Greece is History

Today, we're closing the book on Ancient Greece and moving on in our ancient history study (or actually, moving backwards to Mesopotamia). I've been thrilled with the resources we put together for this unit and with how much the kids have enjoyed it.

To wrap up this study, in the past few days the kids dressed up in Greek tunics, recreated the Parthenon and wrote their own myth about a Greek god/goddess they made up. Later this afternoon, we're watching a documentary on ancient Greece on Netflix and they're heading to the park with Jim to have an Olympic pentathlon - long jump, javelin, discus, running and wrestling. I've made him promise to make a laurel wreath for each of them!

Personally, I've never enjoyed history this much before and it's exciting to see how much they are retaining what we're learning. I'm definitely looking forward to our next time-traveling adventure!

Ancient History Unit

On my way to the homeschool convention this past May, I had no plans for our history curriculum this year. My plan was to just go and see what struck me - and it worked.

My first find was this Evan-Moore: History Pockets activity book on ancient civilizations. From there, I built around three main courses of study - Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome - and some additional study on Mesopotamia, China and the Aztecs. So far, I'm really loving this book and am so excited about all the great resources we've assembled for this year-long unit.

Since the kids are taking Greek Mythology (along with an Art of the Ancient World) class at SPARK, we started with Greece and will be going back to catch up on Mesopotamia and Egypt once those classes wrap up. I've found the Evan Moore book to have a great balance of factual information and fun activities.

So far, the kids have their Ancient Greece pockets filled with colorful Greek theater masks, Greek god/goddess puppets, important vocabulary words and all the notes from their mythology class. Later today, they'll each be making up their own Greek god or goddess and telling a myth about them, and next week (our final one spent on Greece), they'll be creating the Parthenon and writing a postcard to tell everyone in the modern world about life in Ancient Greece.

In addition to the Evan-Moor book, we've been using BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. videos and these additional resources we're using to supplement our study of Ancient Greece:

Magic Tree House: Hour of the Olympics

Magic Tree House Research Guide: Ancient Greece and the Olympics

 

 Science in Ancient Greece

 You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete

 A Child's Introduction to Greek Mythology

 Zeus on the Loose game

Great Value on Chester Comix Bundle at HSBC

I first heard about Chester Comix a few years ago, but at the convention last month, I purchased my first one - the Greeks, Romans, Countrymen book to go along with our Ancient History unit. We haven't started on that yet, but I think that Noah will love the format of historical info presented in a comic book.

Although most of the books are a little old for us in terms of subject matter, the deal on the co-op is great for those of you with older kids (my guess is middle school and up). The retail value of the 28-book set is 125 (although it sells for more on Amazon), but if you buy through the co-op. you can purchase the entire series plus the teacher's guide for just $79! 

The Chester Comix Superbundle includes all 28 Chester Comix books, plus Teacher Guides (PDF). For more information about each book:

• American Symbols
• Ancient Africa
• Chester Economix
• Civil Rights Freedom Train
• Civil War, Vol.1
• Civil War Vol. 2
• Constitution Construction
• Exploring the Americas
• Founding Fathers
• George Washington Leads the Way
• Go West Young Crab!
• Government By the People
• Greeks, Romans, Countrymen
• Heroic Folk
• Lewis & Clark Transportation
• Moving & Grooving Transportation
• Reconstruction Junction
• Revolutionary Rumblings
• Revolutionary City
• Slavery's Storm
• Tar Heel Tales
• The First Americans
• The Jamestown Journey
• Virginia Geography
• Vital Virginians
• War for Independence
• Wonder Women
• World War 2 Tales

Membership in the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op is free, and if you decided to join, please use my referral number (65626). For every person you refer, you earn 100 points to spend on curriculum! 

Free American History Curriculum from Homeschool Buyer's Co-op

Have high schoolers? Then definitely check this out the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. They are giving away 1000 one-year subscriptions to The Idea of America, an interactive, web-based history curriculum designed to provide students the knowledge and skills they need to fulfill citizenship duties in our participatory democracy. Students will learn to analyze, debate and form opinions so they can help make the decisions that will guide our nation.

The cost of the program is normally $39.95 per year, but all you pay is the $7.95 setup fee for the co-op.

Field Trip Friday - Homeschool Day at St. Augustine's Old Florida Museum

On Monday, September 27th, the Old Florida Museum in St. Augustine will host the 5th Annual Florida Timeline Home School Experience, a hands-on program designed to expose students to daily living activities of the Timucua Indians, early Spanish settlers and Florida Pioneer children, as well as to the field of archaeology. Old Florida Museum’s newest addition, Fort Menendez, will also be open to guests and will include demonstrations from Spanish era craftspeople.

