My children really enjoy it when I can find a great game online to supplement our history studies. Here are a few we like:

We learned how to play Senet when we studied Ancient Egypt. This online version looks somewhat realistic, so you may want to check it out, especially if you are thinking of making your own Senet game at home.  But it is a little confusing, so for online play, I prefer this version from the BBC, which teaches the rules of this ancient board game and lets you play against the computer.  You will need Shockwave to play the BBC version.

Egyptian Tomb is more involved than the previous game. Kids get clues to solve a mystery by answering questions, doing simple map work, deciphering hieroglyphs and other exercises. There is some teaching about Egyptian gods and beliefs on this site. This site requires some reading ability. It’s not too hard as the answers to most questions are provided somewhere on the site. It’s a fun way to reinforce what you may already be learning about Ancient Egypt.

Not exactly a game, but this Egyptian Calculator is interesting…

Check out BBC’s kids game called Pyramid Challenge to see if you’ve got what it takes to be a pyramid builder.

They haven’t played it yet, but I know my boys will enjoy this embalming game, which teaches about how mummies were made.  It’s kind of gross, but pretty educational, and they aren’t squeamish types…

My boys absolutely LOVE Civilization and other “builder” games.  Nile online is a similar concept, free to play, and requires no downloads (only registration).  They haven’t played it yet, but I’ll post an update here once they have a chance to rate it.

I found a few of the Egyptian games in this post through the site Ancient Egyptian Games.  They have so many!  Hoping to get some good apps for my iPod through them, too.

Last year when we studied the Mayans we played this online Mayan Ball game. It was also neat to watch this brief video re-enactment of a Mayan Ball game.

Jacobites the 1745 Rebellion begins with a very brief video, and poses the question, “Could you have done a better job if you were the leader of the Jacobites?” As kids read information and learn more about the people involved they are asked to make decisions. Some responses prompt video clips of battle re-enactments. Definitely click the “funky” button to view this in flash. It’s much more interactive than the simple site.

Scottish Wars of Independence is an online board game. Kids spin and move around the board. Every square they land on opens up a fact file about this time period. Kids choose the 6 events they feel to be the most important and add them to a list. At the end of the game they find out whether they chose wisely or not.

Vikings in Scotland gives kids opportunities to answer questions to complete game tasks in “Build a longship” and “Build a longhouse”. Some answers are provided on video clips (at least in the Flash site) for kids to watch after they answer. The more kids know, the faster their boat/longhouse is built. There is also another game on the site, where kids try and sail their longboat around a map, accomplishing various tasks along the way.

We really enjoy the viking board game Hnefetafl. This site provides English rules partway down the page, or click here to read the rules I wrote out (which may be easier to understand!) To play this game online, click on one of the boards displayed. Each one yields a slightly different variation of the game. Don’t forget to click English on the board game page or you’ll be playing in Danish.

BBC Schools has lots of games, including some games for Modern Times.

I like Scotland During the Second World War. My 2nd grader has played this and he enjoyed it. Kids pretend to be a spy, gathering information to help them progress through the game.

My kids have not played their WW1 game Trench Warfare yet, but I suspect they will like it. It does require quite a lot of reading, but you are able to choose which weapons you want to fight with and then see a cartoon video of the chosen weapon in action. Then you are briefed as to how well you did and why. This game doesn’t teach much, other than the pros and cons of various battle tactics in WW1, but it will probably be a hit with boys.

I’ve heard great things about the BBC’s Dance Mat Typing but my kids have not used this yet, either. Nevertheless, I wanted to try it out. And it’s great! Seeing is believing. We will definitely be using this game.

For more great online games, check out the list of interactive history games offered for kids by the BBC.

We have been wanting to make stepping stones for our bird garden all summer! As we finish up our study of the Romans, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to “kill two birds with one stone” (shh! Don’t tell my bird-loving boys that I used that phrase! They prefer to say “hatch two birds from one egg”!)

We had so much fun with this project! It definitely gave us a greater appreciation for Roman mosaic art, as it is so much harder than it looks!

We purchased our mosaic glass from Rainbow Resource (one pack of primary colors and one pack of earth tones), and we used ready-to-mix stepping stone kits from Walmart. I had originally planned to purchase concrete, but when a friend gave the boys these kits as a birthday gift, I knew this would be perfect for our project!

