Matthew through Acts & Ancient Rome Links and Tips

The Links and Tips below are related to our book Matthew through Acts & Ancient Rome. This study combines all your students, grades 1–12, for a full year of Bible, history, and geography. Be sure to check back here from time to time because we will be adding new and updated resources related to the book as we get them. If you have some resources that you’d like to recommend, let us know!

Complete Year’s Book List

See the complete list of books recommended in this study by grade level and with recommendations for where to find each book.

Changes for The Story of the Romans, fourth edition

Matthew through Acts & Ancient Rome was written using the third edition of The Story of the Romans. Since then a fourth edition has been released. This download gives details on the differences between the editions and explains how to pencil in adjustment to the Matthew through Acts plans if you have the fourth edition.

Optional Hands-on Projects and Activities

Here are some ideas for hands-on projects that you can use during your study of Ancient Rome.

Learn Latin

Three resources that we like are Minimus: Starting Out in Latin for 7–10 year olds, Getting Started with Latin for 4th through 12th graders, and the Cambridge Latin Course also for 4th through 12th graders.

Roman Numerals

This history study makes a great backdrop for learning Roman numerals. Practice writing your phone number, age, address, zip code.

Roman Name Calendar

The names of the months on our calendar have come down to us from Ancient Rome. Use the names on this chart of the Julian Calendar to make a Roman year calendar of your own, or write Roman names on a modern-day calendar, and use it throughout the year.

Roman Feast

Prepare and partake of a Roman feast in traditional style. Here are some details about Roman meals and real Roman recipes.

Mosaics and Murals

Try your hand at creating pictures using mosaic squares. You can experiment with squares of various colors of paper. When you’re ready, you can tackle re-creating one of these Ancient Roman mosaics.

Games

Build and play one or more of the Roman board games mentioned in this article.

Virtual Tour of a Roman Fort

Take a virtual tour of Housesteads Fort on Hadrian’s Wall.

Technology Behind the Colosseum

Explore behind the scenes of the Colosseum and learn how this massive construction project was engineered.

Optional Resources

• Life in Ancient Rome Coloring Book from Dover Publications—These pictures are quite detailed with a brief explanation on each one. Older students might want to use colored pencils or even watercolor paints.
• Roman Empire Expansion Maps—This video is a great resource to use along with the map drill in the lesson plans. You can see on the map all the land the Roman Empire controlled through the years. As you work your way through the time periods, you will be able to see how the Roman Empire expanded and then contracted again as it lost control over many regions. Highly recommended.

Corresponding Maps in Deluxe Then and Now Bible Maps

If you have the Deluxe Then and Now Bible Maps edition, the map numbers will be different from those listed in the lesson plans using Then and Now Bible Maps. The list below should help you find the corresponding maps in the Deluxe version.

Note: Maps 35 and 36 in Deluxe Then and Now Bible Maps have Paul’s journeys already mapped if you would prefer simply to follow his routes as you read instead of tracing them on the larger map overlay.

Links Related to the Older First Edition

Oxford First Ancient History book

We recommend replacing the readings from the now-out-of-print Oxford First Ancient History book with living biographies of the early church fathers who lived in Ancient Rome, such as the stories found in Trial and Triumph or Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church.

Lesson 28

Thanks to Sue in MN for helping us update this lesson. Lesson 28 says to label Yugoslavia on the map. But Yugoslavia no longer exists. It has been broken up into the countries of:

1. Bosnia & Herzegovina
2. Croatia
3. Macedonia
4. Montenegro
5. Serbia & Kosovo
6. Slovenia

The handbook already had us label Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia so we just labeled these others also.

Lesson 29

You may enjoy reading “Horatius” the poem by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay. You can find it at EnglishVerse.com.

Other Links Shared

• Rome Antics by David Macaulay — Thanks to Michelle for recommending this title: “It is along the lines of ‘Traveler in Rome’ but the Cliff Notes version. More like portraits of Rome built around a short story of a homing pigeon delivering an important message. Great when you have young ones piggy backing lessons. My 6 yo got much more out this than Traveler thanks to the descriptions in the back of the book but my 10 & 12 yo’s still enjoyed it.”
• An audio recording of Famous Men of Rome can be found on LibriVox. It’s not the Greenleaf Publisher’s version, but it could help a lot with pronunciation of those names. (Thanks to Rachelle for suggesting it!)