Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

Ancient Greece

Free Ancient Greece Can You Answer Minibook

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Free Ancient Greece true or false minibook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I am never ashamed to admit that sometimes we school upside down, sideways and sometimes backwards, but we always go forward. The free Ancient Greece Can You Answer Minibook that I am sharing today is an example of what I mean by the way we homeschool.

We love doing our unit studies and we add lapbooks in for enrichment as we plod along and study many different things. Sometimes we speed through them and sometimes not, like the Ancient Greece lapbook.

FREE ANCIENT GREECE LAPBOOKS

Since this is my third or fourth time around studying Ancient Greece, I have focused on hands-on activities with Tiny.

Be sure you grab the Free Ancient Greece Go Fish Game, Free 4 tab minibook, the Ancient Greece Pull tab book along with the hands on math, making a chariot, making baklava, grab a list of living history books, grab a great big list of Ancient Greece freebies and do a refraction activity.

Don’t forget to grab my first Ancient Greece lapbook here and Ancient Civilization here .(Minoan and Mycenaean civilization)

I luv my followers and make it special for them here when I can.

This freebie is a subscriber only freebie! This means you get access to the exclusive area for subscribers and can download this printable there after you follow my blog.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

Important: IF you are already an email reader, please read this below instead of emailing me right away.

Though I love your emails, it can take a while for me to answer you.

1.) If you are a daily email reader, the private link to the subscriber’s only page was sent to you immediately when you joined my blog. Look for that email in your inbox.

2.) If you are a weekly email reader, the link is sent to you at the bottom of EVERY newsletter. If you have been getting my blog posts, then check at the very bottom of one of my recent newsletters for the link.

Hugs and love ya,

Snack Like They Did In Ancient Greece – Make Baklava (Delicious)

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Make delicious baklava when studying about Ancient Greece @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Moving on to our next hands-on activity for our newest unit study which is Ancient Greece, we decided to look for something “delicious” to do.

We also have the book, TOOLS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS: A Kid’s Guide to the History & Science of Life in Ancient Greece (Build It Yourself), which is fantastic for hands-on ideas.

Tiny was reading about what the Greeks snacked on and some of the foods are still with us today.

Learning that the Ancient Greeks rolled out pastry real thin and made Spanakopita (spinach pie) or Baklava, we decided to try out a new recipe.

Deciding that Baklava sounded better to make because it would give us a sugar high, we opted to make it.

Baklava is a dessert made with phyllo, walnuts and honey.

I will warn you though that if you are a foodie blogger you might cringe at our substitutions and make do ingredients.

Living here in Ecuador some ingredients like phyllo dough are not even obtainable.

I read in one place on the internet when we were looking for a simple recipe that you shouldn’t even make it if you don’t have phyllo pasty dough. I am sure I am doing some awful foodie injustice.

Good thing I am not a foodie blogger because I would be fired from the hall of foodie fame deliciousness because we did substitute and make do with what we had.

Did I mention it came out super good and we had a ton of fun in the process?

Check out the ingredient list:

■phyllo pastry dough OR make it like we did. I used this easy recipe from Living in the Pie Life
■I had about 2 cups of walnuts at the house, but we could have easily used more.■About a teaspoon of cinnamon.
■We had some local honey – a small jar.
■Couple of sticks of butter melted.
■3/4 cup of sugar.
■vanilla extract to taste.

1 Baklava  2 Baklava

We made a well for our dough and added in all the ingredients.

We were so focused on getting this dough “right” that we forgot a few pictures.

But it came out perfect for us. We allowed the dough to “rest” and while it rested, we crushed the walnuts in a ziploc bag.

Then Tiny mixed the cinnamon in with the walnuts in a bowl and set it aside.

We also melted butter in a bowl and set it aside.

3 Baklava  4 Baklava

Our dough was less than perfect, but Tiny was pleased with it and so he started rolling it out.

We buttered every layer and that gave it tons of that light feeling and sweet layers. Butter fixes everything.

5 Baklava  6 Baklava

So he rolled out one piece of the dough and brushed with butter. Then he spread some of the walnut and cinnamon mixture on top.

