As most parents will attest to, their children love stories about heroes, monsters, princesses, and evil enemies. This was not lost on ancient Greeks who used myths to educate and entertain. The ancients had gotten it right! Effective learning has to be fun and meaningful. Just like we do with the Learning Path - Learning how to ‘navigate the world’ consisted of learning concepts (language) through stories.
The Ellinopoula platform incorporates story-telling from our beautiful Mythology, History, and Culture with the learning of the Greek language. We have series for younger children, like the fun Greek children’s songs we grew up with, and for older ones, like our unique Aesop’s Fables videos.
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Twenty years after Disney’s animated film ‘Hercules’ was brought to young children around the world, DC’s film ‘Wonder Woman’, the story of Amazon princess Diana was released to much critical acclaim and success. Although the former was aimed at young children and the latter (Rated PG13) at an older audience, they both generated an enthusiasm in children and an almost childlike enthusiasm in adults. That’s because children are hardwired to be taught by stories about courage, friendship, loyalty, respect, overcoming difficulties, and conquering life’s journey.
Mythology offers children an exciting and meaningful way to learn about and prepare for some of life’s most important lessons without knowing they’re learning about them. Coming back to Princess Diana – one of the most appealing elements of her story is that she is vulnerable (as we all were as children) and sets out on a path of self-discovery – just like Hercules did with his ‘labors.’ She’s out to learn how to navigate the world and find her place in it. She learns to listen, question, try, and overcome obstacles through adversity. Our ‘Maze Game’ follows the same pattern; a cute young penguin tries to reach his parents by navigating through a maze.
Learning Greek shares parallels with these endeavours, persistence in the face of obstacles leads to increasingly more rewards. When a child learns how Odysseus escaped the Cyclops Polyphemus, he or she is excited at finding out how Odysseus used only a few words to trick and escape a monster that would have had him for breakfast, they’ll want to know more about Odysseus! Check out our “Mission Odyssey” series, a cartoon edition of the Odyssey and a fun way to learn Greek. This is an extremely meaningful and inspiring lesson for young children who might start to imagine how they also might have to find ingenious way of getting through otherwise impossible looking situations by relying on their own judgement and intelligence.
