Posts Tagged ‘Ancient Rome’

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Roman Coins Craft

Monday, October 21st, 2013

Roman-coins-craft

If you are studying Ancient Rome or the time when Christ walked the earth, you can make this Roman coins craft with your children.

You will need the following items:

  • white self-hardening clay
  • wax paper or plastic placemat
  • rolling pin
  • toothpick, butter knife, or sculpting tool
  • lid of a bottle
  • metal spatula
  • gold spray paint
  • newspaper
  • a copper leafing pen

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Start by rolling the white self-hardening clay out with a rolling pin. It helps if you have wax paper or a plastic placemat under it. With a bottle cap, stamp out some coins. If you want larger coins and smaller coins, you could use 2 or 3 different sizes of lids. Just look in your refrigerator, and take a lid off something.

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Grab a toothpick, a butter knife, or a sculpting tool and carve a picture of Caesar on your coins. Using a metal spatula, remove each coin and place on wax paper to dry for 2 days.

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Spray paint the coins a gold color. Let dry for a day. With the copper leafing pen (which I bought at Fred Meyer for a couple of dollars), color the top of the coin, so that the grooves are lighter than the top of the coin. Let it dry. You are now finished with your coins, and you can play with them.

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You can use this Roman coins craft to illustrate many Scriptures referring to coins:

  • The widow who put in 2 mites to the coin collection at the Temple, and Jesus said that she had given more than anyone else because she gave everything she had.
  • The woman who lost a coin and swept her entire house to find it, and was overjoyed when it was found. That’s how the angels rejoice when a person is saved.
  • Any number of times that Jesus talked about money. The love of money is the root of all evil, and the rich young ruler couldn’t be saved because he loved money more than Jesus.

If you liked this Roman coins craft, you will love Using Simple Costumes and Props to Teach the Bible. You receive this 2-hour video for free when you sign up for the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has an enormous Bible section that you will love!

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Posted in Bible | 19 Comments »

Ancient Rome Comedy Show

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Ancient-Rome-comedy-show

Here is the Ancient Rome Comedy Show put on by my four children as a culminating activity for our Ancient Rome Unit Study. We painted a Colosseum backdrop and made a red Roman chariot out of a chair. The children wore either simple white tunics or Roman soldier costumes I picked up at yard sales.

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Posted in History | 4 Comments »

Rummy Roots Card Game

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

rummy-roots-card-game

Rummy Roots is a card game where your children can learn Greek and Latin root words. In the pre-Rummy Roots game, you match the English word to the Greek or Latin word. It’s like a go-fish game. In the real Rummy Roots card game, you join two or more Greek or Latin roots together to form English words. This is a lot harder and wasn’t as fun for my kids as the easier version of the game.

game-to-help-kids-learn-latin

My 10-year-old son was the only one that liked the real Rummy Roots game better than the easier version, so if you have high school students, you can probably skip to the real game and be fine. This game would definitely help in building vocabulary for reading comprehension as well as improve SAT scores.

game-to-learn-latin-roots

learn-latin-roots

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Posted in History | 4 Comments »

Don’t Study Latin

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

study-latinI grew up speaking Spanish, and because I know Spanish, I automatically know all the Latin root words. Latin is a dead language. It’s dead. Nobody speaks it. With the same amount of time you would use to study Latin, you can learn a language that you can use to communicate with other people. Millions of people, for example, speak Spanish.

At the risk of ticking people off (and the more you’re ticked off, the more it’s probably true), I would like to say that people who study Latin are snobs. Yep. Go on and throw tomatoes. I’m good at dodging.

Look, if you have a classical bent to your homeschool, you’re obviously a thinking person. You’ve chosen the most rigorous style of homeschooling, probably for the sake of your children having a better, higher education than you did. (I myself have a classical bent, since I was a literature major in college and was an English teacher for years. So don’t get mad that I don’t like the classical mind set, because this would not be true.)

All I’m saying is that the study of Latin is dreadfully boring. You’re punishing your children. Are you just checking off the boxes of what you should do for a classical education just to say you did it? Or worse, to boast about your children? Then refer to paragraph 2. (Ouch, that wasn’t a tomato. Keep reading. Maybe you’ll like me after all.)

If you absolutely must study a classical language, choose Greek. At least with the study of Greek you can understand the Word of God better. Plus, the people of Greece actually speak Greek. I’ve been to Greece, and I’ve heard Greek being spoken. It’s definitely a live language. So, you see, I’m not dissing all classical languages, just the ones that have no practical use.

The bottom line is this: our time is precious and limited. Don’t you want the greatest amount of good done in the least amount of time? If you can actually learn the Latin roots while at the same time learning a real live language that is the second language of our country, why not do it?

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Posted in History | 52 Comments »

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