Ancient Greece for kids

Ancient Greece has definitely been one of our favorite time periods to study. There are so many fascinating myths to read and interesting things to learn. Here I have compiled some of the resources that we have been using in our studies.

Notebooking pages:

Here are some notebooking pages I made :Greek Gods and Goddesses, Creatures of Greek Myth, and The Twelve Labors of Heracles
Here are some free Ancient Greece printables, coloring pages and puzzles from Activity Village. (I wouldn't let your child on the site though - I saw some advertising not appropriate for kids).

We also used notebooking pages from NotebookingPages.com and TheHomeschoolShop.com

Websites:
(Please note that while I have browsed through these sites, I have not looked at every page and I don't suggest that you allow your children on here without first looking for yourself! They may prove to be helpful in your studies though.)
The British Museum has a great website where you can build your own Greek temple, play a game at identifying the gods and goddesses, and much more.

Greekmythology.com has a bunch of information on the Greek myths and has links to some online literature. Here is another that is very thorough in describing who is who in Greek mythology.

Books:


Years ago, we were able to find a copy of D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths on CD. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on it. The kids LOVE listening to it. I am not sure if it is still available for sale, but I would check your library to see if they have a copy.

Videos:
The children watched videos from the Greek Mythology for Students and Ancient Civilizations for Children series, available at Library Video, or hopefully at your local library:

Rocks, Minerals, Fossils, and Soil

Here is a link to the above notebooking page which I created for our studies.
You are free to use it if you like!

We have spent the past few weeks studying rocks, minerals, fossils, and soil. The girls enjoyed these studies - especially learning about gems. :) We broke open geodes, grew crystals, and "mined" for "gold" and "gems".

The mining for gems was harder than we thought it would be! It was kind of messy too (lots of dust). I would suggest doing it outside if at all possible.

Here are some of the resources which we used during our studies:

Jewish Holiday Pages

I have to say that I was pretty ignorant when it came to Jewish holidays. I would see them on the calendar (and mispronounce them of course), but I had no idea what they were really about - the how and why they are celebrated.

The kids and I are learning together and I love that! We have been reading Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays and we are making a notebook page on each holiday we study. (See earlier post for free worksheet).

Kate has even suggested visiting a Jewish synagogue to learn more. I like to see them eager to learn more, but since she has strep throat, we probably won't be leaving the house this week :)

Here is a website that explains the different Jewish holidays in great detail. And here is one more.

Holiday Notebooking Page

We are currently reading Celebrate: A Book of Jewish Holidays, by Judith Gross as a part of Tapesty of Grace, Year One. I decided to make a simple notebooking page for the kids to record what they learned about each Jewish Holiday.

Planet Worksheet

Here is a planet notebooking page which I designed to use with our studies this year.
Feel free to use it if you like!

The Moon

We are moving our way through our solar system and have currently stopped at the moon. I am actually learning a lot. I wasn't very good at the terms (ie. gibbous) and I think that I will be much more aware of the moon's phases after this study.

Last night as we were driving back from dance class, the kids were so excited to see a beautiful moon outside. It was either full or very close to being full. They were just amazed!! Most of the summer here in Alaska, we can't see the moon and the stars very well since there is so much daylight. Now that we're daily getting closer to the winter solstice, we have more and more darkness - and more opportunities for skywatching :)

I made my own worksheet for the kids on the Phases of the Moon (above).
Feel free to use it if you'd like!
http://www.mediafire.com/?ikzddzugkmh

Here are the resources we are using this week:

Happy Rocktober!!

The Homeschool Shop is having a "Rocktober" sales event this month. Their rock collections are on sale, and they have a FREE Download of their History Scribe: Rocks and Minerals notebooking set. These notebooking pages are wonderful and I suggest getting the free download to see them for yourself!! Happy notebooking!