The Book of the Ancient Romans Set {Crew Review}

We have used a few of the Latin programs from Memoria Press, including Latina Christiana and First Form Latin, but we never included a focused study of Roman history. Studying the history of Rome is commonly part of a Latin course. We had the opportunity to review The Book of the Ancient Romans Set from Memoria Press which is just perfect to add to those Latin studies!

Turtlegirl is my lover of all things Latin and when I discussed using The Book of Ancient Rome along with the Student Guide to flesh out her Latin Studies she was very excited. As soon as the box arrived she absconded with the book and disappeared.

The Book of The Ancient Romans Set includes the the history book, a Student Guide and a Teacher guide. Originally written in the 1920s by Dorothy Mills, the history book went out of print.  Memoria Press has republished the book and produced the Student and Teacher Guides. This program could easily be a full year history course for middle school aged children. This program can be used by high school students but older students will want to work through the program at a quicker pace. We found this to be a wonderful supplement to supply a study of Ancient Rome to go with our Latin Studies.

There are 25 chapters in the book which are divided into 26 Lessons in the Student Guide. Each Lesson lists the corresponding pages of the book in parenthesis. Older students can work independently by reading the pages and then completing the assignments in the Student Guide. After every 5 lessons there is a review lesson. Tests are included in the Teacher Guide and can be given after Review Lesson.

Each lesson of the Student Guide contains four parts:

1. Facts to Know ~ Many of these are people, some are vocabulary words
2. Vocabulary ~ These are words the student needs to define
3. Comprehension Questions ~ These are more essay type questions. They are not simple fill in the blank or multiple choice. Each question is followed by several blank lines.
4. Activities ~ I think this is my favorite section. Most of the activities are timeline and map work assignments but some are writing assignments such as “Research and write a paragraph on the history of the calendar” or “Research the persecution of Christians during Nero’s reign. Write a paragraph describing how Christian beliefs differed from the Roman religion.”

TurtleGirl's Thoughts:

I very much enjoy working through this. I like how the questions are usually about the "main players" or main events. I also like how concise the questions are. Also, the period of workbook time to reading time is a little skewed, since most of the time I spend more time doing the required reading for that lesson than I do working through the workbook. This is not specifically a problem, but it is something I noticed. In addition, I like the fact that, aside from Mom grading and checking my work, I am almost entirely independent. This works really well for us.

 

My Thoughts:

I think this program would make a great spine for a complete Ancient Rome study for multiple ages. Mom could read the book aloud and require independent reading appropriate for different ages. She could use the workbook as is for grades 6 and up and use some of the Comprehension Questions for group discussion or oral narration with the youngers.

I really like how this can be used independently by older students. The Teacher Guide is really more of an answer key rather than a tool to help teach but I appreciated having the answers so that I could easily check Turtlegirl’s work without having to read the book and figure out the answers myself. I also really liked that the tests were included with the Teacher Guide.

Turtlegirl notes that the reading and workbook are relatively easy for her, and suggests that for more advanced students, the Book of The Ancient Romans be used as either a supplement for a Latin Course, or a supplement for a larger Ancient Civilizations course. 

The Details:

• The Vendor:  Memoria Press
• The Product: The Book of the Ancient Romans Set
• The Author:  Book ~ Dorothy Mills  Student and Teacher Guides ~ Matthew Anderson
• Format: Paperback
• Price:  $39.95
• Also Available: In addition to the Romans Set, the Schoolhouse Review Crew also reviewed Latina Christiana I Complete Set and Famous Men of Rome Set
• Note:  PDF Samples of the text, student guide and teacher guide are available on the product page along with a PDF of the Table of Contents.

 

All information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.

You can read my other Schoolhouse Review Crew Reviews to find more great products.

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