Here is what we did:

1) Since these stones were for our bird garden, the boys’ vision was that each stone would represent a different bird. I printed off simple images of our chosen birds online. You do NOT want detailed drawings for this project. Instead, choose simple line drawings. I found most of what I needed at Enchanted Learning. I printed the images on cardstock instead of paper, to give a little more weight to the paper for the later steps in this process.

2) Lay out the mosaic glass on top of the coloring page, following the pattern as best you can. This was delicate work that called for patience and a steady hand. My 7 year old was able to do it, though it took him longer than the older boys. Our four year old had no patience for this process, so he just made a free-form snake.

3) Once you have laid out your pattern and you are satisfied with it, carefully take masking tape or painters tape and lay it gently over the top of the glass, overlapping the strips of tape until every part of the pattern is covered. Once you have the tape in place, press down firmly to make sure it sticks to the glass, trying to avoid sticking it to the coloring sheet underneath.

If you printed your images on cardstock instead of printer paper, it will be easier to peel the tape away from the paper later should it stick. Also, you will definitely need a not-so-sticky tape for this, so don’t try it with Scotch tape!

4) Take a few more strips of tape and layer them on top of the first pieces, going in the opposite direction. This will help ensure that your image does not separate into two or three pieces when you try to transfer it.

5) Once your mosaic image is well taped, gently turn it over onto your hand or onto another piece of cardstock. Now the tape will be on the bottom and you will be able to see the glass tile again. Set the mosaic tile image aside while you mix up your stepping stones.

6) Follow the directions on your stone kit (or find directions online if you are doing this the “old fashioned way”, from scratch!).

7) Once you’ve mixed up your plaster of paris or concrete mixture and formed it into a stone, it is time to transfer the mosaic pattern onto your stone. Carefully turn it over and use the tape to gently press the glass into the soft concrete. Once the mosaic image is stuck to the stepping stone, carefully peel away the tape. Check the mosaic glass carefully to make sure each piece was pressed firmly into the stone so that nothing will fall off when the stone hardens. You’ll only have a few minutes for this process, so work quickly! We found that pressing on the mosaic glass with our fingers transferred some cement to the top side of the glass….trial and error taught us to use a thin instrument like the end of a paintbrush or a pencil to gently work the glass into place.

8) Set your stones aside overnight to dry and enjoy your new mosaics!

We made eight different stones in this fashion and it was really very easy and quite fun!

We kicked off our back-to-school hands on projects with a Roman Feast this week. We ended the school year studying Ancient Rome and picked up where we left off with a look at how the Roman Empire fell.

Things are crazy busy right now, so I wanted to keep this feast simple. I managed to pull it off without much planning at all, using ingredients I already had in the house. Of course, we recycled the sheets used in our Egyptian Feast and our Greek Feast to make Roman tunics. I simply cut some sheets from Goodwill in half and cut a hole for their head and two holes for arms…voila, instant (if not perfectly authentic) Greek chitons. These also served as our Roman tunics. If you start with the Egyptian Feast you can use the same sheets for all 3 costumes, and I found that a couple of large sheets were enough to serve the entire family with some judicious cutting.

I used tablecloths, sheets and (for my little guy) a table runner to make the togas that drape over their shoulders. I wore a tablecloth also, as a simple cloak.

Click here to watch a brief video that shows how to put on an authentic Roman toga.

We set up our Triclinium table again using the leaves from our dining room and kitchen tables and surrounding them with couch cushions. I learned a lesson during our Greek Feast and covered the cushions with bedsheets this time, in case of spills!

For dinner, I decided to serve a mix of some traditional foods of Ancient Rome that we still eat today, as well as some fun “make-believe” dishes which the Romans ate but we would never touch. We pretended to be wealthy so that we could enjoy several different dishes.

The boys thought it was pretty fun to eat Roasted Doormice (chicken legs) and Peacock Nuggets (Anytizers cordon blue nuggets). We learned that the Ancient Romans liked Omelets with honey, so we tried that, too. Side dishes included bread, grapes, olives, nuts, apples and salad. I did not make a dessert for this meal, though the Romans did eat desserts at their feasts.

