TOS Review: Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek

One of the subjects that I have always wanted to learn  teach has been Greek.  I just never really made it a priority in my home school.  I’d looked at several programs including Greek N Stuff’s Hey Andrew program but despite my desire, I just didn’t have the drive.

When we began to explore the Eastern Orthodox Faith, I finally had the kick in the backside I needed to be serious, however, I still wasn’t sure HOW I was going to make that happen.  Well, God made it happen through the TOS Review Crew.  What a blessing to receive Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek Level 3 from Greek ‘n’ Stuff. I received a student book ($21.95) and a full text answer key ($21.95) as well as an audio cd for pronunciation ($10.00)

Although not designed within a framework of lessons, it is intended that students complete 1 page per day (including practicing flashcards).  A “Schedule of Lessons” provides a grid or frame  of 36 lessons or 1 per week. Each lesson contains 4 to 6 workbook pages.

The first two lessons review the 24 Greek letters. The next two lessons review 6 vocabulary words.  Lessons 5-7 teach endings and introduce sentences such as I see a man or I see a man and a brother. More vocabulary is reviewed in Lessons 8-9 and lessons 10-13 teach more endings and the student learns sentences such as I know a man’s brother or The man’s brother sees an apostle. 

New vocabulary is not introduced until lesson 19.   Sprinkled throughout the program are several lessons that offer vocabulary and sentence practice.  The final two lessons are review lessons. Also included in the worktext are several appendices including an appendix describing how to do Bible copy work with an interlinear Bible.

Here are some sample pages of the Level 3 program:

Sample page of the Table Of Contents
Sample of Page 31
Sample of Page 117 

For additional products such as the Gospel Of John to use for copywork or for bundle package pricing for Level 3 click here.

Our Experience: I have very mixed and contradictory thoughts about Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek Level 3.  While over all, I think this has been a blessing for my family and my children have enjoyed it, I’m not sure that Level 3 was the best fit.  Karen Mohs wrote Hey Andrew for younger children.  The worktext assumes you’ve completed Levels 1 & 2 before starting Level 3, however, the website states that, if you have older children with no prior Greek knowledge, you should start at level 3 or if the student has experience with an inflected language level 4.

I do agree that starting at Level 3 with an older child is a better fit than Level 1 or 2, but I found it frustrating to teach the Greek Alphabet with only the review pages in the worktext.  I would have appreciated some type of flashcard or something in the appendix that addressed starting the program at this level with an older child.

Greek N Stuff recommends that you purchase the Full Answer Key for this level and I agree.  I could not imagine trying to teach this program to younger or older students without the “Schedule of Lessons” contained in the Full Answer Key.   Although the Full Answer Key includes appendices, it does not contain a flashcard appendix. However, it does contain an appendix of Flashcard Tips. The “Flashcard Tips” are not in the student work text.  I do recommend purchasing the Full Answer Key to use with the Level 3 program.

While the alphabet review and vocabulary review moved too quickly, the new material lessons moved too slowly. I believe the pacing of the program would be appropriate for a younger student who had completed levels 1 and 2.

Despite my frustrations with the pacing of the program, my children are learning Greek and they are enjoying learning Greek.  Turtlegirl, age 13, can read Greek!  She may not understand what she is reading but she quickly picked up on the alphabet and began doing Bible Copywork right away.  BooBear, age 15, wants to continue to study Greek. I have to confess that it was quite thrilling to take my children to a Greek Festival and tour the Greek Orthodox Church and have my children able to read the letters on the Icons and read and understand some of the Greek words!

If you are comfortable with adapting the pace of the program to suit your needs and your student has no previous experience with Greek or *any* inflected language, Level 3 could be a good fit.  If however, you have had some prior experience with inflections especially Latin, you may want to start with Level 4.  I think Level 4 would have been a better fit than Level 3 for our family but we were able to make it work for us.

Greek N Stuff also sells a Latin program as well as Bible Studies.  Some of the Crew reviewed Greek, some Latin, and some Bible. Be sure and click on the banner below to read the reviews of these other products.

Disclaimer: As a TOS Crew member, I received this product free of charge to review. This review is my honest opinion with, hopefully, enough detail as to why I liked or did not like a product so that my readers can make an informed decision. I received no compensation.

GreeknStuff provided me with 1 Full Answer Text, 1 Student book and 1 Audio CD for review purposes.