Bottoms Up for Cyrus the Great!

We're coming to the end of our studies on Ancient Middle Eastern Civilizations. In many ways, these have been even more exciting than Egypt and China. The power struggles, the surprises, the little guys fighting their way up to the top... very exciting times indeed!

We learned about the fierce Aramaeans and their control over the trade routes between Egypt and Mesopotamia; the Phoenicians - masters of the sea; the Israelites' incredible journeys and struggles for their homeland; the Hittites and their city-states on Anatolia; the Assyrians' transformation from bullied to bully; King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans; and, finally, the Persian Empire and Cyrus the Great.

We were very taken with King Cyrus,

a way progressive dude.

After we finished our reading on the Persian Empire, I was struck with a most unusual desire for snack food - which we never have in the house, and I never... well, hardly ever buy. We put on our rainboots and rainjackets, and headed out - into a storm - to the store. We got crackers and cookies, paté, caramel chews, juice, some chocolate, and a beer (for me). It was a wet and muddy adventure.

We got back home, prepared our snack-fest, 

and sat down to some History Channel via YouTube.

Cha was home early from work and watched 

Engineering an Empire - The Persians with us, 

a real treat.

The documentary is only 45 minutes long, but it took us about twice that long to actually get through it because we stop and talk, and look things up - and that's my favorite part (that and the beer). 

So yeah... 

watching documentaries together on rainy afternoons 

is lovely,

the Persians were amazing, 

occasional snack food is the best,

beer is perfect,

and homeschooling a boy who loves history is totally awesome.