Greek history was many years’ ago, and today our homeschool journey will take us back in time. I picture Greece to be a beautiful place with perfect weather conditions. Women taking care of the home, and children. Maybe homemaking looked very different back then because of the lack of modern conveniences. Men worked, discussed important political matters, and children played. Many children enjoyed the freedom of the outside without rules and restrictions.
As I teach my homeschoolers’, my goal is to have them picture what life would have been like in the ancient world. How much harder was it to do the dishes? Were there dishes, and what did they look like? Placing yourself in a story helps to see the story better. My homeschool boys’ have been using this technique for year’s, so now my answers that they give me are different. I love to hear the various stories they tell me as we walk our homeschool journey into Greece.
Mapping Out Homeschool Geography
Transitioning from our storytelling of what life would be like we move into geography. Our notebooks come out and we begin to draw Greece. The country, rivers, major cities and at the bottom one interesting fact about Greece. Since this is Ancient Greece we won’t be adding the flag into our notebooks. Knowing the names of rivers, lakes, and cities of the Ancient world is important because it creates a bridge to the modern world. For example, when they hear the word “Athens” this jogs their memory to what they learned in the timeline. Athens is a major city with a lot of rich history. This name comes up a lot in the ancient and modern world.
Another way that I teach Geography is through games. My game today was true or false. It resembles trivia, but I changed it to true or false because of my younger children. It was getting harder to play a game with facts until I changed it. Our family does school in a one room schoolhouse style. It is important for me to accommodate all levels of learning.
Greek gods and goddesses
Next, as we study Ancient Greece for our homeschool history journey we dive into Greek gods and goddesses. Our first topic will be to cover Zeus and how he relates to the first olympics. Next we will cover other gods that the Greeks worshipped in their daily life. In addition to studying the Greek gods, covering the goddesses such as Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera are part of the curriculum.
Some fun activities for this would be to design an outfit like a god or goddess, or read a few myths about Zeus, Athena, Hercules and others.
History of the Olympics
The Olympics dates back to the days of Ancient Greece. Games were a great distraction for people who wanted entertainment, and a way to honor Zeus. In the first Olympics they had five categories and it was called a Pentathlon. Greeks loved to train and show off to honor Zeus and felt this would give them favor.
Fast forward to current day, we still hold an Olympics, but not to honor Zeus. Since this year was the Olympics we held our own weekly sessions of the Olympics. Of course we started with the Pentathlon. The kids loved it and learned many new sporting activities to hold their interest.
Fine Arts of the Greek Culture
Finally, we get to Greek Culture. I love the arts of Greece. All of the Ancient architecture is so interesting, and makes it easy for us to have activities. Our homeschool journey in this area is to try and model some of the architecture. With so many options it was hard to choose from just one. The Greeks were great at painting, sculpting, buildings, and many other ways of the fine arts. Activities for this assignment would be to paint, draw or build one of their famous pieces. I like to let my kids’ choose, because if you are interested in it, then you will do better.
Leading into the next section is drama and literature. Reading books about the Greek gods, and all of the other great history is perfect to end the Ancient Greece homeschool journey. Make the last call a play to cap off the study. If you created costume’s from the study on the Greek gods and goddesses these can be used and as a backdrop all of the art that was created. Once you get started you will be able to tie it all together to create a wonderful homeschool journey memory book!
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