Greek for the Family (Memoria Press)

Memoria Press's Greek track exists inside a Latin-first classical curriculum, and it assumes the student arrives already trained in the habit of parsing an inflected language. For families already committed to that habit, it is among the most usable Greek sequences in the homeschool market. For anyone else, it is the wrong door.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical; grammar-translation; subject-specialist
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (classical, broadly traditional Christian; no denominational distinctive)
Grades	6-12 (earliest entry point around sixth grade after Latin foundation)
Formats	Print (student text, workbook, teacher manual); Memoria Press Online Academy live and recorded video
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	4 (self-taught track); 2 (online academy track)
ESA-common	Yes (Christian-ecumenical classical materials commonly approved)
Accredited	Memoria Press Online Academy is accredited; the materials themselves are not
Established	Memoria Press founded 1994; Greek track developed through the 2000s
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Systematic, grammar-first, assumes serious language work
Ease of teaching	2	Demands a parent who has taught inflected grammar or a live instructor
Content quality	4	Clean, uncluttered pages; old-fashioned in the good sense
Flexibility	2	Assumes the Memoria Press Latin-first track; difficult to enter cold
Value for money	4	Print materials are reasonably priced; online academy is not cheap but is serious
Worldview scope	4	Broadly ecumenical classical; usable across most Christian traditions and by secular classical families
Visual/design	3	Minimalist, uncluttered, utilitarian; two-color printing
Support resources	4	Deep teacher manuals; online academy with live classes; strong forum community

Who the publisher is

Memoria Press was founded in 1994 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Cheryl and Brian Lowe. Cheryl Lowe, a former biochemist who began homeschooling her own children in the 1980s, wrote the early Latin materials after concluding that no existing program delivered classical language instruction the way she wanted to teach it. The company has grown into one of the more influential classical education publishers in the United States, with a full scope-and-sequence running from preschool through high school and an online academy offering live teacher-led classes. Martin Cothran, Memoria's longtime senior writer, is the author of the company's logic and rhetoric texts and a public figure in classical education circles.

The publisher's Greek program sits downstream of its Latin program, which is the flagship. Memoria Press Latin is used widely across the classical school and homeschool ecosystem, including in the Highlands Latin School and the Classical Latin School Association network. The Greek line. Greek Alphabet Book, First Form Greek, Second Form Greek, and the upper-school materials that carry students into Xenophon and the Greek New Testament, is a natural extension for families who want both classical languages rather than Latin alone.

Theologically, Memoria Press reads as broadly Christian-ecumenical in the classical tradition: its materials assume a Christian frame without pressing denominational distinctives, and the company's Greek materials are used comfortably by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox classical families, as well as by secular classical families who appreciate the grammar-first rigor. The company does not publish a statement of faith in the evangelical tradition; it publishes a statement of educational philosophy and lets the curriculum carry the rest.

The core pedagogy

Memoria Press Greek is grammar-translation in the older European sense. Students memorize paradigms, noun declensions, verb conjugations, principal parts, and translate short sentences that are engineered to exercise the current grammar. There is no immersion, no conversational practice, no attempt to teach Greek through listening comprehension. The claim is that Greek is primarily encountered as a written language for reading ancient and New Testament texts, and that a grammar-first approach gets a student to that goal faster than the alternatives.

The sequence begins with the Greek Alphabet Book, a brief workbook that teaches the letters, transliteration, and basic sounds. From there, most students enter First Form Greek, a thirty-one-lesson text with a day-by-day teaching pattern mirroring the company's First Form Latin. Second Form Greek continues through more advanced grammar. Upper-school students move into reading Xenophon's Anabasis and the Greek New Testament using Memoria Press editions or standard texts paired with Memoria's study guides.

Signature mechanics: (1) Paradigm recitation, students chant declensions and conjugations aloud, with the teacher manual giving explicit daily drill schedules. (2) Short, engineered exercises, a typical lesson in First Form Greek presents a new grammar item, reinforces it across roughly six pages of workbook exercises over four days, and closes with a recitation review. (3) Latin as prerequisite, the program explicitly recommends at least two years of Latin grammar (ideally First and Second Form Latin) before entering First Form Greek. A student starting in sixth grade after a strong Latin foundation is the expected profile. (4) Video support. Memoria Press Online Academy offers live, teacher-led Greek classes at multiple levels, which effectively removes the "who will teach my child Greek" problem for families whose parents do not read Greek themselves.

The "Greek for the Family" phrasing that appears in some third-party listings refers to how Memoria Press frames the track as appropriate for a parent-led home: it is not a separate product line so much as a catalog banner covering the sequence a homeschool family would move through. The actual books in the sequence carry the individual titles above.

A day in the life

An eighth-grader three years into Memoria Press Latin and beginning First Form Greek spends roughly thirty to forty minutes on Greek daily, five days a week. Monday: parent or online teacher introduces the week's new paradigm; student writes it out in the workbook, recites it aloud. Tuesday and Wednesday: workbook exercises, parse, translate, decline, with the teacher manual's answer key close at hand. Thursday: recitation drill of the current paradigm plus three previous paradigms. Friday: quiz on the week's material. The work is recognizably the same rhythm as the student's Latin work, which is the point, the program leverages habits already formed.

A student taking Memoria Press Online Academy Greek runs a similar workload but with a live teacher leading paradigm recitation and translation practice twice a week in a video classroom. The parent's role shrinks to ensuring the student completes assigned work and submits it. This track is the one most often chosen by families whose own Greek is absent or rusty.

