Introducing Ancient Greece with Loukoumades


There is not enough that can be said about how awesome  you make history when you bring it back to being about the basics.  Especially, if they're yummy basics.

I wish I could claim I  scoured the web for this recipe, but actually, it came up rather quickly in my search, and just happened to kick it out of the ballpark.  Loukoumades, an impeccable Greek dessert that made all of us is our house say, "Let's make these again, and regularly!"


Here is the Recipe by Greek Gourmand, Sam Sotiropoulos.  We pretty much followed his recipe to the T, and it turned out fabulous.


My son got to help with some of this recipe, because he recently has been taking a cooking class and is now very interested with what's going on in the kitchen.

This was really a pretty easy recipe to do, but it is not a quick one, because the dough is supposed to rise for awhile.

And I wouldn't recommend letting your kids handle the part involved with hot oil, but maybe that's just me.  

Now, if you're wondering why the pictures above show round little balls and mine up above are rather flat, almost like a puffy little pancake...it's because the I fried ours in a pan rather than dropping them into a little pot of hot oil.  But they still tasted the same:  fabulous.

Our friend Sam, who wrote the recipe, says these delicious little (almost dough-nuts) were made all the way back during the Olympic Games.  How cool is that!



Whatever the case, if you're looking for something else to do in Story of the World, Chapter Nineteen, this was a fun introduction!  :) 

Babylon's Hanging Gardens


When learning about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, there is a bit of imagination that is required.  We all love the idea of Nebuchadnezzar creating this "mountain" for his Persian bride so that she would not miss her homeland so much.  I mean, how can anyone resist a story about a labor of love like that? 

But even with a variety of primary sources from the Ancient World, it was tough for me to really "see" this Wonder without seeing images or something of what it may have looked like.  So, when it came time to teach about it, we decided to create something that we could use as reference for what the Hanging Gardens may in fact have been like. 


So we created a Printable Replica of the Hanging Gardens.  We definitely recommend using cardstock to print these two sheets out on.  You'll need the cardstock for the Gardens replica to hold its shape.  And, this printable replica will come together easiest if you also use an exacto blade.  We used scissors, but it was very tricky to get some of those intricate cuts.

We used images of the Ishtar Gate for part of Nebuchadnezzar's "Mountain", since it seemed likely that some form of Babylonian architecture would have been used. 


In close details, you might notice that we included a waterfall pouring down the mountain, since the pumping of the Euphrates is mentioned in at least one of the primary sources. 


We hope you enjoy this fabulous mini replica and that it is useful for instructional purposes or just for the fun of imagining the Hanging Gardens in an entirely new way. 

Theseus and the Minotaur


We are introducing the first myth in Greek Mythology today in our History Curriculum.  I was pretty excited to reach Chapter 18 in Story of the World.  Well, at least the Minoans and Crete.

I used to love Greek mythology as a kid, and the first story that our Homeschool Curriculum shares is the classic tale of Theseus destroying the Minotaur. 


I had just finished up our Greek Paper People, and so I was already in the groove of thinking about Paper People and it dawned on me:  Why not create a Greek Myth Paper People set that would allow kids to play out the story?


Being a creative family, we are big on acting things out and I'm a strong believer in play being the best kind of learning.  So, back to the drawing board I went, and shortly thereafter, we had our first two players in the ancient story.  But what is a hero without the heroine?  We must have Ariadne!



 So, I made Ariadne and she was immediately confiscated by my daughter who assumed that the beautiful Cretan Princess must have been made for her.   I also made King Minos and threw in a ball of wool, a torch and a sword for good measure. 

Everything we need for a play-pretend of the ancient story.



Or was it?  Where's the Labyrinth? 

Labyrinths have apparently gotten a recent surge in popularity lately, and there are many do-it-yourself Pinterest pages about how to build backyard labyrinths...which is a pretty fun concept, actually. 

I would recommend showing kids some images of labyrinths, just for fun in advance. 

So we definitely needed a labyrinth and we decided to make one.  Perhaps you can come up with a better way, but here is what we did:



  We began with a cardboard box and I cut the flaps off of it.  I was going to need more cardboard so I made an executive decision and chopped the box in half.


This meant my paper people would be oversized for our Labyrinth, but at least we would get to better understand the concept of what a Labyrinth actually was.


First, we drew a maze on the bottom of our box.


Next, we glued our cardboard pieces onto the lines of our maze, cutting out doorways in advance.



