Homeschooling and Homesteading in the Present: Ancient Greece Study

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Ancient Greece Study

We have just finished our Ancient Greece study. Usually I put together my own unit studies using lots of library books and internet resources. This time I used a prewritten one. I must say, it was nice to have most of the work done for me. :) I still used several books of our own and added a few things from the internet but mostly it was completed using History Pockets.
It was probably our longest running unit study yet... whether that was because we used new unit study books or if it was due to us just taking our time, I'm not sure :)
At any rate, it was an enjoyable study. We used History Pockets "Ancient Greece" and History Pockets "Greek and Roman Myths". This was my first experience with this particular publisher and I must say, I loved it! The kids seemed to get a lot out of the activities. This particular one was geared to 4th-6th graders, but Sarah did the study right along with the boys and did really well. The idea is that you make various pocket folders (paper folded over to a 12" square forming a pocket) for the topics covered. For Ancient Greece, the pockets included such things as Military, Literature, and Daily Life. They took turns reading the initial information aloud (Sarah at age 6 did an amazing job sounding out the larger words). They really enjoyed the art projects included in the different topics. Jacob especially enjoyed making his own theatre mask :) I was very pleased with the way the book handled all areas of interest and provided lots of different ways to teach the topic. There were writing exercises, art, coloring, books... The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and loved showing their daddy the finished project. I will use their books again. Actually, while we are working on our mammal study, I've decided to let Sarah work through another of their books, "Folktales and Fairytales" ..geared more for her age... while the boys work on writing book reports and research papers. :)