What they do exceptionally well

Continuity with the Latin sequence. Because Memoria Press wrote Latin first and Greek second, the Greek materials assume, and benefit from, the habits a student has already formed in Latin. A student who has internalized Latin declensions finds Greek declensions genuinely easier. Memoria Press leans into this rather than pretending the student is starting fresh, and the result is a faster, cleaner entry into Greek than most standalone programs offer.

Teacher manuals that teach the teacher. The teacher manuals reproduce the student text in full with answers filled in, and add day-by-day teaching notes, oral drill scripts, and recitation schedules. A parent who did not study Greek in college can run the program effectively by following the manual. This is rare in upper-level language instruction and is a decisive advantage for the Memoria Press Greek track.

Online Academy as a real alternative to parent-led instruction. For families whose commitment to Greek exceeds the parent's ability to teach it, Memoria Press Online Academy offers live teacher-led classes that follow the same scope and sequence. The live instruction is academic-quality, not a watered-down tutoring service, and the teachers are classically trained.

What they do poorly

Near-impossible to enter without Latin. The program's explicit prerequisite of two years of Latin is not cosmetic. The teaching pace, terminology, and worksheet density all assume the student already knows what a declension is and how to memorize one. A family without Latin background attempting First Form Greek typically stalls in the first month. Memoria Press does not pretend otherwise, but the catalog positioning can still mislead families who think they are buying a beginner Greek program.

Rigid classical-grammar approach. This is grammar-translation in its most traditional form. Students who learn languages better through listening, conversation, or reading connected texts will find the method dry. Families who want Greek taught through inductive reading (the method of Athenaze, used by some Memoria Press upper-level materials in an adapted form) should expect the lower-school sequence to remain paradigm-first regardless.

Not a standalone product. "Greek for the Family" as a catalog banner implies a family-friendly self-contained program, but the reality is that the track is a sequence of books. Greek Alphabet Book, First Form Greek, Second Form Greek, and so on, each with separate teacher manuals, workbooks, and quiz packets. Parents assembling the kit from the Memoria Press catalog for the first time frequently miss a component and have to reorder.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Memoria Press Greek if: your family is already running Memoria Press Latin and wants to add Greek as a second classical language; you value grammar-first rigor and are willing to do the paradigm work; you have a parent who can teach Greek or the budget to enroll in Memoria Press Online Academy; your child has completed at least two years of Latin and is in sixth grade or above; your educational philosophy is classical in the traditional European sense.

• Skip Memoria Press Greek if: you are starting Greek cold without Latin foundation; your child learns languages better through listening or inductive reading than through paradigm memorization; you want a conversational or modern Greek approach; you want a single boxed program that teaches Greek from the alphabet to the New Testament without assembly; your educational philosophy is discovery-based or literature-led without grammar scaffolding.

Cost honest assessment

Per the Memoria Press pricing pages, as of April 2026, the Greek Alphabet Book student edition runs around $15 and the teacher key around $10. The First Form Greek complete set, student text, student workbook, teacher manual, and quiz/test packet, runs approximately $90-$110 depending on configuration. Second Form Greek sits at comparable pricing. An entire print Greek sequence for a student going from alphabet through Second Form Greek, purchased new, runs roughly $250-$350 across two school years. Used copies circulate on Memoria Press's own used-book market and on third-party homeschool resellers.

Memoria Press Online Academy Greek classes are priced in line with the academy's other language offerings: roughly $700-$850 per year for a full live-class Greek course, not including materials. A family using live-class instruction for both First Form Latin and First Form Greek simultaneously is paying roughly $1,400-$1,700 per year for language instruction alone.

Compared to Elementary Greek (roughly $50 per year per level, self-taught, Protestant and simpler) and to Koine Greek Basics at the high school and college level (a dense textbook approach requiring strong parent support), Memoria Press sits in the upper-middle of the Greek-curriculum market. The premium buys coherence with a full classical scope-and-sequence and a live-class backstop.

ESA eligibility notes

Memoria Press is approved across Arizona's ClassWallet marketplace, Florida's Step Up For Students, Utah Fits All, and most other state ESA programs that accept classical and broadly Christian curriculum publishers. The company's ecumenical classical posture tends to make ESA approval more consistent than for explicitly denominational publishers; reviewers in restrictive states generally treat Memoria Press as "classical liberal arts" rather than "religious." Memoria Press sells directly to ESA families and invoices through state marketplaces. ESA-funded families should confirm their specific state's treatment of online-academy tuition separately from curriculum materials, as some states approve the textbooks but not the live-class enrollment.

Alternatives

• Elementary Greek by Christine Gatchell, a family would choose Elementary Greek over Memoria Press because it is genuinely designed as a first-Greek-first-time-for-young-children program rather than a follow-on to Latin.
• Athenaze (Oxford University Press), a family would choose Athenaze because it teaches Greek through connected reading of a continuous story rather than paradigm drill, which suits students who learn languages inductively.
• BiblicalTraining.org Greek, a family would choose BiblicalTraining because the focus is exclusively on New Testament Greek, the video instruction is delivered by seminary-level teachers, and the core materials are free.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Memoria Press Greek scope-and-sequence pages, the Greek Alphabet Book, First Form Greek, and Second Form Greek product listings at memoriapress.com, and the Memoria Press Online Academy course catalog. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy Reviews' published review of Memoria Press and against the Classical Latin School Association's materials list. Prices and program details verified April 2026.