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.