Whew! Please tell me how in the world do you all teach about ancient civilizations? Is your lesson planning as frustrating as mine? Do you find it difficult to convey certain ideas while avoiding all of the shirk?

This was the toughest ancient culture to discuss so far because so many aspects of their lives were haram. They were polytheists, they drank wine, they were nude  or partially nude quite often… wait, is this ancient times or now?

We used the same eBook (pdf) from History Pockets (Ancient Civilizations) for this lapbook and free clip art.

We managed to find our way through Ancient Greece all the while praising ALLAH. There were many opportunities to discuss tawheed and the importance of avoiding shirk. We remodeled the Parthenon a little bit and deleted any mention of pagan gods.

We discussed how the purpose of the Ancient Greek Olympics was to honor their gods, (AudhuBILLAH). I found an interesting discussion on whether or not Muslims should participate in the modern day Olympics. You can read it here if you like.

This year we incorporated geography into our lessons and this really came in handy when we talked about the Greeks’ travel to nearby nations for trade. My daughter was able to picture how close to some of the nations that we have been studying, like Egypt, Turkey and Syria.

I explained that the symbols and rituals of those games are still around today, (like the torch lighting ceremony).

Next, we are headed for Ancient Rome, but before that, InshaALLAH, I am planning to do a special lapbook for our Islamic Studies. Hopefully, we will get it done before the weekend and we are still putting the space station together.

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