When we first embarked on our Silk Road main lesson block, we thought we would simply add a few resources to complement our Middle Ages unit. Three years later and this little unit has grown into several deeply engaging main lesson blocks that span over 1000 years of history and half the world from North Africa to China. As we explored historical events and notable figures, we were whisked away into histories that deserved their own units rather than afterthoughts to a larger Middle Ages unit.

We include hands-on projects whenever possible and especially with our history and science blocks. For this unit, we have included the projects for our Ancient China and Silk Road blocks. While some activities came as pre-assembled kits (my favorite), we also did our own projects based on activity and craft books.

One of the best cookbooks we’ve every used for a history main lesson block is Silk Road Gourmet by Laura Kelley. Nearly every recipe we tried instantly became a family favorite. We were exposed to rich spice combinations and diverse flavors. Sometimes a unit gets plenty of time in the kitchen and this is such a unit.

This history period, that began with the Middle Ages in Medieval Europe, now includes our Africa Main Lesson Block which focuses on the Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai (900s-1400s), North Africa Main Lesson Block on Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Marco Polo and the Great Khans of Mongolia, Ancient and Middle Ages China, The Silk Road and the Islamic Empire (600s-1500s).

Our main lesson blocks and unit studies are book rich which means you don't need to buy a curriculum to do them, but you will need books. Many of these books can be found at the library, and if not, I share with you how you can swap out books and other resources for the materials you have.

I love gathering our books to decorate the area next to our chalkboard for our unit studies and main lesson blocks. It feels festive, inviting and inspiring. When I first put these lessons together, I had all our “Silk Road” units together. I’ve since separated them because we ended up with so many resources.

It's not a history unit if you don't talk about the people. After all history is His Story right? Her story is mixed in there, but is rarely the focus. While I have not made an effort to explore female historical figures, I think we do ourselves, our education and our children a disservice when we don't include their stories.

When we first embarked on our Silk Road main lesson block, we thought we would simply add a few resources to complement our Middle Ages unit. Three years later and this little unit has grown into several deeply engaging main lesson blocks that span over 1000 years of history and half the world from North Africa to China.

For this chalk drawing, I'm using Sargent Art Square chalk pastels from Blick Art Material. Drawing inspiration comes from the book The Silk Road, and I'm drawing on my 4'x6' chalkboard by Ghent.

The chalkboard I'm using for this chalk drawing measures 24"x 36" but it comes in smaller sizes. Of all the chalkboards I've used, I love these the most (be sure to get the same brand if you want the same results). I find the size to be suitable for most chalk drawings, and what's great about it is that you can have a few of them to work with rather than just one big one.

This chalk drawing is inspired by the book Kubla Khan the Emperor of Everything by Kathleen Krull. I used my Sargent Art Square Chalk Pastels and my favorite chalkboard, a 2'x3' blackboard available from Paper, Scissors Stone at Waldorf Supplies. This chalk drawing is of a Mongolian landscape with yurts in the foreground with camels and horses as they are significant to Mongol lifestyle and livelihood.

There are more books and resources you could use for a Silk Road unit study. Check out the China, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan and Islamic Empire unit studies for more books and projects. We concluded this part of our lessons with a review of the books, resources and projects we did for this part of our Silk Road unit which focuses on the travels of warriors, explorers and pilgrims along the Silk Road. We used picture books, chapter books and nonfiction books.

For our Silk Road and Marco Polo units, we did several hands on projects. One of them was to make a model yurt or ger. For the second time in seven years, we are doing this project. The first time we did it, we did a more simplified version that my then 8 and 12 year old sons did on their own with little help.

While working through our West Africa main lesson block, we learned about Mansa Musa and his great pilgrimage to Makkah to perform Hajj. He is reportedly the wealthiest man in recorded history and carried so much gold to give as charity that he crashed the markets in Egypt with in the influx of gold.

Recently my 6-year-old girl was playing with silk cocoons. She was curious what was inside the cocoon as it rattled while she played with them. I thought, "why not open one up and show her?" We were all surprised and slightly grossed out at what we saw.

