We Finally Finished

We can now mark history off our goal list for this school year. We finished the last chapter of Volume 1 of The Story of the World tonight. The whole book was about ancient history up to the fall of the Roman Empire. We learned a lot! I say "we" because so much of that stuff I don't ever remember learning - and if I did I am certain I retained it just long enough to take a test.

We learned what tapioca is...

We learned where the term "vandal" comes from...

We learned who waged war on the back of elephants...

We learned how Hinduism and Buddhism began and how the caste system came into play...

We learned how the Chinese discovered silk and kept it a secret...

So much stuff! But the book ended with the Romans and therefore Isaiah is now obsessed with the Roman army of course. I happened to have this book in our library - I believe it had come in my Usborne starter kit when I had signed up to sell many moons ago.


The thing is already almost falling apart because Isaiah absolutely pours over the pages. On our final rainy day last week I went to the church to get some supplies for the boys to make their own shields. I remembered we had ordered some from oriental trading a year or so ago for a special project and have never been able to use up the leftover ones. So the boys spent a good chunk of that afternoon creating their shield, and as they finished the rain let up so I let them outside to torment the passing cars, I mean, ummm use their shields in a imaginative type manner...

Here they are with their creations (of course the creation has to look "Roman"), and here they are with photo faces...


And here they are with stern army faces...


Pretty fierce aren't they!