Why Does Waldorf Teach Greek Myths and the Olympics in Grade 5?

Waldorf teaches the Greek myths in grade 5 because Greece is where the year's long walk through the ancient cultures arrives. It's also where the old stories of gods begin to turn into history, with real cities, real poets and real games. Many Waldorf schools close the year with a pentathlon of five ancient Olympic events. The judges watch for beauty of movement, not only for the longest throw. Your child, usually 10 or 11, gets to live a little of ancient Greece in their body, not only on the page.

Why Greece comes at the end of grade 5

Picture the whole year on a map. The grade 5 curriculum starts in ancient India and moves west, through Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Each culture arrives first as a story. By the spring, the class reaches Greece.

Waldorf Publications calls Greece the place where "the literature, mythology, and history of Western civilization converge." Live Education! describes the Greek block as the start of a new cultural period. Its guide takes "Know thyself and thou shalt know the world" as the thread through the block.

The Greeks also wrote some of the first histories. That makes Greece a good hinge for a child of 10 or 11. The same child who loved the story of Persephone can begin to ask what happened at Marathon or in Athens. Schools draw the line in different places. Some carry Greek history on to Alexander the Great in grade 5. Live Education! keeps grade 5 mostly for the myths and Homer and leaves fuller Greek history for grade 6.

Which Greek myths are told?

Most teachers follow a similar path, from the gods to the heroes to Homer.

The gods on Olympus. A Waldorf Journey, a Waldorf teacher's shop and blog, spends the first week of its three-week block on the twelve Olympians. Zeus and Hera, Athena born from her father's head, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes with his winged sandals. Your child meets each one as a character with a nature of their own.

The great stories. Prometheus steals fire for humankind and pays for it. Pandora opens the jar. Demeter searches for Persephone, and the seasons are born from her grief. Daedalus builds wings for Icarus, who flies too close to the sun. These are the stories children often ask for again.

The heroes. Hercules and his twelve labours, Perseus and Medusa, Theseus in the Minotaur's maze. Live Education! lists Hercules and Prometheus among its central figures, with Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus and Athena.

Homer. Live Education! gives its first 18 lessons to the myths, then turns to the Iliad and the Odyssey for the rest. Odysseus spends ten years trying to get home after the Trojan War, and each island brings a new adventure.

You don't need to tell every story. Choose the ones you enjoy telling. Your child will feel the difference.

Books families use

A Waldorf Journey recommends D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, noting its pictures copy easily onto a chalkboard or a main lesson book page. It also suggests Geraldine McCaughrean's retellings of Hercules, Perseus and Theseus. Read the story the night before, then tell it in your own words in the morning. If storytelling still feels new, our guide to Waldorf storytelling has a few ways in.

What children do with the myths

The morning shape stays the same as in earlier grades: yesterday's story is recalled, there's work in the main lesson book, and a new story comes at the end. What changes is how much the child can now do with it.

• Write. Retellings, a letter from Persephone to her mother, a description of the labyrinth. Grade 5 writing often moves into proper paragraphs.
• Learn the Greek alphabet. Live Education! includes Greek letters and phrases in the main lesson book. Your child can write their own name in Greek.
• Find Greek in English. Live Education! also works with Greek roots in English words. Tele means far, phone means sound, graph means writing. Children often enjoy spotting them everywhere once they start.
• Put on a play. A Waldorf Journey's class writes a play from one of the myths in small groups. At home, siblings can act out Theseus and the Minotaur with a ball of wool for Ariadne's thread.
• Draw and paint. A Greek key border around each page, a painted Mount Olympus, a map of Odysseus's journey home.

The Olympic Games: the history behind the pentathlon

The ancient Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. They were held at Olympia, a sanctuary of Zeus in the western Peloponnese, every four years. The Greeks even counted time in Olympiads, the four years between one Games and the next.

During the Games, a truce was declared. Armies were forbidden from entering Olympia, and legal disputes were put aside. The winners weren't given money. They received a crown of olive leaves.

The ancient pentathlon was held on a single day. It had five events: running, long jump, discus, javelin and wrestling. A Waldorf pentathlon keeps the same five.

Children often find this history easier to hold than dates of battles. A truce so people could travel safely to a festival, and a prize made of leaves, are pictures they can remember.

The Waldorf pentathlon

In many Waldorf schools, the spring of grade 5 means the pentathlon. Waldorf Publications credits its development to Spacial Dynamics, a movement approach used in many Waldorf schools. Several nearby schools usually come together for the day.

The events. Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School lists long jump, sprinting, discus, javelin and Greek wrestling. Some schools run a relay instead of a sprint. Wrestling happens inside a circle drawn on the ground. According to Waldorf Publications, judges often call a draw when neither child's form is better than the other's.

The teams. Children from all the schools are mixed together into city-states. Athens, Sparta, Corinth and Thebes are common, and some schools add Ithaca, Syracuse or Olympia. Live Oak Waldorf School points out that this keeps families from cheering only for their own school or their own child.

The judging. This is the part that surprises many parents. Waldorf Publications writes that each event is measured "by grace of form as well as by distance or strength." Da Vinci Waldorf School gives laurels for both truth (the farthest throw, the fastest run) and beauty (the most graceful form). Pleasant Ridge's judges use three categories: truth, beauty and goodness.

The ceremony. Parents or older students dress as Greek gods to open the games. At Pleasant Ridge, the class sings "Glorious Apollo" before leaving. At Live Oak, the children recite odes of their own. One group's line was "No matter in winning or losing, today will be a victory."

Why the pentathlon suits an 11 year old

Waldorf Publications describes 11 as "the last breath of real childhood before puberty," and pictures the child of this age "in lissome balance." The Greek ideal of the athlete was about beauty of movement as well as strength. At this age, a child can throw a javelin with good form as well as far.

At Pleasant Ridge, children practise for the games through the school year with their games teacher. The practice itself is part of the lesson: running with a straight back, releasing a discus smoothly, holding balance before a jump.

Doing it at home

You don't need a school to give your child the Greek year.

For the myths. Plan three weeks, one myth or hero each morning. Keep a Greek key border going along the bottom of every main lesson book page. End the block with a short play for family or friends.

For the games. Start practising a month or so before your games day, two or three short sessions a week.

• Running. A 50 metre sprint in the park, marked with chalk or cones.
• Long jump. Jump into a sandpit or onto soft grass, and mark each landing with a stick.
• Discus. A frisbee or a light rubber ring. Practise the turn and the release, slowly first.
• Javelin. A broom handle, or a foam javelin from a sports shop, thrown on an open field.
• Wrestling. Draw a circle on the grass. The aim is to move your partner out of it by pushing, never by hitting.

Then hold the day. Invite two or three families and divide the children into mixed city-states so no one is competing with a sibling. Have an adult as Zeus to open the games, measure every throw, and give each child an olive or laurel crown made from garden leaves. Say one thing each child did beautifully as well as well.

Some Waldorf schools welcome homeschooled children at their pentathlon or open games days. The Waldorf Map lists schools near you, and it's worth asking. A Waldorf homeschool co-op is another place to find other children the same age.

Where this sits in the year

The Greek block usually falls near the end of grade 5, after the other ancient cultures and alongside or after the botany and freehand geometry blocks. It works as one or two main lesson blocks of three to four weeks each, with the games day in late spring. If your child heard the Norse myths in grade 4, they may enjoy comparing Zeus with Odin, and Hermes with Loki.

For how the Greek block fits with the rest of the year, from ancient India to decimals, see the full guide: what's in the Waldorf grade 5 curriculum?