Tickets cost $13.00 per person ages four and up, and you must book in advance for one of the four scheduled start times: 9AM, 11AM, 1PM and 3PM. You may begin your tour at any time once your session has started and can plan on spending at least two hours to visit the entire museum. Guided presentations are scheduled in each of the museum's four main areas, and students will also make a take-home project in each area.

Additional details and registration information are available on the website.

Thankful Thursday - Learning Vacations

Ever get struck in the middle of a crazy, hectic day by overwhelming wave of gratitude for being able to share a special moment with your kids? Well, that’s what Thankful Thursday is all about. Each week, I’ll aim to share a special moment that I would have missed had my kids been away at school . . . and I’m counting on all of you to share yours, too. It will give us something to reflect on during those other six crazy, hectic days!

 

Our official start to the school year is always a few weeks later than most Florida kids typically head back to school. And even though I'm firmly set on waiting until after Labor Day to start back with our classroom time, I always have at least a little twinge of feeling like I'm slightly behind.

Perhaps I remember my own school days not starting until September, or maybe I'm just protesting the end of summer . . . either way, the timing just feels right for us - especially since we like to take a vacation right around Labor Day when the crowds are lighter and so many are already back in school.

This year, we are visiting my aunt and uncle at their beautiful, peaceful home in Virginia. The kids are enjoying visiting and playing with them, and I am enjoying some much-needed "Mommy time off" before we start back with school next week. Yesterday, we drove into DC and visited the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial . . . and we may venture back there today (thanks to Schoolhouse Rock, the kids were begging to go to Capital Hill!)

Today, I am very thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling allows in our lives - the ability to travel whenever we want, to spend time with family and to experience a place as historic as Washington DC by walking its streets rather than just turning the pages of a textbook . . . all before our official "school" year even starts.

Lapbook Preview - Crazy About Cars

It's nearing 2AM, and the cars lapbook did not get finished. It's great to have a goal . . . but not as great to make myself crazy trying to achieve it. So I'm calling it a night and will finish tomorrow - only one more mini-book to go, so I really am close!

It's turning out really cute, and I know that Noah will love it! I'm very pleased with the diversity of the content, which so far covers science, history, geography, math and a little art or language arts.

As soon as I mock up my sample, I'll make the PDF available to download - right now, all I have to share is the sneak preview "The 8 Fastest Cars in the World" mini-book. Do you know what they are???

"Crazy About Cars" Unit Study & Lapbook

Today I'm finding myself with a few hours to dive into creating a new lapbook template - but since I have three lapbooks planned for fall, I wasn't quite sure where to start. I've finally decided to begin with "Crazy About Cars".

Our unit and the accompanying lapbook will cover:

- History of Cars
- Cars Around the World
- Types of Cars
- How Cars Work
- Alternative Fuel Sources

Noah has a particular interest in fast cars and alternative fuel sources and keeps telling me he's going to build a "300-mile-an-hour car" that runs on water. Sounds like a great idea to me, so to get him started we're going to build model solar and fuel cell cars.

After getting completely overwhelmed on Amazon the other night, I decided to purchase two books to complement our study: Car by DK Eyewitness Books and How Cars Work. Of course, we'll also raid the library and clean them out on car books for a while!

Perhaps my most exciting find on Amazon was a great way to tie in some art projects. I found a great-looking book that teaches kids (and adults!) how to draw cars, and I know that Noah will love it . . . but probably not as much as he'll love the Sports Car Designersoftware that allows you to design racing, sports or concept cars!

Noah has been asking for a visit to the Ferrari dealership (he can see it from the highway whenever we head downtown) to ask them questions and "pick out his car", so we'll probably plan that trip during our first week of school. Jim is also going to find some car shows for them to attend together; we'll turn him loose with his camera to see what he finds interesting and I'll show him how to edit in Photoshop when he's done . . . I'm envisioning some type of Shutterfly book resulting from this, but I'll see what he has in mind.

Of course, I'll be sharing the lapbook template and any other resources I create once they are ready to go. Also, this is my first Amazon-linked post, so if you're reading, let me know how it looks. I post a lot of resources anyway, so I thought it was cool to be able to preview the images and provide the links!

Well, here I go . . . I have a feeling I'm about to learn more than I ever imagined about cars. Have you ever thought about how well-rounded a person you'll be after homeschooling your children???