Once again we added some great DVDs to our TOG studies. 

Faith Lessons on the Prophets and Kings of Israel was wonderful.  Ray Vander Laan helps those of us in the Western World understand the Eastern World in light of God's Word.

Drive Thru History: Greece is quite a different speed from Ray Vander Laan DVD's.  LOL  Yet, once again, ancient history is lined up with God's Word.

The 300 Spartans  was wonderful.  Be careful! I do not recommend the newer version which was crude.  This is the 1962 version which brought to life all the things we had read.  We were rooting for the Spartans at the end!  This is the true story of the Battle of Thermopolae with a romance woven in.

Alexander the Great  with Richard Burton was another great movie that brought our TOG studies to life!  However, when I saw Alexander with his snazzy helmet, I thought, "Oh dear!  DS will want to change his costume and there's no time!"  DS had just finished his costume and the unit celebration was going to be in 2 days.  This helmet had windows.  Alexander could leave his helmet on and open the window to see everyone, then close it when it was time to go into battle.  Although ds thought that was really cool, he knew he wouldn't have time to add that touch.  Whew! Also the spears of the Macedonians were incredibly long.  Once again I was thinking, "Oh dear! DS will want that!"  Again he was impressed, but he was content to merely be a Greek hoplite!  His spear was long enough! Whew!            

For the story board, we got a book on Greek architecture at Half Price book with a coupon and cut that up.

For Solomon's temple we reused as much as we could of the tabernacle.  We repainted the base white.  We were able to reuse much of the furniture.  We used cardboard to make the temple.  DS made new structures out of clay, baked and painted them.  This project was far more intricate and complicated than the tabernacle, so it was difficult to do.  We could really appreciate the real craftsmanship that really went into the real temple.  We also saw that the basic elements of entering God's presence remained the same.

 We made friezes were made out of wallboard.  The dc peeled off paper on the side they were going to work on.  Then they had to keep it wet with a spray bottle and scraped in their design.  After they decided it was done, they painted it with a watered down glue solution to keep the dust from flying. Here is dd's butterfly and flowers.

Here is ds' under the sea.

When we studied Esther, we read the book out loud as a family as the Jews do on the Feast of Purim.  The dc made these shakers which they gave to dh.  I read the story aloud.  DD represented Esther and DS represented Mordecai with these masks.  Everytime I read about them, they stepped out onto the "stage" and pantomimed the actions I was reading about.  Whenever I read about Haman, dh shook the shakers and yelled, "boo!!! hiss!!!"  We did not do this for the unit celebration, but we did do it one week when we were studying the Persians.  However we told our guests all about it.

DD made an oil lamp out of clay that was baked and painted. She also wrote some Hebrew letters on a pottery shard, as the Hebrews might have done.

DD also made a ring with a seal like King Xerxes had.  The she sealed this letter with it.  We had Grandma break the seal, open it and read the message inside. 

 We studied many of the Greek scientific and mathematical discoveries.  So ds made models of these for his science lessons, since he was reading about them in his history time.  (Don't you love when these things overlap?)   He made this solar system from a kit. The balls of styrofoam needed to be painted then strung with string.  He hung it from a dowel rod and we set that on top of our fireplace tool holder.  The fireplace makes a great backdrop!

This Greek vase was made from an extra vase I had (one of the cheap ones).  He paper mached that, then formed the handles.  When it dried he painted it to look like a Greek vase.  He also made some 3D shapes (turquoise) bottom right corner.  DD did some string art (bottom left corner) using some of the geometric shapes the Greeks played with. 

Because we studied Greek theater, we opened this unit celebration with a play of our own. We did the fable, The Tortoise and the Hare.  We used IEW's story structure chart from Unit 3 to help us write our play.  The dc also made gorgeous masks, since the Greek play featured masks.  We made them fun and simple, using great supplies we found at Hobby Lobby.

Here is lazy hare...

Here comes tenacious tortoise.

After the play, the dc got dressed and we presented ourselves as a Greek family  (with a son who was a Greek hoplite) who had learned of the one true God and follow Him now.  DS was always persistent that our characters must be converted! 

