This week’s homeschool history adventure takes us to Ancient Greece. We learned so much about the lives of this ancient civilization and some crazy facts too! The library is our main source for books to read and use for our homeschooling journey. It is such a vast array of books and with the online availability I can look up books for the next week and place a hold on them.
Our bookshelves are full, so that means that I am not able to buy more. I truly love books and so do my children. Books are such a great place to learn about the past. The ancient Greeks closely resemble our society. Voting, healthcare, schools, and daily life were not that far off from what we do.
Lets’ get started.
Homeschool History Project
Our lesson assignment for the week went something like this: Ancient Greece, read pages from the book, study Greek healthcare, and Greek gods. Write a two page paper on one topic. Participation and comprehension questions come from the book and pages they were to read. Hands-on projects were to make medical instruments, and for the Greek gods they needed to make the symbol each god represented.
My youngest chose the Greek gods. He made each of the symbols from construction paper. To be more creative he used two different types of paper. My oldest son decided that he would make a healthy dinner using foods they would have eaten. He made his list of what we needed from the store and we were off. It wasn’t too hard and they did eat healthy. Our dinner was bread. I chose french bread because it was on sale. He doctored it up with Rosemary and Olive Oil. Perch was the fish he decided was best to try, and finally we grabbed some grape juice. The ancient Greeks drank small amounts of wine and beer because they could not drink the water.
We don’t drink alcohol, so he bought grape juice as a substitute. We were very happy with that. His meal turned out great, and Greek god symbols were creative. My middle son chose to make a healthy ointment they would have used. I was relieved that he chose something we could continue to use vs. the blood letting that they did in their culture. That did not sound fun.
Writing about the Ancient Greek Healthcare
One chose to write about the ancient Greek Healthcare. He did his research and found a lot of crazy ways they practiced medicine. His interest revolved around Hippocrates. Making the ointment was easy because it only had three ingredients: olive oil, lavender and frankincense essential oils. It does smell good. Interestingly enough we use a lot of olive oil, but on our food. Never have I ever used it for medicine, so that was a first for me.
Writing in our homeschool history is graded upon how neat the handwriting is, organization of the paper and thought process. In addition to that they are encouraged to practice their cursive writing. Each of them knows how to write in cursive, but using it is another thing. My oldest does it quite well, while the younger two are working on cursive writing still.
Reading about the Greek Gods
Reading assignments are based on the timeline book, and library books that I have borrowed. Oddly enough the book had more of a satirical technique to the reading. It was a fun fact book for kids to read quickly and learn about this ancient culture.
My oldest read his very well. His mind memorizes very quickly. My middle son zeroed in on Hippocrates and his unusual methods of healing people. Homeschool history has so many vast topics to write about, and more topics within topics. I had no idea that Hippocrates would be in this lesson. I had him on a future lesson learning about the first doctors and how they practiced.
Presenting the Material on Ancient Greek Civilization
Presentation skills are improving this year. Especially my youngest. He is definitely comfortable speaking to people. His paper was very well prepared and he know it. Instead of reading it he knew it so well that it was laid aside while he presented. HIs brothers didn’t have it memorized, but they knew their material very well.
Teaching history in a way that allows me involve multiple age groups and each of them participate is game changing.
Utilizing the library as a free resource to build curriculum helps me to teach valued information and avoid additional costs. For more easy to homeschool on a budget, sign up for my newsletter. Find me on Instagram @momsarefrugal.
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