He did that for a couple of layers. After that I cut through and made the diagonal slits.

7 Baklava  8 Baklava

While it was baking, we warmed some local organic honey and vanilla in a sauce pot.

After our baklava was baked, we let it cool down just a minute.

9 Baklava 10 Baklava

Then Tiny spooned the delicious honey sauce over the baklava and allowed the sauce to soak through.

Tiny shocked himself because  our make do baklava was absolutely delicious with crusty and sweet layers.

It was a fun way to read some about what the Ancient Greeks ate and try a dessert too.

12 Baklava

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

 

Ancient Greece Unit Study. Hands-on Activity 1. Refraction and Ancient Greece and their Contributions Pull Tab Book

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Ancient Greece Unit Study refraction activity and Ancient Greeks Pull Tab book @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Today, we did an easy science activity to begin our Ancient Greece Unit Study.

I have the book Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome (Hands-On History)

and so Tiny quickly opened it to find something he wanted to try.

He was reading about Ancient Greeks studying refraction.

We did this when the boys were little, but as is the case when you have younger children, they don’t remember what you did with the older kids.

This just means double fun for me because I get to do easy science activities again.

As the book brought out refraction is the way rays of light change when they pass from one thing to another that’s made of different material. That is what it means to have materials made of different density.

So this activity was super easy but cool and I love the fact that all 3 things were found in my house.

Ancient Greeks Studies Refraction – Easy Hands-on Activity 1

Here is the really short list of what you need:

Refraction Activity 1

■Pie or cake pan (dark coated, not glass or clear)
■Coin
■Pitcher of water

The activity is really easy. Tiny rounded up Mr. Awesome 2015 to help us.

Mr. Awesome placed the coin right next to the side.

While Tiny stood a distance away, so that the coin is hidden by the side.

Refraction Activity 2

Then Mr. Awesome poured the water slowly into the container.

Refraction Activity 2

As Mr. Awesome poured the water, it appeared to move to the center of the pan.

Of course the coin doesn’t move, it’s just that the light rays were distorted or bent as they passed through the water.

A bit of easy and quick science was enough to pique Tiny’s interest for the unit study.

Since that is the activity he chose to do first, we focused on reading about some Greeks and what they were famous for.

I created a giant pull tab book which is Famous Greeks and their Contributions.

Ancient Greece Giant Pull Tab @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Though there are many famous Greeks to focus on, I used the ones below and listed a bit of information about them.

It’s pretty easy to find information on the internet, but I am listing a few facts here for you too.

Aesop – storyteller; author of Aesop’s fables

Eratosthenes – geographer; first to describe the world as a globe

Euclid – mathematician; “Father of Geometry”

Aristotle – philosopher; student of Plato; tutor of Alexander the Great.

Archimedes – mathematician and inventor; calculated value of Pi; invented the lever; Archimedes Screw

For the giant pull tab book, just cut out all the pieces and write about each Greek on the box provided.

Ancient Greece Pull Tab 2 @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have instructions on the minibook, but you will form a pocket with the two pieces and place the pull tab book inside.

Ancient Greece Giant Pull Tab @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I hope you like the first “little” giant pull tab book I have for our new unit study.

I have a sweet surprise for my email readers because I always hold something back for them and this Ancient Greece Lapbook is part of my email reader’s subscribers only.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

I would love for you to follow me and give me the opportunity to help you along in your homeschool journey.

This is a Subscriber’s Only Freebie because I luv my followers.

subscribe to my blog posts

Important: IF you are already an email reader, please read this below instead of emailing me right away.

Though I love your emails, it can take a while for me to answer you.

1.) The private link to the subscriber’s only page was sent to you immediately when you joined my blog.

2.) Also, the link is sent to you at the bottom of EVERY newsletter. If you have been getting my blog posts, then check at the very bottom of one of my recent newsletters for the link.

Remember, if you are following along with us, do the minibooks and then just place in a ziploc bag until the end or close to the end of the unit study.

I normally show you a layout we do for our lapbook toward the end of the unit study.

