Memoria Press is known for their excellent classical education curriculum. We have been reviewing an item designed for grades 4-8 called the Famous Men of Rome Set.
The Famous Men of Rome Set is designed to be a year-long classical curriculum for students to learn about amazing characters in the true story of Roman history.
The Famous Men of Rome Set currently retails for $39.95 and includes the soft cover text book, student guide, and teacher manual.
The text book is 157 pages and contains a total of 25 lessons, or stories, to read. It also has a Glossary of People and Places and a few full color maps.
The student guide is 120 pages and includes lessons for each of the 25 stories, as well as review lessons for every 5 stories. This makes a total of 30 lessons to be completed, making this roughly a full-year classical curriculum.
The teacher guide is 172 pages and includes everything in the student text, but with answers in the blanks. It also includes some extra tests at the end that are not found in the student guide, as I will explain below.
Lesson plans and flashcards are available on the Memoria Press website for purchase as well if you choose to purchase them instead of making them up on your own. We were able to do these on our own, but I love that they have the option as a time saver for busy families.
How We Used Famous Men of Rome
I used this with my 10 year old daughter. The format we came up with to tackle this new curriculum was a pretty straightforward and easy one. Basically, we divided each lesson into 5 days of work.
On the first day, we read the first lesson from the text book. I liked this, because the text was somewhat challenging, but the stories were exciting. There were also illustrations and full-colored art to accompany each lesson’s reading.
After we read it, I had my daughter turn to the pages for that lesson in her student guide and go to the Facts to Know section. I had her make flashcards with the name or vocabulary word and the description that was given in that section. We hung on to these for future reference.
On the second day, we reviewed the flashcards that had been made for that lesson. Then we tackled the Vocabulary section in the student guide. This was certainly difficult for many of the words, so she got a lot of dictionary practice here!
On the third day, she completed the Comprehension Questions in the student guide. These were around 6-8 short answer questions that referred back to the story. We did have to look at the text again for these. I also had her review her flashcards for this lesson again.
On the fourth day, she began working on the Activities in the student guide. There were 1-5 activities listed here. Sometimes it was a writing assignment. There were also drawing assignments. She also got to do some map work. Several activities required her to do some research, which we mostly completed online. I also had her review her flashcards again.
On the fifth day, I had her review her flashcards and finish any of the activities that she had not yet completed.
Every 5 lessons in the book, there is a review lesson. These review lessons are quite lengthy and are a comprehensive review test of the previous 5 chapters. These alone can easily take a week to complete. It addresses all of the vocabulary, Roman history and Latin vocabulary, important dates and people, “Who Said That?” of important quotes, and a geography review.
The appendix of the student guide also includes many helpful resources, such as a European Geography Supplement, Roman History Timeline, and even a Pronunciation Guide. We referred to that one a lot!
The teacher guide includes very detailed answers to every question raised in the student guide. Not only that, but it also includes a Final Test that can be given that covers everything! It reviews Dates and Places, Who Am I?, What Am I?, and Things. This essentially quizzes them on all of the things they made flashcards for and more. There is also a 27 question European Geography Test, which is a map for them to fill in once they lessons have been completed.
I have been impressed with how thorough the teacher’s guide is. There is no question about what the correct answer might be. Not only are the questions written very plainly, but the answers are direct and precise. I love that this is a no-fluff curriculum.
We have enjoyed doing the lessons and hope to continue them. They are full of information, rich in vocabulary and geography. We have both been learning a lot just through reading the stories and then working through the problems. Yes, I have probably learned just as much as she has so far, and I can’t see that changing any time soon.
These lessons are much more in-depth than I recall during my own elementary years. I’ve had to adjust my expectations for her answers a bit based on the fact that she is not used to doing so much memory work, but it is coming more easily to her now that she’s had a few weeks of working this way. It is important to have a system and stick to it, because taking time off from these lessons makes remembering the information difficult.
Making the flashcards to go along with it has been essential for her to retain the main information as well. This drilling has helped her tremendously, and I’m anxious to see how she will do on the year-end test!
Would you like to find out what others thought of this set? There were also Schoolhouse Review Crew folks reviewing the Latina Christiana I Complete Set and The Book of the Ancient Romans Set, so be sure to check those out as well by clicking on the banner below:
