Iliad and Odyssey Complete Set REVIEW

My newest review is the Iliad and Odyssey Complete Set by Memoria Press.  We were so blessed to get this wonderful classical curriculum.  We only had a few weeks to review this set so of course we were not able to complete the entire curriculum but we made a dent in the Iliad.  I was able to look over The Odyssey for purposes of this review.  The set includes:

• Teacher Guide (one for each book)
• Student Guide (consumable for one student, one for each book)
• Both the Iliad and Odyssey books
• Instructional DVDs for both books

This set of books by the Greek poet Homer are translated by Samuel Butler. The authors of the books and study guides worked diligently to make the study available and useable by younger students.  This set is recommended for grades 7 - 12. The Teacher Guide and DVDs make these books very teachable even if you have not been exposed to any background studies on the subject. There are 48 books (chapters) total in the two books and it is recommended that you spend NO LESS than 4.5 hours per week for 18 weeks to cover the matierial.
The Teacher Guide has notes, answers to student questions, quizzes and tests. It explains the schedule recommended to follow, how the lessons are organized and a brief background on Homer. For each assignment the Teacher Guide covers some background, discussion help, answers to student questions, notes and essay and assignments.
The Student Guide covers each book (chapter) and identifies places and characters, asks comprehensive questions, includes quotations, and ends with discussion questions for each book. The lessons are fairly short (only 10 comprehensive questions). . The DVDs have an overview teaching of each book by Sean Brooks who is a teacher of classical studies and Latin.  The lessons are about 30 - 40 minutes long and each DVD set begins with and Introduction Lesson that sets the stage for the book.  The remaining lessons on the DVDs are meant to be watched after reading each book (chapter). The lessons review what was read and give more insight into what the book was all about.

This study is specifically designed to be taught to a younger student but with my 7th grader who is a struggling learner I found that it was still a little too much for him.  The problem for us is that he does not have a great attention span and the lessons ended up being too long.  The "books" or chapters were not all the same length and therefore some lessons were short or average while others were quite long.  Between the reading, student questions and video lesson, it was just too long.  We ended up breaking it up but then it was a little difficult for him to stay focused on what had been read in the review on the video.  I think in our case he just got overwhelmed and shut down.  For us I think this would be much better done as a unit study type with no other subjects covered.  Probably great for us for a summer "project" where he didn't have any other strict core curriculum studies to cause him to be so overwhelmed.  I also think for us we will shelve this study till possibly 9th grade.  I feel he will be better prepared and more able to stick with it at that age.

That being said, I really liked the curriculum and think it is an excellent resource for Greek study.  I personally feel it is best suited for 8-10th grade.  Perhaps their rating for 7-12 grade covers the diverse ability of homeschooled students.  A strong learner at 7th grade could easily cover this material and a struggling learner like my child would no doubt have a much better time with this during 11th or 12th grade.
You can connect with Memoria Press on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, and PINTEREST.
Please take a moment to check out my fellow crew member reviews on this set and others available at Memoria Press.  They have some WONDERFUL classical education resources.  You will be glad you did!