Then we ate!

Afterwards dd gave a speech on Greek architecture, using IEW Unit 6.

Then ds gave a speech on hoplites.

Then we showed off our projects from Greece...

 from Israel...

from Israel's captivity...

 DS showed Solomon's Temple

Here's the overview shot...

Then ds showed a web site that has an interactive through the temple...

Here's the solar system which the Greek's studied...

I had never heard of Drive Thru History until we took our tour of Focus on the Family.  This is one of their newest DVD projects in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer.  The tour guide raved about it and said it was an excellent resource, especially for homeschoolers.  When we went into the FOF bookstore there was a large screen tv playing the series and we immediately went to check it out. 

Well, I was shocked!  There was this goofy guy in front of the Eiffel Tower talking about croissants and the camera kept focusing on his...teeth!  His teeth were huge!  I think he had some geeky glasses.  The camera angles were playing all of this up and I didn't know how this was supposed to teach me anything about the Eiffel Tower.  I stepped away to look at the boxes of DVDs and saw they had some for Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Turkey, and Asia Minor...all of which we have been studying for the last year.  There is also a set about people who shaped America.    

I looked back at the tv and now the host was dressed in colonial attire, like Washington or Jefferson, with a contemporary look, a day's growth of beard and a very short haircut.  Well, scratching my head, I checked out the rest of the bookstore and found some other things. When done shopping, I found the family parked in front of the tv watching this guy.  They seemed to like it, but I didn't know.  I figured I'd do more research at home and that I'd eventually come across a sale.

Well I forgot all about it until last month when I got my sale e-mail from Library and Educational Services.  They were featuring Drive Through History.  Hmmmm, I did a google and found this to check it out more thoroughly.

   http://www.dthamerica.com/home/index.cfm?flash=1

I called the family in to get their opinion and I didn't have to say a thing.  They saw it on my pc screen and started raving about it and said I had to buy it.  We viewed the sample clips and they were funny and informative.  I bought the set, and last night we watched the first one, Ancient Greece.

It is a bit fast for my dh and I.  I don't normally like to have my kids watching things that are this fast paced action, because I don't think it contributes to brain development.  But I decided to take it for what it was and enjoy the benefits.  It was light hearted, yet a thorough review of everything we had learned last year.  It even brought in Biblical applications, mostly the same that we had learned through Tapestry of Grace.  Most of it was an excellent review and it was neat to see these places in context.  We had already seen many of these places in the Ray Vander Laan series (more our speed) but now we saw these places in context.  In other words, if I were to go there today, I'd probably see scaffolding at some of these places, we saw the numerous stray dogs, the busy city of Athens, and the ability to get lost!  The host turned every opportunity into a light hearted moment to put us in modern context.  

I especially enjoyed his showing us the Parthenon.  I had seen a replica of it here in America on This Old House with my husband and I was disappointed.  Although it was built to scale, it looked so small.  I had always thought the one in Greece looked huge!  Well that's exactly what the host brought out.  The Parthenon "was built perfectly imperfect to look perfect."  In other words, things were placed out of proportion to trick our eye.  As we look up into this temple on top of the highest hill, we think it is bigger than it is.  It's amazing to me how people in ancient times could figure stuff out like this. 

It was funny listening to the host complain about the switchbacks getting to the top of these hills!  Coming from Colorado, that's nothing, but we can appreciate the fear! One should really adventure and try those switchbacks at 14,000'!  Oh, and he had guardrails.  Nope, no guardrails in Colorado!  

The other feature I found interesting was the segment on Corinth.  Right now in devotions with the children, we are studying I Corinthians and I had told them this was a decadent culture and we had made comparisons to what we see in our own culture today.  Well, the host set out to explain why Corinth had such a decadent culture.  And the result, is a beautiful canal!  I loved the canal ride the host took!  To understand the connection, you'll have to buy the series for yourself!  lol  Yes, I'd have to say, you might enjoy... a Drive Thru History!