Not quite accurate, since the Minotaur is a good head and chest taller than our Labyrinth, but to be honest, this did not bother my kids in the least.  They were quite delighted with this new plaything and had a blast playing with the characters.

One more item I should mention for those unfamiliar with the story: 

Theseus is a Boob.    Seriously. 

Story of the World doesn't explain this, but he leaves Ariadne on an island instead of taking her with him.  After she risked her neck to save him! 

So, Theseus gets the Boob Award and if you are covering this lesson in older grade levels it might inspire some intriguing conversations about the limited rights of women in the old world. 

Ariadne wins out in the end, though.  Not only does she get one of the Greek gods as a husband, she ends up getting deified later on, so there's definitely a good moral in there somewhere:  Don't be fooled by a smolder and a quick sword, little ladies;  hang on and wait for the best!



You can find our latest product, "Theseus and the Minotaur" in our TpT store.  We have also included the Greek myth, rewritten and our lesson plan for creating the labyrinth above.  As always, we recommend printing on thick card-stock for our Paper People. 

More Paper People


We've been busy over here, and I am honestly proud of the results.  In our Homeschool curriculum (story of the world), study of the ancients in the Americas are still several chapters away.  But I have been wanting to get prepared for when it comes.  Here's our latest offering.


I like my ancient Mayans.  Turns out that the Mayans utilized facial tattoos quite commonly.  Another thing they did was to insert implants into their teeth!  Apparently, archaeologists have unearthed quite a few Mayan skulls where the teeth were ornamented with gems.  (I didn't attempt to pull that off in my paper people, but if I thought I could do it well and get away with it, I would have!) You can see images online of these skulls, and as bizarre as it sounds, I think it might have looked rather nice in person.  Especially when the individual smiled.


I also created a packet of paper dolls, or "Paper People" as I prefer to call them, for Ancient Greece.  Both of these packets include the images of the people themselves, several outfits for male and female, and then a coloring page for the budding artists out there who would like to color their own outfits.


These are going to be great products for your study of the clothing of the era, or even introducing to younger ages.  My son played with Ancient Egypt Paper People for several weeks, and I loved hearing him create stories with them.




Each of these historical packets is available in our store and I will soon be making a combined bundle of the three!  Follow me here or at my TpT store to keep up on all the latest!  

Ashurbanipal's Siege Towers


In Chapter Sixteen of our Classical History Homeschooling Curriculum, (Story of the World, Volume 1) we learn about Assyria's ancient war tactics.  In particular, we learn about how Ashurbanipal used siege towers to destroy cities and began to enlarge his takings by doing so.


In this image found on an Assyrian wall relief, we can get a rough idea of these early siege towers.  It appears that the men pushing the siege tower were hidden down near the wheels.  The battering ram is tilted up at an angle.  Since we really wanted to create an activity for this chapter, we based our Paper Engineered Siege Tower off of this image. Here's what you will need to do the same:


This Siege Tower activity can be found in our latest addition to our TpT store:


It also comes in a black and white version, if you would rather print it out for your students to color in themselves.  If you have the ability, you might also prefer to print it on cardstock, but regular paper is what we used.


There is some tricky cutting involved (one side of the cart's wheels, in particular) so you may want to assist your students if they are younger than middle school age.  Basically, though:  cut on the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines.


My son was a little unsure of his ability to put this together, so I said, "Let's just start by folding the lines we know need folding, and see if it kinda comes together..."


Sure enough, that was all we needed to get started, and as he went he could see how the siege tower went together on his own.  We taped the edges together as we went and this helped, too.


Now the pencil tucks into the front as the battering ram.  But once we had this put together, we decided to put a "City" together so that we could experience how Ashurbanipal's siege towers worked their magic!


Using Lego bricks, we made a kind of tower.  Our history book mentioned that Ashurbanipal made ramps (his were built from dirt) and then the siege tower was pushed up the ramp in order to attack the castle.


Adding a few characters to our historical play made it all even better.  With sound effects and battle sounds, my son's little siege tower did its destructive work, and our History Supplements remain his favorite part of Homeschool!  Yay for learning about history!

You can purchase this fun little siege tower and easily download it for printing here in our store.

Phoenician Snails and Princess Dido's Oxhide


We are moving through our Homeschool History this year, of the Ancient World.  I combed the web for ideas when we reached Chapter 15 of Story of the World.  The chapter introduces Ancient Phoenicia and the amazing purple dye that they discovered and were famous for. 



