My Olympians

We continued our studies of ancient Greece this week with the alphabet, Homer, and the Olympic games. We discovered that although the barbaric Dorians and Sea Peoples (Philistines) destroyed the developing culture of the Mycenaeans, which led to the Greek Dark Ages, over the period of a few hundred years these same barbarians developed their own culture; a culture which looked very much like that which they had decimated on arrival. They learned to read and write, built homes then cities then a government, and pretty much became the Greeks we know and love to read about today.
We've been reading various books and watching some cool videos about the Trojan War, the Illiad, and Odysseus's struggle trying to get home to Penelope and Telemachus. Today we tried translating our names into Greek (hard to do when you have Ss and Ls!) and even held our own little Olympic Games, complete with a torch to announce the date and contests in javelin-throwing, long-jumping, and, of course, a foot race (stade). The girls made their own wreaths from our tree out back and proudly placed them on their heads.