Homeschooling Resources:: The Lukeion Project

We love The Lukeion Project! Mr. and Mrs. Barr both do a wonderful job bringing the ancient world alive for their students. Thanks to several Lukeion Project workshops, The Professor has conquered his prejudice against all things Greek and Roman! We started with a Meet the Romans workshop in an attempt to make learning ancient history more palatable for him. He has had an aversion to anything even remotely pagan since he was very young. Those wonderfully classical homeschooling curricula that advocate reading Greek myths to your 5 year olds... didn't work for us. He held on to that prejudice for as long as he could, until one of Husband's former college history professors and thesis advisor told him before Mass one Sunday that he had to "just do it"! Thank you Dr. J! (Not the basketball one, this is an academic one but every bit an All Star!)

He has since completed other workshops including a recent summer one that has become one of his favorites... Archeology of Destroyed Cities. His all time favorite, if he had to choose, would be The Theater of War. What's a boy not to love about that? One of the side benefits I've noticed is that he has had the opportunity to get comfortable with listening and taking notes during a lecture, something this homeschooling mommy doesn't really do very much, if at all. We discuss a lot, but I don't lecture too often. Taking notes has become easier for him except when he is so engrossed in the subject that he forgets! :)

If you add them to your liked pages on FB they let you know about registration periods for their courses and share interesting archeological news items like the discovery of an ossuary belonging to the High Priest Caiaphas' granddaughter. I love seeing my son get excited over an article about an ancient Thracian war with Philip II of Macedon or a gladiator who chews out the ref from beyond the grave! He just went nuts over this shared photo of an eclipse over the Acropolis. You can watch it movie form below:

It might sound like it, but this is not a paid advertisement. I get no commission from them. I just really love how the Barrs have helped open my son's eyes and mind to the beauty of the ancient world and have inspired him to want to learn more on his own. I have talked with friends privately about this great homeschooling resource but realized that I haven't yet shared it here. Someone online first made it known to us and we are very thankful for that, even if I can't remember right now who that was. The Professor has only participated in individual workshops thus far. There is no homework, grading, or outside reading/preparation, although they usually offer access to a website with games and extra review opportunity for each class. This coming year, he will be participating in his first semester course which does require outside work, so we'll see how that goes.

Just as a side note, The Lukeion Project offers some Biblical studies which we have not tried yet. They state they are taught by "a committed Christian with advanced degrees in both New Testament and Classical Archaeology, and 10 years excavation in Greece, Jordan, and Turkey." From what I have seen of Mr. and Mrs. Barr's work in the online classroom, I would trust them completely to teach these subjects in an incredibly respectful way to Christian children of all denominations.