Matthew Through Acts & Ancient Rome: Lesson Plans for Grades 1-12

Study history, geography, and Bible together as a family!

This year of lesson plans will help the world of Ancient Rome come alive for all your students, grades 1–12. The life of Christ and the events of the early church are studied side-by-side with ancient world history. The study of Rome will take you through many lands as you trace its rise and fall: Italy, Greece, Spain, Macedonia, more of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Older students also complete a study of the book of Romans, which was written to believers in Ancient Rome.

The Charlotte Mason-style lesson plans

• Make the ancient world come alive through living books and Bible readings.
• Help your students listen attentively and recall what was read by narrating.
• Let you teach the whole family together by sharing some books as family read-alouds, then challenging older students with additional reading and writing assignments from other books on the same topic.
• Help all your students, grades 1–12, see how Bible events fit into history.
• Connect geography to the people who lived there—both past and present.
• Keep things simple by providing helpful reminders of upcoming resources, teaching tips, and Book of Centuries entries.

High School Credit

For the completion of grades 7–9 or 10–12 assignments in this Matthew through Acts & Ancient Rome study, we suggest that students should be awarded 1⁄2 credit for History/Geography and 1⁄2 credit for Bible.

Sample Schedule

The lesson plans in Matthew through Acts & Ancient Rome are very doable. Your weekly schedule would look something like this, with older students also spending time on additional assignments:

Book List for History, Geography, Bible

Read the books listed under Family to all the students together. Add the grade-level books as individual reads for any children you have in those grades. For example, if you have students in grades 4 and 8, you will want to get the books under Family, Grades 4–6, and Grades 7–9.

Family

• Bible
• City by David Macaulay
• The Roman Colosseum by Elizabeth Mann
• Peril and Peace (History Lives series, Volume 1) by Withrow
• The Story of the Romans by H. A. Guerber (Nothing New Press, third edition; This edition has 102 chapters and contains some additional helpful material in the Publisher’s Preface. If you have the fourth edition, see these suggestions for adjusting the lesson plans.)
• The Stuff They Left Behind: From the Days of Ancient Rome portfolio
• Then and Now Bible Maps from Rose Publishing
• Visits to Europe notebook (one for each student)
• Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel (used with Visits to Europe)
• Material World by Peter Menzel (used with Visits to Europe)

plus . . .
Grades 1–3

• Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld (optional, can listen in with grades 4–6 if desired)
• Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfeld (optional, can listen in with grades 4–6 if desired)
• Children of the Northlights by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire (optional, used with Visits to Europe)
• Hanna’s Cold Winter by Trish Marx (optional, used with Visits to Europe)
• Katje the Windmill Cat by Gretchen Woelfle (optional, used with Visits to Europe)
• Megan’s Year: An Irish Traveler’s Story by Gloria Whelan (optional, used with Visits to Europe)
• My Tour of Europe: By Teddy Roosevelt, Age 10 edited by Ellen Jackson (optional, used with Visits to Europe)
• Orani: My Father’s Village by Claire A. Nivola OR Book StoreDancing on Grapes by Graziellla Pacini Buonanno (optional, used with Visits to Europe)

Grades 4–6

• Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld
• Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfeld
• Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick
• The British Empire and the Great Divisions of the Globe by Charlotte M. Mason (optional, used with Visits to Europe)

Grades 7–9

• Augustus Caesar’s World by Genevieve Foster
  OR Public Domain Beric the Briton by G. A. Henty and Public Domain For the Temple by G. A. Henty
• Book of Centuries (one for each student)
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
• Discovering Doctrine by Sonya Shafer (one for each student)
• Foundations in Romans by Sonya Shafer (one for each student)
• The British Empire and the Great Divisions of the Globe by Charlotte M. Mason (optional, used with Visits to Europe)

Grades 10–12

• The Apostle: A Life of Paul by John Pollock
• Augustus Caesar’s World by Genevieve Foster
• Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
• Book of Centuries (one for each student)
• Discovering Doctrine by Sonya Shafer (one for each student)
• Foundations in Romans by Sonya Shafer (one for each student)
• Plutarch’s Lives, biographies of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, by Plutarch
• The British Empire and the Great Divisions of the Globe by Charlotte M. Mason (optional, used with Visits to Europe)