I had high hopes for this project. Sure, assembling the puzzle was fun enough and the bonus was the three dimensional plastic pieces that fit perfectly into holed out pieces on the puzzle, but we did this puzzle for one reason...to see it through our iPad using the app suggested on the box.

When we do our history units for homeschool, I aim to include a craft book or kits. I love hands on activities and feel it enhances a curriculum. For this unit (including China, Ancient China and the Silk Road), I found this gem of a craft book.

This project was a success and it turned out 100 times better than I expected! I can't believe we made stunning faux Chinese Porcelain from the Ming Dynasty using Sculpey Soft Oven Bake Clay and acrylic paints

We've made Mandalas before as part of our geometry unit, but this was our first time making them with sand...or in our case, salt. I have a bag of sand in the backyard we have for various projects and when I went to collect a beaker full I found it soaking wet.

I love this kit!! We've done our fair share of build kits and what I love about this one is how lovely this looks in the end. But that's not all. This Great Wall of China kit by Wise Elk considers the project, the storage and multiple uses of it by providing versatility with this kit

We've been adding dig kits to our lessons for years and they never get old. While each company has its own unique way to do an archaeological dig kit, I especially liked this one called Discover China Ancient Dig Kit by Explorer by Tedco because the artifacts were high quality and the clay/plaster was just the right balance been hard and easy.

These terracotta warriors replicas were one of the best projects we did for our Ancient China unit. They are quite large measuring about 8 inches (21 cm) and look impressive once painted. Actually the end project looks nothing like what you see in photos depicting the Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty.

I forget that before machines did much of the work for us, we once learned how to do things by hand. Over time, we honed and improved our skills. The Chinese square knot, made using a small square template about 1/2 an inch square with four holes punched on each side, is a beautiful and unique knot that decorates clothes and lanterns.

We've done a number of Great Wall of China project kits and while this one was the most affordable and quickest of them all, it was also our least favorite. This one is made of high quality printed material over a foam core.

Today's project is another she can do on her own, but I decided to share this super easy origami tutorial on how to make chopstick cases. I'm using Folia Origami Paper from A Child's Dream which measures 6"x6" which is slightly small for this project but you'll still get great cases.

Chinese brush painting was my favorite of all the hands on projects we did for our Ancient China unit study for homeschool. We got this Chinese Brush Painting kit from Barnes and Noble. It comes with basic supplies of which I don't know of the quality. Being that we were beginners, it appeared the supplies we used were good enough for our endeavor, but you can find high quality professional supplies from Oriental Art Supply.

So far these are the best kebabs I've made my family. We got the recipe from The Silk Road Gourmet, a cookbook that brings recipes from the Silk Road to the modern cook. The book covers nine different regions: Republic of Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Nearly all my Persian recipes come from my friend Teyebeh who often gets from her mom, and I'll take a good guess and assume she gets them from her mom.

This is one of our favorite recipes!! I've only added fried onions to the recipe as well as a sprinkle of saffron. If you don't have fresh dill, I've swapped it out for dried dill on many occasions. We pair this with a rack of lamb. We got this recipe from the Martha Stewart Living magazine and it's become on of our favorite recipes ever!!

This recipe is hands down my family's favorite recipe of all time. There's never enough even when I double the recipe. It's just one of those special treats that we can only do once in a while because a rack of lamb is quite pricey. For me too, it's one of the most delicious recipes I've ever had.

I've altered a recipe we love from the Martha Stewart Living magazine which is an herbed rack of lamb that is paired with a pomegranate rice. We love that recipe so much we cook it often. One day, I made the pomegranate rice but didn't have anything except ground lamb. So, this is the recipe I came up with to pair with the rice.

This recipe is from the book The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia. We do a lot of cooking anyway, but especially with our homeschooling. While doing our ancient Persia lessons, we got this and other Persian cookbooks to try some new recipes.

I do love adding sweet to savory and even like orange flavored Chinese chicken, but I didn't seem to like this dish quite as much. However, my 18-year-old son said it was the best chicken I ever made. So the following day, I made the recipe again and cut down on the orange accents.

