Grade 6 – Roman History

Now that the school year is officially wrapped up, I will try to post the children’s finished books as I find the time.

One of our favorite blocks of the year was Roman History. Such rich stories, filled with inspiring, brave, cruel, and even amusing characters! And there are so many opportunities to discuss moral issues, as the struggles of the Romans are so very relatable to our modern ideas of loyalty, patriotism and justice.

To present the stories of Ancient Rome, I listened to Eugene Schwartz’s conference. This was the most inspiring resource for me. I also found a few things in Live Ed that were helpful (particularly the stories of the first seven kings of Rome). Live Ed recommends the source books by Livy, which I read as well. I really only found Livy helpful for the first seven kings, and maybe a bit during the republic, but it is difficult and slow at times. He does go on and on about this person and that… he is essentially recording just about every historical event of Ancient Rome, and that is just too much to cover, in my opinion. But it was helpful for my study, and I did read some passages to my daughter.

Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books I-V

Ancient Rome by Charles Kovacs was an excellent resource:

Ancient Rome (Waldorf Education Resources)

We also checked out several books from the local library that illustrated the life in Ancient Rome:

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction

Augustus Caesar’s World

I came across this book after the block, and it looks very good. I think I may try it out next time:

Famous Men Of Rome: History for the Thoughtful Child

The cover and table of contents were made at the end of the year:

We began with a review of Aeneas, who escaped the burning of Troy and finally settling in what would someday be Rome.

Next we studied the first seven kings of Rome, beginning with Romulus:

 

 

Lucius Tarquinius’ hat was stolen by an eagle, which according to his wife, was a sign that he was meant to be king of Rome:

 

 

 

One of the most inspiring stories of the Republic of Rome is that of Horatius bravely guarding the bridge to Rome. There is a very long and beautiful poem called ‘Horatius’ by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay that is in the The Waldorf Book of Poetry: Discover the Power of Imagination, but it can also be found many places online. She put part of the poem in her book, and she absolutely fell in love with the whole piece, so she is trying to learn it. It is 8 or 9 pages long, and she has so far learned about half of it! She wants to continue working on it over the summer, but we’ll have to see how that works out!

 

 

We talked about Roman decadence and the differences between the plebeians and patricians. It is said that the very wealthy would eat lying down, being served by slaves, and left their food waste on the floor to be cleaned up by slaves!

 

 

The portrait of Julius Caesar was made with watercolor pencils.

 

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to hear Eugene Schwartz’s lectures in his sixth grade conference about the life of Jesus. We spent a week or so on the subject, and my daughter was thrilled to have the story completed for her in the context of history. Absolutely wonderful. She chose to draw the Flight into Egypt in soft pastels because “they are easier than pencils”. She really wanted to go out an play!

 

She may not have gone out to play on the day she drew Constantine. This beautiful drawing took a couple of hours, but we were all very pleased with it!

 

We saw these paintings of the famous Roman aqueducts somewhere in our Waldorf School Calendar, and had to give them a try. My daughter’s painting is on the left, mine is on the right.