I recommend waiting until near the end of the feast to inform boys that belching was considered polite at Roman feasts.

This meal did not take any more time than a normal dinner would have, aside from the few minutes spent setting up the Triclinium table and getting the costumes together. The side dishes were very fast and simple, and I made the omelet quickly on the stovetop as the chicken legs finished cooking.

I found some interesting notes about Roman cooking, including this chicken recipe, here. The people who wrote this site took their recipes from an old Roman cookbook, which was written by a Roman gourmet named Apicius in the 1st century and added to over time. Eventually an editor published this cookbook in the 4th century and titled it after Apicius. Much of what we know about Roman cooking seems to be taken from this record.

Here are the recipes I used:

Roasted Doormice (aka Baked Chicken Legs)

Put the following ingredients in a large ziploc bag:

1 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp caraway seed

Dredge the chicken legs in a dish of milk and then shake in the flour mixture. Double quantities if you are using a large number of chicken legs. Place on a baking pan and brush with olive oil. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done.

My family did like this recipe, but felt it could have used more spices. This is just a guideline, as no measurements were given and I just “eyeballed” the quantities.

I used Anytizer chicken nuggets and called them Peacock nuggets. You could make similar substitutions for exotic foods like ostrich and flamingo.

Green Salad

For our simple salad I tore Romaine lettuce leaves and topped them with black olives, red onion and some feta cheese. Romans did NOT use tomatoes, so neither did we. I like to top a simple salad like this one with some dry Good Seasons Italian dressing, just sprinkled over the top, and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. For other occasions, add red or yellow pepper strips, tomatoes, and sundried-tomato flavored feta cheese. Everyone seems to love this simple, delicious salad.

Omelet with Black Pepper and Honey

The Roman omelet recipe I used called for adding both milk and a bit of olive oil to the eggs before cooking the omelet. I don’t usually add oil to omelets, but “when in Rome!” When the omelet was finished I topped it with some fresh ground black pepper, as the recipe instructed. Mushrooms were also called for, but my family hates them so I left those out. The recipe said to serve the omelet with honey. Our four year old was the first to taste it and he loved it! I tried it, too, and it reminded me of egg custard…not unpleasant at all!

Slushies

I was keeping things simple so I did not make slushies, but you could. I read that sometimes slaves were sent into the mountains to bring back fresh snow for slushies. If you have a snowcone maker this would be a fun addition to your feast!

Our Table
My oldest son suggested we eat on a triclinium table. Greeks, Romans, and Jews during Jesus’ time all ate at triclinium tables. These tables were three-sided, with the fourth side open. They were usually low to the ground and diners reclined, as on a couch, with their head toward the table.

We “built” our triclinium table using the leaves for our dining room and kitchen tables. We surrounded the “table” with couch cushions. I would recommend using cushions from an old couch, like we did. If you don’t have an old couch you might want to cover the couch with beach towels. There were several spills tonight, as no one was used to reclining while eating!

Simple Costumes
We made simple, inexpensive Greek chiton robes to wear. I used the same two white thrift store sheets that I constructed our Egyptian Feast costumes from earlier this year. I had cut those two sheets into six pieces (kilts for dad and the boys and a simple dress for me).

You know I’m all about keeping it quick and easy! My dress didn’t really need to be altered at all (see the Egyptian post for no-sew instructions as to how I made it).

For the boys, I took their portion of the sheet and folded it in half. I cut a hole out for their head and they slipped it on. Then I cut two holes for arms and presto! We were done. I’ll adapt these same pieces of sheet for our Roman togas in a few weeks when we do our Roman feast! I’ve gotten a lot of mileage this year from two cheap thrift store sheets!

Our Personas
Each boy wanted to be a different person that we studied. Our feast was quite the Who’s Who event, as we had Archimedes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Alexander the Great all in attendance. We read that women weren’t allowed to publish written works in ancient Greece, so they often did so under the name “Anonymous”. Women weren’t allowed to eat with men, either. So I went by the name Anonymous tonight, and joined the feast! The boys thought it was a clever way around the problem.

Anonymous is having fun, while Plato is deep in philosophical thought.