I can’t wait to share the rest of our hands-on activities and the minibooks.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

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I have a fun freebie today. It is cursive copywork free Greece poetry printable. Also, look at my page Practical Homeschool Writing Curriculum from Pre-K To High School for more tips.

I have done many things wrong when I first started homeschooling, but I have done a lot right too.

I tell my workshop new bees that writing or penmanship has always been the hallmark of a well educated man.

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

One right thing was choosing the beautiful Calvert cursive to teach all of my sons. I know that a lot of public schools and homeschoolers are moving away from teaching cursive, but I am not one of them.

Maybe that is not so true today but if you want to peek into the past, you have to know at least how to read cursive to understand historical documents. I think reading cursive and writing cursive go hand in hand.

Too though I feel the time comes when you need to teach your kids typing skills.

Boys especially benefit from knowing how to type because they seem to struggle with learning how to write more so than girls. 

Penmanship is a time consuming skill to teach.

Between the struggles of a child and the time needed to teach, a lot of educators give up on it. However, I feel in homeschooling we do have the time to teach those skills.

Choosing Calvert script at a time when I had not a clue of what I was doing ended up being one thing that helped me not to struggle so much in this area.

After having taught Mr. Senior 2013 how to write in cursive, I just taught the other boys after that. I did venture out into other writing programs but came back to Calvert.

I came back to Calvert School cursive because it is a simplified cursive.

By the way, Calvert script is specific only to Calvert. They no longer sell it as a separate program and I believe the leader in cursive simplified cursive has gone all digital. (awful)

It is unique and I wished more people knew what a beautiful font and cursive it is. Too, it is neither D’Nealian or Getty Dubay but again a type of cursive used only by them.  However, I still base my teaching of cursive on the Calvert script as the gold standard.

Cursive Copywork Free Greece Poetry Printable

It is simplified because it teaches manuscript uppercase letters and cursive lowercase letters. I like the fact that it is free of the superfluous loops found on the traditional Palmer method.

Too, it is just plain pretty and simple as you can see from the chart above.

By the time Mr. Senior 2013 was in second grade, I knew how to teach cursive as you can see from his writing above.

My middle son struggled more because I ventured off into other writing programs. {Mea Culpa} That was the dumb thing I did but again he is fine. Kids are pretty hardy and let you know real quick what is not working for them.

Because I still feel like the same way as I did when I first started homeschooling about the importance of cursive, ALL of us will do copywork sometimes.  Me included. I keep a notebook beside my bed for me.  I never tell very many people that I pen a line or two also. 

Oh, I don’t write cursive as much as I use to. I use to write all their copywork out because the cursive font is not one you can find on computers or among fonts to purchase, but not so much anymore.

Copywork doesn’t take a long time and it’s a way of storing exquisite words in your mind and heart.

The benefits of copywork go beyond learning how to write. It gives you an overflowing amount of words and thoughts too. Especially when I do copywork from beautiful literature, I find it very satisfying and it leaves a lasting impression. Just a little each day is restoring.

MORE CURSIVE HANDWRITING TIPS

So when doing our unit study on Ancient Civilizations, I had prepare some copywork for Tiny.

I have hunted for a font that was similar to Calvert and came pretty close with the one I used in this copywork below. All of my sons know the Calvert cursive font but I still like to get pretty close.

The font is a little more slanted than I like but again close enough. The poem is Greece by Robert Frost. It is one of his more obscure and early poems. 

I like it because it’s by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets. But also it gives a glimpse into his early writing and it shows his interest in history and idealization of heroic figures.

I thought this would go along with our Ancient Civilization unit so we are trying to commit this to our memory. Here are the beautiful words. Download your copy at the bottom.

ANCIENT GREECE POETRY FOR COPYWORK

They say, “Let there be no more way!”

And straightway, at the word,

Along the Mediterranean shore,

The call to arms is heard.

Greece could not let her glory fade!

Although the peace be in sight

The race the Persians was arrayed

Must fight one more good fight.

Greece! Rise triumphant.   Long ago

It was you proved to men

A few may countless hosts o’ver throw:

Now prove it once again!

Cursive, copywork, studying the classics and the co-op have all been on our mind lately.