We paired it with orange chicken koresh which is a sweet dish which probably would be better balanced with a plain rice dish, but my children loved the combination. Both recipes are from the book The Silk Road Gourmet by Laura Kelley

This is one of the most refreshing salads you'll ever taste! What I love about Persian food is that the ingredients are simple, flavorful and nourishing. Salad Shirzi or Cucumber Salad as I like to call it accompanies many Persian meals.

This has got to be the best tastiest rice in the world!! I'm not a fan of rice, but this is one rice dish, I'll gladly eat. Packed with dates, currants, lentils and fried onions, what's not to love?! I season mine with olive oil, grapeseed oil, salt and saffron. Occasionally if I make a whole roasted chicken to go along with this rice, I'll add my secret ingredient: pan drippings!

Did you know turmeric is so good for you? Aside from being an antioxidant, it's full of other other benefits for your body and brain. I tend to overdo my turmeric consumption, and this is one chicken recipe that's full of it! This chicken dish perfectly accompanies Adas Polo, Zeresh Polo and Baghali Polo.

This recipe is significant. It's marks the point when we have had the most success with a cookbook. That cookbook is The Silk Road Gourmet by Laura Kelley. When putting together our history units, I like to find regional cookbooks as a way to include cooking foods from that culture, region or period in time.

Cardamom Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chunk Cookies, that's a mouthful! And these cookies are worth it. I love how unique they are, for me that is, as we settle into sugar cookies, chocolate chip or white chocolate chip cocoa cookies.

I made a huge batch of shami kebabs! You can cut this recipe down quite a bit, but whenever I make these, because they are so labor intensive to begin with, I make a huge batch and freeze them for easy meals.

Are you looking for a tasty, filling vegan meal? Try Indian Daal! It's fast (if you use my fast recipe), nutritious and delicious. For this recipe, I included many toppings and garnishes we love to include when making Daal, but only if Daal is going to be the main dish rather than a side dish because all these extras that I show take a long time to make.

So the thing is that I only make these during Ramadan, but really, you can make them any time of year. This year, I didn't make them once for Ramadan. And now that Ramadan is over, I'm making up for lost time and turning out samosas like it's nobody's business.

Dahi Pulki or Yogurt Tortilla is a family favorite, especially during Ramadan. We like to break fast with fruit chaat and this layered tortilla dish that's thick with yogurt and fried onions. While this appetizer is a Ramadan family favorite of ours, you could really have it any time of year.

I'm may not be a fan of rice by my family is! Being married to an Indian, I quickly learned how to make the perfect basmati rice from my mother-in-law. Thereafter, I sort of stalled in my skills for rice making and for years made simple basmati rice.

If you've never tried fruit salad with spices, I encourage you to try this. You fruit will get a kick out of it, and so will you! You'll impress your taste buds with cayenne, salt and pepper mixed with sugar and the sweetness of seasonal fruit and fresh juice.

I've been both praised and despised for my tea. Praised because it always tastes so good, cursed because it's so strong that my tea drinkers are usually up until the wee hours of the morning, tossing and turning because they can't sleep.

I've been on the hunt for a cucumber salad recipe that tastes just like the one I love from a local Shabu Shabu restaurant. While this one is so tasty, it's not quite the same. My 10-year-old daughter, however, loved it soooo much and asks me to make it everyday.

These Lebanese meat pies were an immediate winner in our home. Everyone loved them and in the years since we've learned how to make them, we still do with some modifications. The dough is a dense, dry and flavorful dough that bakes up smooth and delicious.

This recipe for a chicken hummus bowl was such a winner in our home, we have since made it often with great success! One thing that will make preparing this dish even faster is to use store bought hummus or make it from a can. I make mine from scratch so I have to plan ahead when I made this.

This isn't your traditional hummus recipe. For one thing, you'll find that I didn't use tahini. While I love tahini and add it often to our homemade hummus, I omitted it this time, and it tastes just as good! Hummus as a food is generally pretty safe for most known allergens.