Since we live far from the sea snails used to create this dye, and since I can't really see myself crushing up snails and boiling them for days...I was trying to find an activity that would give us that experience without harming snails.  Then, I thought, "Let's just use berries!"


I told my son, "Imagine they're little snails.  They're round, small, and kinda give that squishy feeling."   So first, we mashed them.


Then we added a Tablespoon or two of water and boiled them down a bit, stirring so they wouldn't burn.  They smelled a lot nicer while they cooked then we imagined snails might.  Seriously, when the comment, "You stink like a man from Tyre!" was a royal insult back in the day, you can imagine that the factories where they made Tyrian purple were serious stink bombs.


Next, we dropped in something white.  This happened to be a nice clean sock.


 We stirred it around a bit and it turned a nice shade of maroon.  Not quite Tyrian purple, but not too far off, either.


 Once dried, it came out a kind of burgundy.  I wonder what color blackberries might end up with?


We also learned about Princess Dido and the legend of Carthage in Chapter 15.  After reading about how she tricked the locals with her mathematical oxhide trick, we decided to give this a try.  I created an "oxhide shape" on paper that my son cut out (above).

This full lesson, including the paper oxhide above, is available in our Princess Dido Full Packet in our Store.



First, we tried to see how much "land" we could cover with this paper oxhide as it appears, whole.   Then, we cut it up into thin strips and began to see how much "land" it could encircle. 


We had to move from the dining room table which was far too small, and even the living room was hardly large enough.  The difference in the size of land that could be encircled (especially with one side being made up by the ocean that bordered Carthage), gives kids a much better idea of the success of Dido's trickery.

Very fun activity.  In our Princess Dido Full Packet, we also include Dido's story, a map that shows the path she traveled from Phoenicia to northern Africa, and a lesson plan to teach this as a large group.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like "How to Make a Basket Like the Ancient Civilizations".


Make a Basket Like the Ancient Civilizations


We just read about Moses.  The story begins with this mother of Ancient Israel carefully weaving a basket in which she will place her three month old son.  The tale is very poignantly retold in the River Lullaby from "Prince of Egypt", the movie by Dreamworks.


Now, I was caught by the idea of this basket, and wondered if we could create a mini basket.  I found some beautiful handwoven baskets while researching for our study of Ancient Africa.  I thought we should give it a try.  But, it is best to begin with a base of light card-stock for your beginning weavers.

We had just read the introduction to Moses in Chapter 14 of "Story of the World" and I wanted to try an oval basket, like we imagined the basket for Baby Moses might have looked.  I played around with the shapes for a bit until I landed on this one, which seemed to work well for me.


The reeds in the photo are cattail leaves.  I only needed two for this small basket.


I taped one end of a reed to a card-stock arm and began weaving in and out around the arms, beginning at the base of our basket.


When I came to the end of my reed, I grabbed the next one and taped the last one to the card-stock.  I think a good staple might work even better than tape.


When I got to within a half inch or so of the ends of the card-stock arms, I folded over the tops and taped them to the card-stock lower down.  Again, I think a staple might work even better.


Of course, we had to try out this basket with a figure that might work as a Moses surrogate.  And, hey, she fits in there just fine!  This little basket has been holding up much better than I expected considering we used tape to secure its cardboard.  It's a sturdy little item and makes its way between my son's room and my daughter's and has been used for all sorts of things already.  Next time, I might attempt to make one entirely out of cattail leaves!



The above lesson is now available in our store as the "Make a Basket Like the Ancient Civilizations" product.  



I want to mention this wonderful Game Pack from Belinda over at Whispering Waters.  Her Game Pack is filled with cards showcasing familiar moments from Ancient Times in the Bible.


This product is in her store right here, and the wonderful thing is that she lists a whole bunch of game ideas as ways to utilize these awesome cards.  She also includes this excellent reading list of fictional stories that would be great read-alouds for kids covering Ancient Civilizations.  You will definitely want to check this product out!

The other item I want to mention is a FREEBIE  I have in my store.


We used it for Hammurabi's Code, but this would also work EXCELLENT for two Ten Commandment tablets, if you plan on having your students write out some or all of the Ten Commandments.  And since, that is also covered in this chapter, I wanted to be sure and mention it so you can download it and use it.  :)