STORY OF THE WORLD ANCIENT GREECE

INTEGRATED LEARNING GUIDE

Science, Literature, And More

Here is a plan to integrate history through Story of the World (SOTW) with other subjects.
These aren’t lessons, just where the topics nicely fit, with links to some of the videos and other
resources we used where appropriate. I used a lot of library books, most of which I probably
won’t mention here, as you’ll have different books in your library that should do just as well.
Make sure to note the asterisks (*) pointing to more info about a topic under the tables below.

The EARTH/SPACE science topics are sequential--some line up nicely with the SOTW chapter
topics, some are just there to progress the topic forward. A lot of the space videos deal with
gravity, so you might want to cover that beforehand. I plan to continue these lessons by
learning about Planets when we study Rome (since our planets are named after the Roman
Gods). Other science and math topics listed aren’t part of a series, and just fit nicely fit with the
history.
CHAPTERS 18 - 19
HISTORY ART/CULTURE/LIT SCIENCE/MATH

SOTW CH 18 Modern Culture: Bull Fighting EARTH/SPACE

Bull Jumpers and Sailors in Spain vs. Minoan Bull Earth Basics
Jumping ● Fun Song Video
Layers of the Earth

SOTW CH 18 EARTH/SPACE
King Minos and the Minotaur Tectonic Plates/Earthquakes
● Science Behind
Minotaur Video

SOTW CH 18 EARTH/SPACE
End of the Minoans Volcanoes

SOTW CH 19 Trojan War* EARTH/SPACE

The Mycenaeans The Sun Video​ **
Sun Printable ​1​ ​2

SOTW CH 19 Greek Food EARTH/SPACE

The Greek Dark Ages Shadows Video

*People think the Trojan War story was probably about a war between the Mycenaeans and the
city-state of Troy, so it goes well here. Ch 20 about Homer also mentions this.

**Recent science says that the sun is made of ​plasma​, not gas. This ​song​ is about this, refuting
an earlier catchier ​song here​ by the same group. Bill Nye also has a good but old ​sun video​. If
you want something for older kids, I suggest the ​Crash Course Videos on Astronomy​.
 CHAPTERS 20 - 22
HISTORY ART/CULTURE/LIT SCIENCE/MATH

SOTW CH 20 Greek Pottery EARTH/SPACE

Greece Gets and Alphabet Greek Roots​* Earth’s Rotatation/Day Night/
-Much of our language comes Earth’s Revolution/Year
from ancient greek and latin Short Video

Suggested roots: Or cover both this and

rot (wheel), geo (earth) seasons with this ​Longer
Video by Bill Nye​ and/or
Suggested roots resource Book: On Earth​****

SOTW CH 20 Aesop’s Fable**: The Ant EARTH/SPACE

The Stories of Homer and the Grasshopper Earth’s Axis/Rotation and
Seasons​***

SOTW CH 20 Olympics Origin Video

The First Olympic Games Aesop’s Fable**: The
Tortoise and the Hare

SOTW CH 21 BIBLE*** EARTH/SPACE

The Medes and the Persians ● Story of Daniel and The Moon
● A New Empire the Lions Den The Moon Orbits the Earth
● Cyrus the Great ● Rebuilding of the Moon Printable
Temple
Latin Roots - orb, luna
*I bought a notebooking set to gradually teach Greek and Latin roots throughout the coming
years, and thought why not introduce the idea of where many of our words come from here?
(​Set I used​, ​shorter cheaper one​). Click on the preview of either of those and there’s a few
sample roots you can try, and find more ​here​, and ​here​. You can also teach through drawing.

**Aesop was a greek writer who lived from 620-654 BC who had a lot of stories that kids will be
familiar with. Even though he wrote later than Homer, I include his stories here because they
are both Greek writers, and because the first relates to the seasons study, and the second
relates to racing and the Olympic Games.

***We actually read SOTW Chapter 21 right after Chapter 17 because we read the Bible stories
along with their history and wanted to keep the story of Daniel together. It just took changing a
few words on Chap 21 and 22.

****DISCLOSURE: All Amazon book links are affiliate links through which I can earn
commission
 BETWEEN Chap 21 - 22

NOTE: I added an extra space here between chapters 21 and 22, for things that go here as far
as Greek chronology.
ART/CULTURE/LIT SCIENCE/MATH

Before Chapter 22, or after it, is a good time EARTH/SPACE

to show the first half of ​this video about how Eclipses
the Greek landscape affected the culture​. It
mentions Athens and Sparta as examples of THALES* and his ideas about science as
separate from religion, and his prediction of
Greek City States. The 3rd free sample
an eclipse. Talk about how to the ancient
video for ​Mapping the World With Art​ shows
Greeks, philosophy, science, and even art
how to draw Greece, which could fit here too. were not really separate.