I was hoping to have a Socratic Method Discussion during our meal, but that was an unrealistic goal. We had lots of fun, laughing and joking and enjoying the food. Our reading indicated that we were supposed to each take a piece of bread and dip it in our “wine” (sparkling grape juice) before starting the feast, but we forgot. Everyone was too eager to dive in and try the lamb!

See my post Recipes for the Greek Feast for our menu!

I got out the pattern blocks a couple weeks ago. The younger boys have loved playing with them while we read!

We had our Ancient Greek Feast this weekend! Here is our menu and the recipes we used.

Menu:
*Dried apricots and dates
*Olives (Kalamata, black and green olives)
*Green and red grapes
*Cheese tray with herbed goat cheese, Greek Feta cheese, Pita bread slices, and toast-crackers
*Marinated, grilled leg of lamb with Tzatziki sauce
*Greek salad
*Baklava
*Sparkling Red Grape Juice

Shopping Instructions:
Many grocery stores do not sell lamb. I initially planned to do Lamb Chops, but they cost $22 a pound here! So I quickly decided a leg of lamb was a more economical choice. I found this frozen at a specialty butcher. Publix also had several cuts of lamb available. The cheeses were found in the deli section of my normal grocery store.

The dried fruit, grapes, olives, cheeses, bread and crackers required no preparation. Just plate and serve.

Recipes:
This feast was delicious and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! It isn’t hard to make this food, but several of the dishes need some advanced preparation. I would recommend reading instructions for all the recipes before you begin, so that you know which steps need to be done in advance. For example, you’ll want to make the lamb marinade in advance so that the lamb has time to soak up the flavors. While the lamb sits in the marinade you can move on to the Tzatziki sauce, which also has a few steps.

Here are the recipes for our Ancient Greek Feast. Enjoy!
I found this recipe on Epicurious.

Marinated Grilled Leg of Lamb
6 lb. boneless leg of lamb
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, preferably fresh
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. dried oregano

Mix everything together. Pour into a ziploc bag and marinate the lamb for at least an hour or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator. Allow the lamb to sit in the marinade at room temperature for about an hour before grilling. I followed the grilling instructions found here. We have never made lamb at home before, but it turned out fantastic!

Tzatziki sauce

We love this sauce, typically served on Gyros. We ate it with the lamb tonight. Yummy! I found this recipe on the internet, as well.

Ingredients:
* 1 (8 ounce) container plain yogurt (Preferably Greek yogurt or Fage)
* 1 cucumber, peeled and grated
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1/4 lemon, juiced and zest
* 1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
* 1-1/2 cloves garlic, peeled
* 5 Mint Leaves, chopped fine
* Salt and Pepper to taste

There are two initial steps which MUST be done before making the Tzatziki sauce. First, if you don’t have the Greek yogurt, you’ll need to drain the extra water out. Lay a piece of cheesecloth inside a colander (or use a very fine strainer). Pour the yogurt in and allow it to sit in the strainer (over a bowl or in the sink) for at least an hour so that the extra water drains out. If you have time, and can allow it to drain over a bowl in the refrigerator overnight, that is even better.

*I love Greek style yogurt, and use this method frequently.

Second, the cucumber will also have to be drained. Peel it, and then grate it with a box grater or in a food processor with a grater blade. Scoop up the grated cucumber and place it in some cheesecloth. Squeeze out as much juice as you can and discard the juice. Without these two important steps, your Tzatziki sauce will be really soupy.

You can see in this photo how much juice I was able to squeeze from one cucumber!

Once the yogurt is the right consistency and the cucumber has been squeezed out, combine all ingredients (listed above) in a large bowl, stirring gently to combine. Enjoy!

Authentic Greek Salad

Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers
4 large tomatoes
1/2 large red onion
12 kalamata olives
1/4 to 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar for the dressing

Peel, seed and dice 2 large cucumbers and place in a large bowl. Chop the tomatoes and thinly slice the red onion. Add to the cucumber and stir to combine. Slice the olives and crumble the feta cheese into the salad. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil and the red wine vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Toss to combine.

Baklava
This is an authentic Greek treat, but my recipe is actually from Iraq. This recipe was shared with us by dear friends and it is, truly, the best Baklava EVER! The cardamon is the secret and necessary ingredient. It is expensive, so I normally only make these decadent treats at Christmastime.

