Making a Laurel Wreath....or how to have a Toga Party!

History has not always been my favorite subject. In  high school, it was nothing more than memorizing dates and locations, never really getting into the meat of what history was. Or maybe I don’t remember the fun part of history..maybe there was never a fun part? But as I’ve grown older, and fallen in love with Early American History, I’m beginning to love history more and more, especially now that I’m homeschooling. It’s my favorite time of our homeschool week, and some days, I wish it could last all day!

We are beginning a new history period..moving into the Middle Ages, but before we go there, we’re ending the Roman domination of the West and Near East. In an activity that we didn’t get to last year, we decided to have a small toga party.

The togas were fairly easy. We did just use what we had….two twin flat sheets, folded in half lengthwise, and wrapped around the waist, pinned at the back, then brought forward and thrown over the shoulder.  Bucket was to be the Roman Emporer Bucketus Maximus, and Beeble was to be his faithful gladiator, but that didn’t work out, so he became the Vice-President. (trying to explain Roman history to someone from another country who didn’t really study much in the way of ancient history – this is how they understood what we were talking about lol).

How to make a Laurel Head Wreath

Gather your supplies

• 
• plastic girl’s headband
• glue
• scissors
• green material – we used construction paper – you could use tagboard, craft foam, etc. You’ll need at least 20 leaves, depending on how thick you make the foliage

Place glue around headband

Slip your leaves onto the headband, starting from the back and working your way to the front

Allow to fully dry for about 15 min, then wear!

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This will now be a great costume idea for the Fall Festival at church..one of many on the list, but at least this one is mostly made – we’ll just have to come up with some great sandals for him!

We ended the day wanting to watch Ben Hur, but I hadn’t planned well, so that will happen on the weekend. (we didn’t watch it last spring because we concentrated more on the Greek/Roman mythology side since  he was so interested in it – they’ve been reading the Rick Riordan’s Lost Hero all along, which is making history come alive in a whole new way).  We did watch The Robe with Richard Burton. There was way too much character-driven talk and nowhere near enough action…but my heart lept for joy when Bucket realized the twist in the movie..and his face lit up. It was also the first time he’d seen a more realistic dramatization of the Crucifixion, and I think he began to really understand, just a little more, of Christ’s sacrifice for us.

I’m really hoping that days like this make history come alive to the boys. I can’t make them love history, but I won’t allow them to dread it by memorizing dates and locations, and never learning what history is really about (oh, sure, we’ll memorize some dates and locations at some point, but right now, we’re just living it!).