imposing it felt for us but it still was a section of our day I had to be sure was carved out and waiting. I will be continuing on with course. It is outstanding and I truly believe that in the end it will be well worth the effort!
Format: Online program (includes printables) or DVD version and hard backed workbooks available
Age Range: 8-12th grade though for maturity purposes age 14 and up is advised
Price: WHOLE YEAR- DVD $224 or Streaming $224 (on sale now for $199)
Drama and Lyric reader- $22.00
Here is a SAMPLE LESSONS page you can go and see for yourself!
Roman Roads Media on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RomanRoadsMedia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RomanRoadsMedia
Pinterst: http://www.pinterest.com/romanroadsmedia/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/115410002124541916147/posts
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/romanroadsmedia/videos
Not only did several families in the TOS crew get to review the full program Old Western Culture there were several other reviews such as Visual Latin, American History and more! Just click below to check out how other families used these products and incorporated them into their homeschooling family.
