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Monday, April 22

Ancient Greece & Techie Homeschool Mom {Review}

A few years ago, we discovered Techie Homeschool Mom, just as she was beginning her journey, and loved this innovative approach! So when we were asked to check out her new Ancient Greece Online Unit Study, how could we say anything but ‘yes, please?!’

Designed for elementary and middle-school aged kids, these studies are well-organized and have clear instructions, making it easy for a student (who is capable of reading independently) to complete without parental assistance. You can do one lesson daily, one lesson weekly, or complete several lessons in a day! It’s flexible and easily-tailored to your family’s needs. 

The course focuses on history and geography, but pulls in literature and art elements, too. At the beginning, she gives you a supply list so that you can pull everything together before starting. (You won’t need much—just the art project pieces and whichever reading book you select.)

The Ancient Greece study includes:
  • Introduction to Ancient Greece
  • Ancient Greek City-States
  • Daily Life in Ancient Greece
  • City Life in Ancient Greece
  • Greek Arts & Architecture
  • Greek Innovations
  • Greek Warfare
  • Greek Mythology
  • Host a Greek Symposium
My boys are very interested in ancient history, and we had an easy week, so they completed the entire course in just a few days. However, we own the course forever, and they can come back at any time in the future and retake it, if desired.

Before starting, you walk through the presentation program – Emaze – that students will be using to build their Time Travel Journal. This was a new program for me, so I was glad to watch the tutorial ahead of time. This way I could assist the boys if they needed it. (They didn’t; after watching the tutorial, I think they had a better grasp on the technology than I did!)

As students progress through the course, a bar keeps track of their progress, making it easy to see where they are, both in the lesson itself and in the entire course. While they don’t have to complete the lessons in order, we found that there were some elements that build upon each other, and it was easier and more helpful to do it in the suggested order.

Some of the boys' favorite academic elements included learning about architectural elements of Greek design, studying the Greek myths and legends, and looking at the history of Greece.  They enjoyed completing online word searches, watching about the Parthenon's reconstruction, and reading articles about daily life in ancient Greece...
Some of the hands-on art projects include making Greek pottery and creating Grecian armor...two of my boys' favorite activities!  They outfitted the whole warrior!  Though not one of the lessons, they chose to build a Parthenon out of some paper towel rolls, too.  The art projects were some of their favorite parts of this study....we're not so much of a 'techy' family, so this may not be the case for other kids.  However, I appreciate that they are learning the technology which will be required in this world they are growing up in...


There are several options for learning online these days, as we discussed in our YouTube Schooling post, but one thing I like about this product is that the content has been vetted and is clean and ‘safe’ for elementary aged children on up. She has pulled together several outside resources, but made sure that it’s all age-appropriate.

Going through this unit also brought up some great memories of a family vacation to visit the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee! As a family, we opted to read a Magic Tree House book and watch the Percy Jackson movie (we had just read all of the Percy Jackson novels as part of our Modern Mythology class).

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