Ancient Roman History

 Savannah Opens a Roman Popinas!

A popina was an ancient Roman wine bar, where a limited menu of simple foods (olives, bread, stews) and selection of wines of varying quality were available. The popina was a place for men of the lower classes of Roman society (slaves, freedmen, foreigners) to socialize.  Savannah opened her popina up just for one night.  We drank MonaVie and had a yummy soup, cecina (pureed garbonzo beans, olive oil, and basil), olives, pita bread, and a yogurt sauce.  Savannah had a great time creating her menu, setting up her stand, cooking with mom, and selling us her food. 

We learned about and made Roman Fasces one day.  The traditional Roman fasces consisted of a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and often including a bronze axe (or sometimes two) amongst the rods, with the blade(s) on the side, projecting from the bundle.  It was used as a symbol of the Roman Republic in many circumstances, including being carried in processions, much the way a flag might be carried today.  Ours ended up looking more like an axe because we didn't have a bundle of sticks, but you get the idea.

Paper Flowers and the "Bean" Jar

Hooray! We filled up the "Bean" Jar.

The girls get "Beans" (which are actually pink marble type things) put into their jar (glass vase) anytime I think they deserve them. If they did a great job on their lessons, or they brushed their teeth without me reminding them, or they helped one of their sisters etc. they get a handful of beans. It took us a couple months to fill up the jar. Once they filled it up, they drew a card from a set of cards they had made up earlier of activities along with a service project they'd like to do. The card they chose this time was "Go to a movie" and "make blankets for charity". So we went to see "The Princess and the Frog". The girls of course loved it. Now we need to figure out making those blankets for charity. Hmmmm.....

Paper Flowers

We decided since we now had a full bean jar, we should make something to put in it before we empty it out to start over again. So we made paper flowers out of tissue paper, sucker sticks, green crepe paper, fuzzy balls and other things. First we wrapped our sucker sticks with green crepe paper for the stems. Then we cut squares out of the tissue paper, poked a hole in the middle of three or four papers, pushed a sucker stick into the hole just a little way, twisted the paper around the top of the sucker stick, taped it with tape, glued a fuzzy ball into the center and walaah we have a flower! Then we made different insects to go in each flower. Savannah had a lady bug, Molly a bumble bee, and Sophie a butterfly.

Hard at Work

Miscellaneous pictures from a day of homeschooling. Molly decided to make herself a little bed. Savannah was deep in thought and Sophie was working on a one of her many art projects.

Sign Language

We are learning sign language. It is one of Molly's favorite times. We use the Signing For Kids book and so far it has been great.