Mythology, Fairy Tales, and Fables

This subject is one my personal favorites. This is another class that we combine literature and composition. It is easy to have my children re-write fables and fairy tales or to even practice creative writing and come up with one of their own. Another fun thing to do is to compare versions of fairy tales or myths and discuss similarities and differences. I took Mythology in high school and it was just reading Mythology by Edith Hamilton and writing some papers on the subject for a half credit class.

As a side note on teaching composition, we use the Excellence in Writing program called "Teaching Writing: Structure and Style". I did not purchase anything other than that, the rest of their curriculum is too "textbooky" for me. We use the classics they are reading to practice the subjects of note taking, outlining, summarizing from notes, etc.

There is so much available for free online, so check out the links below.

Mythology, Fables, and Fairy Tales

There are only two listed in TJED For Teens:

• Mythology by Edith Hamilton
• Aesop's Fables - Stickney, Winter

We add the following as well:

• Grimm's Fairy Tales - Versions: Olcott, Steel
• Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales
• Andrew Lang

Study by Civilization

One way we are studying myths, fables, and fairy tales is by civilization. The Baldwin Project has several links to various civilizations with free online collections of their literature. We have found it very interesting to compare various versions from the different civilizations.

• Introduction to History - World History
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• Norse
• Britain
• European Continent
• American
• Spain and Latin America
• Africa
• Asia
• Islam