Here are some specific suggestions for learning Greek:

For an 8 year old, take one letter per week (more or less, depending on the child — less time for older or more advanced children). When you get through the alphabet then start over again. The goal is to become thoroughly familiar with the Greek alphabet.

Write the letters, practice saying the sounds (you may use the tape recorder and/or flash cards), make posters of the alphabet, make greeting cards and decorate the edges with Greek letters (this may impress the grandparents), make your own flash cards, compare the sounds of the Greek letters with the corresponding English letter sounds (Alpha and “A” — some letters in Greek have no corresponding English letter), combine learning the Greek alphabet with art, make up a simple song of the alphabet (some sing it to Onward Christian Soldiers, we’ve heard others as well), make your own tape of the sounds, make up the game of “Concentration” or some other such game with the Greek alphabet (some games are in the book). Do one of these activities
each day.

Don’t forget to make a Greek notebook to keep the student’s copywork exercises. After the student knows the alphabet (sounds and symbols), then practice reading Greek (there are exercises in our book). He will only be reading Greek at this point, not translating from Greek to English, as he hasn’t studied Greek grammar yet. Of course, by the time he is good at reading Greek, he’ll be able to recognize some of the Greek vocabulary, especially if he is practicing reading his Greek from an interlinear (Greek on top, English underneath). He could practice memorizing passages from the Greek New Testament.

When the student is proficient at pronouncing Greek — that is, recognizing the letters and sounds so as to be able to pronounce each word — then he can begin the study of Greek grammar. If the student doesn’t master the alphabet first, then he will find grammar to be most difficult. We suggest that you delay the study of Greek grammar (or Latin grammar or any language grammar) till age 10.

Harvey