Tales of the Dead: Ancient Greece​: I love Pythagoras

this book as a supplement. It has nothing to -Compare his idea of a spherical earth with
do with death, in spite of it’s name. It has a Thales of a flat disk, and how ​their idea​ of
comic book style story of an ancient Greek how earth/planets rotated was different from
family combined with info about ancient what we know now (I would only show this to
older kids...could confuse younger kids, who
Greek life, with some things not covered by
might confuse the correct and incorrect
Story of the World, just as Greek theater.
models).
DISCLOSURE: This and most other book -Golden Ratio
links are affiliate links -Pythagorean Theorem

Philosophy - Donald Duck in Math Magic Land

Greek Root covers a lot of this
- Phil (love)

*Thales shows up in the free sample pages of a couple curriculums. Lesson 1 - 2 of the ​free
sample pages of Science in the Beginning​ deals with Thales, and the sample pages of
Philosphy Adventure curriculum​ for older kids/teens is about Thales (and overview what is
philosophy, which is useful here).
 Chapter 22 - 23
HISTORY ART/CULTURE/LIT SCIENCE/MATH

SOTW CH 22 Sparta Video EARTH/SPACE

Life in Sparta Greek Warfare/Armor* Latitude and Longitude**
Hemispheres
Latin roots - long, lat, hemi
Erathosthenes**
- First measured Diameter of
Earth and first put lines
similar to latitude/longitude on
a map
Crates of Mallus
-Made First Globe

SOTW CH 22 Athenian Democracy Video

Life in Athens Greek Roots
-dem
-cracy***

SOTW CH 23 Greek Myths: EARTH/SPACE

Greek Gods Pandoras Box Stars/Constellations****
King Midas Touch Suggested Books:*****
Constellations
Constellations
Greek/Latin Roots Once Upon a Starry Night
Stella- Astr- Zoo in the Sky

*This is a great spot to make some Greek “armor” out of cardboard. You can find lots of ideas
on pinterest.

**We used the book ​Latitude and Longitude​ by Rebecca Aberg, as it makes this very simple,
though doesn’t mention the Greeks role in this. Chapter 2-3 of Mapping the World With Art,
which is part of their ​free sample chapters found here​, talks about the Erathosthenes and
Latitude and Longitude in more depth (aimed at older children). This was actually later, after
Alexander the Great, but I wanted to cover this before constellations. Might have been helpful
to do it even earlier, before seasons, but too much else was covered them.

*** I made my own notebooking/lapbook page for the root cracy (meaning government).
Upper Page​, ​Blank Upper Page​, ​2nd Page​ (you can glue the top part on it like a flap)

****We read the story and looked for different constellations nightly for the week after this
lesson.
*****All Amazon book links are affiliate links through which I can earn commission.

Chap 24 - 25
HISTORY ART/CULTURE/LIT SCIENCE/MATH

SOTW CH 24 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Greece’s War With Persia Overview​*

SOTW CH 24** Plato Video 1 The Parthenon/Columns

The Greeks FIght Each Other Plato’s Cave Allegory Architecture Science
Famous Men of Greece by Pericles** Experiment
John Haaren​, CH 19 - 21**

SOTW CH 25 Aristotle Video 1​***

Phillip and His Son Aristotle Video 2

SOTW CH 25
Alexander’s Invasion

SOTW CH 25 Archimedes
The Death of Alexander - Displacement,
Bouyancy****
- Levers
- Inventions****

*This fun video overviews Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (with a little Herodotus thrown in).
Socrates was born and lived most of his life during the Greco-Persian wars, Plato was born
during the Peloponnesian Wars and lived his whole life during it, and Aristotle was born
afterwards and taught Alexander the Great, which is why I placed these Philosophers during
these chapters. I didn’t really find a good short resource for JUST teaching about Socrates.

**The reason why SOTW is greyed out here, and ​Famous Men of Greece​ is in its place, is
because this chapter is HORRIBLY historically inaccurate about the fall of Greece. Found a
history teacher’s criticism about this, and it seemed really valid. I did a little research online and
offline about Alcibiades and it’s hard to even tell how it relates to what she wrote. Many have
said she should have included more about Pericles too. I used the book that teacher
suggested, which I didn’t love, but it was adequate. (Amazon Affiliate link above)

***For younger kids I think just the first part of this video about the Golden Mene is sufficient.

****These two videos are great for comparison, and talking about how different historians can
disagree about what really happened: ​Video 1​, ​Video 2​. ​This video​ has a bunch of ​his ideas,
including weapons he invented​.
AFTER CHAPTER 25

EXTRA HISTORY
What happened to Israel after Persia was taken over by the Greeks? In the ​Sample Pages of
Volume 1 of Mystery of History​ (available for free download) they have a section about the
Maccabean Revolt which tells that story. You can also look up videos of the story of Hannukah,
which is connected to that story.

MORE SPACE
A great time to learn about the planets is while studying Rome, since they are named after
Roman gods. I really love the book, ​The Planet Gods​ for tying the two subjects together.

Find more ​Story of the World​ resources at

imaginativehomeschool.blogspot.com