Learning About Ancient Rome {Story of the World}

This summer we finished up The Story of the World Volume 1: Ancient Times, and spent a lot of time learning about ancient Rome.  Here's a bit of what we did...

A lot of the craft ideas for our homeschool unit on ancient Rome came from the book Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome by Laurie Carlson.  These Roman sandals were made out of craft felt that we already had around the house.  Aren't they cute?  The kids (ages 5, 5, and 3 at the time) had a great time wearing togas around the house.  Convincing them to take baths was a breeze when I told them they were going into the Roman bathhouses.

We checked out some additional books from the library describing Roman engineering.  The girls learned about Roman roads and remembered that the Romans invented concrete when we were observing some construction recently.  They enjoyed making a model of a Roman aqueduct (pictured above).

Roman numerals were fun to integrate into our math lessons.  I made a little play store for the twins, where all the prices were written in Roman numerals.

I found an online printable for Roman soldier helmets, and of course we added shields and daggers.  Even little brother (3 years old) had a great time dressing up (and going into battle):

A new favorite game became reenacting Julius Caesar vs. the Celts.  This was especially appealing because the Celts fought naked, spiked their hair, and painted their bodies with blue paint.  Yes, I actually let the kids do this, much to the shock of my mess-averse husband!  (pictures are not web-appropriate, though).  Fun times!!