1 package Fillo dough, (usually in the frozen fruit section at the grocery store)
9 oz. walnuts, ground
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cardamon
2 sticks butter
1/2 bottle clear Karo corn syrup

Filling:
Freshness is key in this simple cookie. I prefer to buy whole walnuts and grind them in my food processor, and to get fresh cardamon, if possible.

Combine the ground walnuts, sugar and cardamon and set aside.
Thaw Fillo dough for 8 hours in the refrigerator and 4 hours at room temperature if you can. This makes it easier to work with. If you don’t have time, I have used the dough after it has set at room temperature for just 30 minutes. It tends to break more easily, but that doesn’t really matter with this dough.

Lay out half a package of Fillo dough, layer by layer, into an 18 x 14 cookie sheet. This dough is very forgiving, so it does not matter if it rips or tears. Just place the sheets into the pan, one at a time. It doesn’t matter if a sheet is ripped into 3 or 4 pieces, just lay it out onto the pan. What DOES matter is that you place the layers one sheet at a time, not all in a stack. Don’t allow the dough to overlap the edge of the pan. Fold edges in if you need to.

Pour the filling over this crust layer, spreading with a spoon so that it entirely covers the Fillo dough.

Place the other half package of Fillo dough over the top of this filling, working with it in the same way as you did before.

Melt the two sticks of butter and pour them evenly over the top of the baklava. Pull some of the fillo away from the sides of the pan so that butter can get down between the dough and the pan on all sides. Use a spoon or your fingers, if you need to, to ensure that all the dough is covered evenly with melted butter.

Take a sharp knife and cut the baklava into diamond shaped cookies. To make a diamond shape, bring the knife straight down in rows from left to right across the pan. Then cut in a diagonal pattern to reveal the diamond shaped cookies. This recipe makes around 50 cookies. They are rich, so don’t make them too big.

Bake at 350 for 25 to 40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

Allow to cool. Re-cut the diamonds.

Drizzle with the half bottle of Karo clear corn syrup and serve. These treats are best fresh. They will taste their very best the day they are made and good for a couple more days after. Over time, they begin to dry out and do not taste nearly as yummy, so these should ideally be made the day of your feast.

They dressed in their best Jewish garb and hid in their booths while I was making lunch. When I brought their feast down, they all jumped out at me and scared me!

They ate their feast (ham and cheese sandwiches, apple slices and water) in their booths, and had a great time!

We were so encouraged by our family devotions today! For a look at how the Lord spoke to us, check out the post on Counter-cultural mom blog.

At the beginning of the school year, each participating family chooses a country to study. Some families choose a country they want to learn more about, while other pick something from their normal course of study. The coordinator keeps a list of which country each family has chosen so that there is a good variety.

We were studying Ancient China this year, so we chose that as our focus for the International Festival. We had lots of fun learning about Chinese inventions, making homemade paper, doing calligraphy, visiting the High Museum of Art to see the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi Huang Di, learning to use chopsticks and studying China’s geography and climate. We displayed the children’s hands-on work as well as the papers they wrote on a large tri-fold board.

Our oldest son wrote a paper on Chinese inventions, our third grader wrote about the Great Wall of China and our first grader wrote about the Terra Cotta Warriors. The children also made a large salt-dough map of China to put on the table in front of our display board.

One of the best parts of the festival is the food! Each family is responsible to bring an item or two of food from their chosen country. We brought fried rice and fortune cookies. We tried so many fabulous dishes tonight.

During the festival, children participate in a scavenger hunt. About a week before International night, families submit two questions (one easy, one difficult) which can be answered from their display board. The coordinator compiles them into two scavenger hunts, one for younger kids and one for older ones. The kids have a great time going around to all the displays, and they learn so much from each one as they hunt for the needed answers.

This game makes sure the kids not only do a good job learning about their own chosen country, but that they also learn something about all the other countries presented. If they finish their scavenger hunt, they can submit their name for door prize drawings. This year’s door prizes were all food items from different countries. Our family won Belgian chocolates, Dutch Stroopwaffel cookies, Korean shrimp-flavored chips and Norwegian ginger cookies.

After the scavenger hunt and feast are over, families can share presentations if they want to. Our oldest son played a Chinese song on the piano, and other children played violin or sang a song in their chosen language.

