As classical educators, one of our aims is to pass on a body of knowledge, values, and ideals from which Western Civilization has stemmed, the root of which lies in three cultures – the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews. If these three cultures are such a part of our heritage – and if we can understand so much more by studying them, how can we seize the opportunity to explore them with our children to provide a foundation for future study? What if – by introducing our children to the people and places of classical Greece and Rome during these early elementary years – we establish a foundation of learning that later connects us better to the overarching goals of reading the words of Homer, Plato, and Cicero? Wouldn’t it be great to already be familiar with some of the people, places, and events to make tackling the great books that much more enjoyable?
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And thus with these thoughts… our family embarked on a journey to Ancient Greece this summer to lay some greater foundations in our classical studies using the Ancient Greece Project Passport, an integrated study that provides a glimpse of history (along with Biblical connections!) through reading, handicrafts, projects, and games.
The Ancient Greece Project Passport Study
The Ancient Greece Project Passport study includes a chronological history of Greece, starting with the Aegean civilizations of the Minoans and Mycenaeans, through Greece’s colonization into city-states and the Hellenistic age, to its conquest by the Romans. Directions and project masters for over 50 projects and activities are included for topics such as: everyday life, government and law, education and occupations, literature and science, medicine and philosophy, religion, warfare, Athens and Sparta, the Golden Age, Alexander the Great, archaeology, and much more!. (Download a sample lesson from the Ancient Greece Project Passport.) The study includes a Guide Book Text to read about each topic/person/event, along with eight Dramatized Audio Tours that take students on a trip to popular places such as Sparta, the Olympic Games, and Troy where you visit with such famous folks as Archimedes, Xenophon, and the Maccabees. (Click to download the free Dramatized Audio Tour Sample.)
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the highlights, such as the Ancient Greece Timeline, which is always one of my favorite aspects of a Homeschool in the Woods project.
The timeline is one of the most helpful tools for keeping track of all the historical tidbits and to see how events and people relate to one another. (We love keeping a timeline!) Along with a timeline, historical maps are another essential part of our study of history.
One of my favorite projects within this study included a card-fan of famous Greeks – great for reference throughout our homeschool years!
We read about and then compiled memorable notebooking summaries regarding life in Athens and Sparta.
Included with this study is an introduction to the life, customs, and people of Ancient Greece through readings, projects, and notebooking pages featuring Greek art, architecture, and fashion…
…literature, government, and warfare…
…and religion, science, and math.
In addition to the detailed instructions for making pottery and drama masks, the study provided an opportunity for experimenting with the science behind the history through building a water clock (Clepsydra) and constructing platonic solids. The final project involved compiling some of the notebooking activities into a lapbook as a portfolio of learning.
We’ve featured here just a few of the projects we selected from this study. Other projects include creating costumes, building dioramas (of the Agora and Parthenon), writing newspaper articles, and painting frescoes. With these studies, there’s always so much to choose from, which means there’s always something for each person in our family to enjoy. And… when we don’t have enough time to complete everything, that’s quite all right! Even though we were juggling summer camps in the midst of our Greek studies, we ended up with a thorough overview of Greece even without completing all the projects! (And now, we’ll have those projects to come back to in the future!)
After closing out the study, we enjoyed the Greek Life File Folder Game which gave us a fun way to see how much we remembered! (I lost, but that’s only because the boys got all the easy questions.)
If you’re in Classical Conversations, this study includes multiple tie-ins to Foundations memory work in geography, history, and timeline. It would be a fantastic study to complete over the first six to twelve weeks of the school year! It offers a feast of hands-on projects and activities for studying Ancient Greece, divided into 25 “stops” with reading text and “itineraries” that provide detailed project instructions on how to complete each project or activity. (These studies are only available in digital format.)
With the Homeschool in the Woods Ancient Greece Project Passport, there’s no need to find multiple books, maps, or activities about Ancient Greece.
Greek myths? Check!
Greek recipes? Check!
Historical summaries? Check!
Fine arts projects? Check!
Science connections? Check!
Writing assignments? Check!
It’s all included in a single resource, making it easy to dig in deeper to the study of classical Greece!
Although suggested for grades 3 to 8, this hands-on history study includes activities that everyone in our family enjoyed – from our 4-year-old to our 15-year-old. With the readings, audios, notebooking activities, and projects, each stop can take 1-2 hours to complete, with some activities (e.g., the dioramas) taking additional time for completion. Each stop may be divided into multiple days, which is beneficial for families of young children to keep the lessons short & sweet!
If you don’t have time for the entire program, the following projects are offered separately:
If you’re looking for a single hands-on history resource that will provide a reading text, audio dramas, notebooking, projects, art, handicrafts, recipes, timelines, maps, Bible study, and creative writing prompts related to Ancient Greece, we highly recommend the Ancient Greece Project Passport from Homeschool in the Woods!
See our other Project Passport Reviews:
Ancient Egypt
The Middle Ages
Renaissance & Reformation
This post was originally published in Summer 2018.