What about you? Have you figured out the penmanship quandary yet?

HOW TO GRAB THE FREE GREECE POETRY COPYWORK PRINTABLE

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

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How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Your kids will love making this Celtic cakes recipe. So we will be taking our time studying the Ancient Civilization Unit because we have been doing spring cleaning and have been spending time outside.

I finally started doing some spring cleaning around the house. I seem to have a longer list this year so I have a hodgepodge of things going on around here.

How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History

There are so many ancient civilizations to focus on but in going over this with Tiny and Mr. Awesome again, we have been focusing on Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and Greece so far.

Even though we have covered this before, the older the kids get the more they appreciate about each civilization.

Celtic Cakes Recipe

Also we didn’t really talk too much about the Celts when they were younger other than to appreciate their illuminated manuscripts because there is a lot of paganism associated with the culture.

To be completely objective though, the more in depth you study any civilization you realize that a lot of them have some pagan roots associated somewhere.

Don’t forget to check out Home School In the Woods for hands-on project.

You have to sort through and pick the things like art or influences on our language that made changes, good or otherwise and discard the other things about their culture that focused on pagan things.

We decided to make something in the kitchen this time to start off our study.

The boys looked up some recipes of what they wanted to make or should I say something they thought would taste good.

I love the way they sneak in baking something good to eat and call it history and I could tell when Mr. Awesome showed me the recipe on Celtic cakes that it might taste a little flat and uninspiring but he was insistent on making them because he loves oatmeal cookies.

I think he thought he was making something similar. We have much drama in our house when the boys cook. Every step in the process has to be “attacked”.

How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History

The Celtic cakes were much more like a flat bread that is well, flat.

The boys put some sugar and cinnamon in them too. A little sugar never hurts and after they were baked, they ate them with honey. T

he Celts believed in staying fit; if they ate this, they would.

How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History

The Celt influenced European art and history even though they are probably less talked about in ancient civilizations.

We like to read/talk about some civilizations that are not so well known. At the height of their civilization they stretched from the  Atlantic to Asia Minor, from northern Europe to the Mediterranean Coast.

The Celts were a collection of tribes instead of just one group. The World Book says: The Celts expressed their artistic genius in such arts and crafts as metal work, sculpture, and ceramic pottery. Celtic artists excelled in decorating objects. They used beautiful combinations of curved lines and spirals that were based on natural forms such as plants, animals and birds. Irish monks used these patterns to illuminate (decorate) manuscripts.

I think what we found fascinating in reading about them was that not only did they have an imposing physique because of what they ate but they would mix chalk and water and add to their hair to make them ferocious looking.  It was like plaster-cast hair.

How to Make Celtic Cakes -Recipe for Hands-on History

Here is a statute of a dying Gaul where the warrior’s hair was replicated to look like that.

Interesting enough Hannibal enlisted their help because their appearance  with long mustache and spiked hair struck fear into their enemies. I think we may have to include a minibook about them in our unit.

Today though I have included our minibook on Ancient Mesopotamia. I want to round out our study a little more about that area.

You know how my brain works. I tend to think in terms of “projects” when we do our unit studies.

So I think instead of throwing the lapbook to you all at one time, I will back up and share a minibook or two as we do them or study about them. That way it gives you a chance to work on it if you are doing this unit too.

I know I feel comfortable doing a jillion things at once but I know that can get crazy overwhelming if you are trying to follow along as I do them.

Plus the fact that I just love sharing with you, slowing down the pace a bit allows time for studying this topic over a longer time. There is so much to cover about ancient civilizations.

Be sure to download the Celtic Cakes Recipe and new minibook on Ancient Mesopotamia as we move along through spring in our study of Ancient Civilizations.

Now the Ancient Civilizations II lapbook is completed.

HOW TO GET THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS II LAPBOOK

Now, how to grab the freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.

1) CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO SIGN UP ON MY EMAIL LIST & TO GET THIS FREEBIE.

2) Grab the freebie instantly.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me

Are you working on some fun hands-on history projects?

Also, read some more fun hands-on history below:

Hugs and you know I love ya,