One family did a Powerpoint presentation on Mexico, sharing lots of photos and teaching some phrases in Spanish along the way. Some children wear costumes and others come as they are. The festival is all about having fun and sharing what we’ve learned with each other.

At the end of the evening, the festival coordinator taught three large group dances. She had appropriate music to go with each dance.

Our children loved the Filipino dance they learned, which was a bit like “the jaws of death”. Two adults slide bamboo poles together and then apart in rhytym to the music. The children needed to try and jump between the poles when they were open and jump out of the poles before they came back together.

You might consider holding an International Festival! It is a great opportunity for kids to display what they have been working on, and a fun way to for them to learn about other countries.

I made Chinese fried rice tonight for our International Festival. This dish is so easy and so yummy that I make it frequently for lunch or dinner. It is a great way to use up leftover rice.

Ingredients:
vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
two or three cloves of garlic, minced
Cooked White rice (I start with 3 cups uncooked rice to make a large batch)
Frozen peas and carrots (or other vegetable, according to taste)
Soy sauce
3 or 4 eggs
Cooked chicken (or other meat, according to taste)

Prepare your ingredients first. Pour some soy sauce onto the meat and let it marinate while you get everything else ready. Dice the onion. Stir the eggs with a fork to break up the yolks. Cook the rice if you have not done so already.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil into the bottom of a deep, heavy-bottomed skillet or wok. Add the diced onion. When the onion begins to brown, add the garlic. Cook for one minute and add the frozen peas and carrots. Fry until heated through.

If you are working with large quantities, transfer the vegetables to a separate bowl before adding the meat to the skillet. Add more oil if necessary and fry the meat until heated through. Transfer the meat to the bowl with the vegetables. Add 2 or 3 more tablespoons of oil and allow it to heat up. Add the cooked rice. It is important to have a big enough skillet (or to transfer cooked ingredients if you don’t) so that the rice fries instead of steams.

Be careful! I make fried rice all the time, but last night I let the oil get too hot before adding the rice. Oil was spattering and popping everywhere and some landed on the burner and caught on fire! Thankfully, I remembered that you put small oil out fires with a towel, NOT with water.

Fry the rice for a couple of minutes. Push it to the sides with a spatula and add the egg. Allow the egg to scramble and mix it throughout the rice. Add the vegetables and meat back to the rice pan, stirring well. Add soy sauce to taste.

If you need to make this for a crowd, it can be done the night before and then warmed up the next day in a crock pot.

You can also use raw vegetables or raw meat, but you need to adjust the cooking time.

We began with a walk amongst the replicas, as our guide taught us about life in ancient Israel. She shared many scriptures with us and it was a spiritually encouraging time as well as a rich learning experience.

Here are some of our photos:

Inside a shepherd’s tent

By the well


Entrance to the New Testament Tomb

Looking down on the New Testament Tomb

The watchtower


Crosses

Olive press with a working aqueduct in the background

Village Home

Grinding wheel

The biblical meal room

The meal was delicious, and traditional to what probably would have been served at the Passover meal in Jesus’ day. There were hardboiled eggs (which we were told were a symbol of mourning), charoset (a mixture of apples, nuts and raisins which represented the mud used to make bricks), bitter salad greens (to symbolize the bitterness of slavery), parsley with salt water (parsley represents hope and redemption, while the salt water represents tears), unleavened bread (the Israelites fled Egypt in haste) and other traditional foods including apples, nuts, dried fruits, hummus, grape juice, honey, lentil stew, black and green olives and chicken. Lamb would have been traditional, but the museum served chicken since many Americans don’t like lamb.

I did not realize that the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples was not exactly the same as the Seder meal that Jews celebrate for passover today. We ate a passover similar to what Jesus would have eaten at the Last Supper, learning about the customs and foods of that passover. After the meal was over, the presenter spoke to our family about the modern Seder, which was instituted in AD 90. She did a wonderful job teaching us about the symbolism of various components of the meal, and of helping us to to tie together everything we’ve been learning this semester.

I stopped by a bargain basement sale today and found these robes, which I thought would make excellent costumes for the feast! I can’t believe I only paid $2 apiece for these robes!

If you are a new reader to this blog you might want to look at the decoupaged passover plates we made for our celebration.