Greek Day

We’ve been studying ancient Greece in history this year.  Last year Naomi and Hannah were studying different times of history, and this year we were going to add yet ANOTHER student studying yet ANOTHER time in history, and I couldn’t handle it all, so we’re studying all together this year.  Not everyone absorbs all the offered information, but at least we’re all working together now.  Hannah has more books assigned to her (not that she minds) so that she can get even more out of our study. 

Hannah found a book I have called Classical Kids, and looked at all the fun ideas in it.  She’s a girl who loves crafts, costumes, and cooking, so this book spoke her language.  Pretty soon I heard myself agreeing to have Greek Day…sometime…and maybe we can invite some friends over.

Michael was away over last weekend, and I decided that Greek Day would provide a good distraction for all of us so that we wouldn’t pine too much.  We invited friends and planned food and crafts, then worked on costumes.  Considering that we decided on Thursday that Greek Day would be Saturday, we had a highly successful time.

Sim’s costume consisted of an undershirt of Michael’s with a belt.  This made a chiton.

 

Normally, Greek boys didn’t wear pants under their chitons, but Sim was more interested in practicality and warmth than historical accuracy, so he had sweatpants on under his chiton.

Naomi did her headband herself.  “Mother [she’s taken to calling me Mother these days – not sure why], I just need you to put a bun in my hair.  I’ll do the rest.”

[Unrelated to Greek Day, you can see in the picture below the flowers my husband sent because he was out of town over the weekend.  Isn’t he great?]

She wore a palos which had been made that morning from an old sheet.

It looks pretty elegant, though!

Naomi and Hannah were more concerned with historical accuracy than Sim, so they were barefoot and didn’t wear long sleeves, even though it was a chilly day. 

It was warm inside, of course.

Hannah sewed her palos herself.  Naomi could have done her own, too, but it was going to be faster for me to do it, and since the costume was completed about half an hour before our guests arrived, speed won out over sewing practice this time.

 

It’s somewhat ridiculous how tall and grown up the girls looked in their costumes.  BACK TO THE BRAIDS!  They did enjoy their costumes, though.

 

This is certainly anachronistic – Greek girl changes the batteries on the speaker so that the kids coloring the map of ancient Greece can listen to an MP3 of Greek myths. 

        

Next project:  use math manipulatives to build a Minotaur’s labyrinth.

 

The finished product.  Simeon contributed Lego figures of Admiral Akbar (to be the Minotaur) and Han Solo (as Theseus) to make the labyrinth complete.

We then had a Greek (ish) lunch, followed by the making of mosaics with beans.  The kids rounded off Greek day by going to their girl cousin’s gymnastics meet.  This fit well, since the Greeks were very into athletics.

 

Tess’s concern for historical accuracy in her costume was nonexistent.  She was mostly concerned that Lima – yes, that St. Rose of Lima – be able to fit into her palos.  I got a picture during the five minutes when Lima wasn’t actually in the costume, but rest assured that most of the day she was wrapped up in there.  Tess’s costume is held on by a binder clip.  Again, total historical accuracy is tough to attain with a two year old.

Sim got the impression that Greek Day is a national holiday -- “What do other people do for Greek Day, Mom?”  Naomi and Hannah are hoping we can do another one soon.  I had to break it to them that we’re moving on to the Romans, but they don’t mind too much, since there’s hope for a Roman day – and TOGAS!