{REVIEW} The Good and the Beautiful History Year 4 – Ancient Rome

I am playing catch up with our school reviews – but in November we finished our first history unit of the year! We are in the final year of The Good and the Beautiful history courses! After this year, we will repeat the course cycles again and I am already getting excited to repeat them! But I am getting WAY ahead of myself – focus on YEAR 4!

The MOST exciting part of this year is Sarah is joining us! WOOT WOOT! She was so excited and ready to add history to her learning and we have loved having her!

This unit surprised me a little. I thought it would be more focused on ancient Rome – and in was in ways – but it went a lot broader than I thought it would.

Topics

There are fifteen lessons in this unit. Subjects covered included:

• An Introduction to Ancient Rome
• The Founding of Rome
• The Expansion of Rome
• From Republic to Empire
• Daily Life in Rome
• The Spread of Christianity
• Constantine the Great
• Theodosius I to the Fall of Rome
• The Byzantine Empire
• Muhammad and Islam
• Charlemagne
• The Temple Mount and Pilgrimages to the Holy Land
• The Crusades

Supplies

• Dried beans
• Ancient Greek-style foods (optional)
• Items to Build a Model of a Roman Road (optional)
• A Bible
• A piece of bread
• Medicine
• A scarf or mittens
• A key
• Ingredients to make Muslim Foods (optional)

Student Explorers

If you are new to The Good and the Beautiful History courses, student explorers are where the added learning takes place. These courses are meant to be family style and so this is where things can go into more depth with the higher grades. They have sets for Grades 1 – 3, Grades 4 – 6, Grades 7 – 9, and Grades 10 – 12.

I was a little disappointed with these this year. Not because there is anything wrong with them, but this was the first year Jacob was going to be in the Grades 4- 6 set. However, Grades 4- 6 are exactly the same as Grades 1 – 3. I feel like there should have been some added depth for these grades (sixth grade should have a lot more than first), so I was a little disappointed by this.

There are several timeline pages which you could cut out and place around your space (we do not have the space for that, so we keep them arranged in their history notebook). The timeline pages for this unit covered:

• The Divisions of Time in Rome (Kingdom, Republic, and Empire)
• The Reign of Constantine the Great
• Europe & Middle East (500s – 800s)

There were two maps: the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire; one coloring page for ancient Rome; and a page detailing the Five Pillars of Islam.

There was one history hero (MY FAVORITE!) in this unit: the Apostle Paul! We learned about his powerful testimony and how it impacted the world, including ancient Rome.

Maps & Images

The Year 4 Course does not contain a Big Book of History Stories, but only a maps and images book. This book has large colorful maps and pictures that help enhance the lessons. This unit had maps and images of:

• Rome
• The Extent of the Roman Republic and Empire
• Palatine Hill
• The Roman Forum
• The Colosseum
• The Pantheon
• The Baths of Caracalla
• Aqueduct in France
• Roman Roads
• The Missionary Journeys of the Apostle Paul
• Hagia Sophia
• Byzantine Mosaics
• The Byzantine Empire
• The Frankish Empire
• The Temple Mount
• Richard I the Lionheart

Read Aloud

During this unit we read A Triumph for Flavius by Caroline Dale Snedeker. This is a REALLY quick read. It is simple but gives a decent glimpse into life in ancient Rome. It follows a young Roman whose father brings home a slave from a war conquest. They learn from one another. It shows what life was like for both the wealthy and the poor and how Rome was influenced by the nations it conquered.

As always, I like to have my kiddos read some additional books in their personal reading that go along with our unit. I had a tricky time finding books for their reading levels. I did have Jacob read Attack at the Arena by Marianne Hering and Paul McCusker. This is yet another Imagination Station book. Jacob has LOVED this series, but it is definitely getting a little easy for him. This is a great book for Grades 2- 4 or ages 7 – 9ish.

Our Favorite Activities

This unit didn’t have too many activities and I am honestly a-okay with that! Simplicity is just fine with me and I feel like the different components of history give it enough variation (lesson, audio stories, student explorers). But the kids love whenever we can add FOOD to the mix. We ate some Greek-style food (which they would have eaten during the time of ancient Rome) and also made some hummus and had some yogurt and cucumbers when we talked about Islam.

Final Thoughts

This unit was another winner! As I said at the beginning, it was a little different than I expected. It felt like we left ancient Rome and I was not expecting to dive into Islam and the Crusades but it still worked somehow! I loved being able to talk about the history and beliefs of Islam and it actually set us up really well once we got into the next unit on the reformation.

To try out The Good and the Beautiful History Year 4 course CLICK HERE.

History Reviews

The Good and the Beautiful History Year 1

I have not written a formal review of this course, but we did complete it and I would love to answer any questions you may have.

The Good and the Beautiful History Year 2

• Unit 1: Ancient Greece and Ancient Asia
• Unit 2: Vikings, Exploration, and Pre-Columbian America
• Unit 3: Colonial America & the U.S. Constitution
• Unit 4: History of U.S. Education & WWI through the Great Depression

The Good and the Beautiful History Year 3

• Unit 1: Ancient Mesopotamia & Ancient Israel
• Unit 2: Ancient Africa & Native North Americans
• Unit 3: Westward Expansion and Industrialization
• Unit 4: World War II