Some of the reasons I wanted to homeschool my three sons: 

-I wanted them to get outside and live what they were learning.

-I didn't want them bored.

-I wanted them to learn to love real, living literature.

-I wanted to raise men who knew the history of our world from a Christian perspective.

And so I have tried to tie our History, Bible, Geography and Literature together with creative and masculine adventures.

Last week we wrapped up our time in Ancient Greece with a study comparing the men from Sparta to those in Athens.  Susan Wiese Bauer's The Story of the World - Volume 1 was a great place to begin.  After reading about the warrior men of Sparta my husband and I took the boys outside to practice military training (since boys in Sparta were sent to military school at age 7).  They also learned that young Spartans had to learn to train their bodies without complaining.  Caleb ( 8 ) and Asher ( 4 ) acted the part as they ran up and down the property, stopping at targets set up by their father, to practice their archery.  As they ran up the back acre toward the house Brody (6) broke down and said, "I hate being a Spartan!"  

"That's all right, you and I can be from Athens" I said.  We went inside and read and wrote and colored the rest of the afternoon away as my warrior-sons grunted, collecting their arrows to go at it again.

It was exciting for Brody to school his brothers that evening at the dinner table about the Athenians. Boys from Athens trained their bodies too, but they also trained their minds.  They were the politicians, the poets, and the thinkers of the day. 

Alongside this outdoors learning Caleb read two different children's adaptations of Homer's The Odyssey and wrote a report on the main adventures Odysseus had on his way home from Troy to Ithaca after the Trojan Wars. 

I am thrilled and delighted to see that they are learning: They aren't learning for a test but for life! And we are having so much fun!  

Truth be told, there are still many days I'm told I'm "the meanest and worst teacher ever!" for simply making them do their grammar and math.

I guess they forgot that young Spartans don't complain.