Explorations in Antiquity - A Fabulous Field Trip!

Have you heard about the new Field Trip Blog Hop?     I'm excited to be linking up today... we had probably the best field trip EVER (well, LOCAL field trip, that is!) this past week and I can't wait to share it with you!

As part of the summer VBS program at our church  ~ Paul's Journeys ~ (have you read my story about our church... it's a story about trusting God!), a group of 50 youth and adults journeyed to The Explorations in Antiquity Center in Lagrange, GA.   It is essentially a living museum of life in ancient times.    Wow -- we learned SO MUCH!    


In addition to the bonds being formed between all ages at the church...

I got a chance to be with adults and middle/high school youth (while the younger children went to a Bible Land Adventure Camp) and learn about life in ancient times.  We sat under a real goat's hair tent and got a glimpse into the life of a shepherd.  We made our own bread and played instruments.  

The children participated in an archaeological dig, unearthing real treasures and artifacts!  

Ever since we began Volume 1 of The Story of The World, Miss B has had a bit of an obsession with archaeology.   Can you tell she was in heaven doing this dig?? 
 

Here's my junior paleontologist, also enjoying himself.   This dig comes on the heels of an obsession with dinosaurs!

Here's Miss B listening to one of the guides, and also showing off her Giant Chambered Nautilus fossil!  

Finally, a group of youth from the "lookout", making sure the village was safe!

We finished the day with a trip to Dairy Queen and lots of silliness in the van on the way home.   It was a perfect way to spend our day - learning and forming bonds with our church family!

"It's that HOMESCHOOLED Kid!" ~ Plus Lots of Ancient Greece Resources

This is how I know our study of history is sticking:   at GMan's tball game last night the heavens opened up and it POURED.  Everyone ran into the dugout.   As the boys are all going stir crazy, GMan looks around and says "I know what happened.   Poseidon sent this storm!"    Ok.  I thought it was witty and clever. I am pretty sure I could read the faces of some of the parents in the dugout, though -- looked something like "Oh ~ he's that homeschooled kid!"  What gave it away?      Or, maybe it was my children riding their scooters in the driveway this morning making up songs about Icarus, Athene, and Heracles... seems like everything we learn transfers to real life.  What a minute -- LEARNING IS REAL LIFE!    

We are beginning our study of Ancient Greece.  Let me tell you, this is probably the most fun thing we have learned about this year.  Once again, I'm learning as much as the kids.   I'm sure we are going to spend several weeks on this period of history.

First, a look at a fun and simple hands on activity.  Last week we learned about Persia, and the kids made "Persian Plates" - an activity from the Story of The World.    Basically, they covered cardboard "plates" with aluminum foil and then transferred things that were precious to us onto them.    Hard to tell, but Miss B's has a peace sign, and GMan's has a baseball and him playing baseball.  Shocker.    It was a quick activity which showed them silver was precious to the Persians.  

On to some resources we have been using in our study of Ancient Greece ~ thought I'd share!  If you use The Story of The World, these resources correspond with Chapters 20-24.    I am astounded by the amount of quality materials available through our local library and also online.   So many talent homeschool mom put material out there for FREE.  Aren't we lucky?

• Comprehensive Map of Greece - from WorksheetWorks (I love this site!!), home of many comprehensive maps that I use with my children

• Greek Cooking for Kids -- we love to cook, and a few of these recipes will be going into our menu plan over the next few weeks!

• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Slave in Ancient Greece -- GREAT book... many others in the series which you can find at the publishers website.   My nine year old loves these.  I give them to her during quiet reading time and ask her to "sticky note" interesting facts to share with me.  

• Adventures in Ancient Greece -- comic book format with TONS of great information.  My six year old was engrossed in this today!

• The Usborne Book of Greek Myths for Young Children  We have sat at lunch for the past week and read out of this book.  The kids BEG me to read more each day.   It is a favorite in our house.

• Ancient Greece Coloring Pages -- I have a coloring fanatic in my house.   Thank goodness, because he does this while I read aloud to both of the children.   

• Archimedes Copywork and Notebook Pages -- created by Jimmie of The Notebooking Nook.  Scroll down the page and watch the left hand side for Archimedes to find the downloadable file.  These are printed for my daughter to add to her Ancients Notebook... she loves notebooking!  

• Ancient Greece Lapbook by In The Hands of a Child.... (a few weeks ago I won a Currclick certificate from The Homeschool Village - thank you - paid for this lapbook!)

and last, but NOT LEAST......

• Check out this lapbook for The Iliad -- WOW!    We are going to be reading Black Ships Before Troy and I am going to use the character cards as we read.     

We're just delving into Ancient Greece - if you have a favorite resource let me know! 

*Linking up today with Works for Me Wednesday -- because learning history this way works for us!

Immersing Ourselves in History - Monsters, Demons and Winged Beasts, OH MY!

Thesues and the Minotaur

We continue to make our way through The Story of the World, Volume 1. I like to keep track of our journey here ~ it is impossible to blog enough about it, however, because we spend so much time with history now. The book selections in the activity guide are wonderful, and my children are loving working on their Ancients notebooks. This WORKS for us!

After a trip to a museum at Emory University last weekend (to see an exhibit entitled "Monsters, Demons, and Winged Beasts: Composite Creatures in the Ancient World"), we are using a resource my son picked out in the gift shop. Yesterday, while reading Chapter 18, Life in Early Crete and the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, he played with his awesome new toy:

The maze activity sheet with this chapter is wonderful ~ we won't be forgetting how Theseus slayed the minotaur and how the Aegean Sea got its name, that's for sure!

This entire "Mythical Realms" tube is wonderful for our studies the next few weeks. It keeps a very active six year old engaged in the stories and allows him to internalize the material.

My favorite purchase was the book, Greek Myths, which is perfect for the younger child. It is a retelling of eight classic myths in comic-strip format - perfect!

We have this book ready to begin as our read-aloud:

As always, I have looked ahead several chapters and reserved many of the recommended books from the library. We keep them in a basket in our family room. I also set out books from our personal library to along with what we are studying. I love it that we can immerse ourselves in history using The Story of the World!!

Can you share any resources or thoughts about SOTW? If you don't use SOTW, what is your favorite history curriculum resource?

*image courtesy of About.com