Famous Men of Rome Set is designed to be a 30 week, workbook style course that features the rise and fall of Rome told through 30 stories. Included in this course, from Memoria Press are numerous maps of Rome, Italy, and the Roman Empire as well as a glossary of important people and places.
For this review I received three physical books from Memoria Press:
- Text ~ The text which in written is story book format is 188 pages long. It contains 30 stories, a glossary of people and places, and maps of Italy, Rome and the Roman Empire. There are also beautiful, full color pictures throughout the text.
- Student Guide ~ The study guide is divided into six different sections: facts to know, vocabulary, comprehension questions, activities, appendix and reviews. Each chapter has facts to know, vocabulary, comprehension questions and activities. The reviews are found at the end of each set of five chapters (i.e. chapters 1-5 review, chapters 6-10 review…)
- Teachers Manual ~ In addition to providing the answers to the student guide, the Teachers Manual also contains an appendix with supplemental material, the six tests which each cover 5 chapters and the European geography test.
Famous Men of Rome is designed to be used for students in grades 4-8. For the review, I had Adisyn work in the Student Book however Brock, Adisyn and I read the stories together and covered many of the questions orally.
The text began with the Roman mythology story of the god Mars falling in love with Sylvia and her becoming pregnant with Romulus and Remus. After giving birth to the boys, the legend goes, that her uncle gave the orders to have Sylvia put to death and to have the two infants thrown into the Tiber. The boys, who were placed in a sturdy basket, survived and landed at the foot of Palatine hill. They were then raised by a she-wolf.
Immediately after reading the first chapter I had to field LOTS of questions about Roman mythology. Although Memoria Press is a Christian based company, they began with the mythological story of Romulus and Remus which we all know to be untrue; however that is the traditional story of Rome’s beginning. Other famous Romans who are included in Famous Men of Rome are Horatius, Julius Caesar, Augustus and Nero, just to name a few.
I have to say, that when I began reading the first chapter, I was surprised that it was based solely on Roman mythology. The second chapter talked more about some of the many gods the Romans believed in and worshiped. From there the focus changed away from mythological stories to more history. Once we got past the first couple chapters the kids seemed to enjoy Famous Men of Rome more. (Initially, they were very alarmed about reading about events that they knew hadn’t happened.)
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Blessings,
Jennifer
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