Greek is hard, y’all. It’s especially hard when your loser mother refuses to learn it with you and your loser father makes you move to HAWAII, which is 6 hours behind all the online Greek classes. But JellyMan is a Trooper with a Capital T. He got through the first book of Athenaze with no trouble, and kept on keeping on through the second book until he hit a wall about halfway through. Then he got frustrated with himself and—on his own—decided to start over at the beginning of the second book so he could figure out where he went so very wrong.

I told you he was a Trooper. With a capital T, even.

But while I was praising my JellyMan for being all mature and stuff, I was having a meltdown over the transcripts. My meltdown went something like this:

“Huh. What will I do about those transcripts?”

What can I say? I am a homeschool veteran. I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. I just sit down and have me some thoughts.

Thought #1: I have no idea what makes up Attic Greek I, II, and III at the high school level.

Thought #2: Pppfffbbbt. Most high schools have no idea what makes up Attic Greek I, II, and III at the high school level because most high schools don’t even offer it.

Thought #3: There’s an online class that gives three high school credits for the completion of the two Athenaze books.

Thought #4: In The Latin-Centered Curriculum, Andrew Campbell suggests spending a year translating Xenophon’s Anabasis after spending two years on the Athenaze books.

Thought #5: If he finishes the second book of Athenaze AND translates Anabasis by the end of his junior year, I could probably give him three credits of Attic Greek without raising too many eyebrows. Therefore, the transcipts I already have are just fine and I can go back to my knitting.

And now you’re probably having a thought of your own:

Thought #1: Hey! If this loser can’t be bothered with learning Greek, how is she grading her kid’s Greek papers? How does she know he’s learning?

Actually, grading the Greek to English translations is pretty easy. I’m all up in the English grammar over here (not that you’d ever know that by reading this blog), so I can tell when he’s being lazy with his tenses and mixing up his clauses. I’ve learned to read enough Greek so that I can quiz him on vocabulary and grammar paradigms; I give him the English, and he gives me the Greek while I check the charts. The real problem is the English to Greek translations. I just can’t grade those. He’s on his own there, and it’s a problem. But he’s trying, dammit. And that’s worth something.

I think.

Oh, and if any of you are out there trying desperately to find a Greek version of Anabasis that includes historical context (in English), grammar notes, a glossary, AND a teacher’s manual, just stop it. It doesn’t exist. But you can use THIS version of Anabasis edited by Mather and Hewitt:

along with THIS nifty online interlinear translation:

and you’ll get along nicely. Is it ideal? No. Of course not. But it’s something.

I think.