Celebrating 7, and Rome wasn't built in a day...

Over the weekend W turned 7 years old. His party will be next week, but he had a fun time on his birthday going out for lunch, getting fish to finally add to the tank (black neon tetra and two snails), going to a dinner at church, and then having dessert at home. In addition to the fish, he got a lego game: Minotaurus, Peanuts figurines to act out his favorite comic stories, and an Absolutely Lucy book (thank you Aunt Cassy!) I have been taking pictures but unfortunately the puppies have chewed the camera USB cord and it is no longer working to transfer them, so we will have to deal with phone photos until the new cord arrives.

W has been learning about ancient Rome through The Story of the World. He and I put together the Haba version of the Coliseum, and read about gladiators. He then acted it out with lego minifigures.

our Coliseum

In SotW, a fictional character called Servius is taken from his rural village, and forced to become a gladiator or face execution. He does not want to fight, but faced with death, he continues with the training, and eventually is put in the arena. When he overpowered another fighter who was on the ground at his mercy, the audience "booed" because he did not kill him. Servius would rather die than kill another man. Although Romans are notorious for being bloodthirsty, there were some exceptions, and I appreciated that the author chose this chapter to add some compassion to an otherwise brutal scene. W is not into blood and guts either, so it helped him relate to this ancient society and feel empathy for Servius and the other people forced into being Gladiators.

W read the book Fun with Roman Numerals by David A. Adler (pictured above). It is a colorful introduction to the concept of Roman Numerals. We are also reading City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction. This is best as a parent-read-aloud selection. The illustrations are marvelous, and the text introduces technical terms and concepts while inspiring play building with blocks.

For a Math update, W has been upping his work a couple pages more per day in Math-U-See Alpha, so I think that is more challenging for him while still being reasonable. I think at this rate we will be able to start the next book, Beta, during the summer. He requested to keep going with Math over the summer (at least for most "at home" days) after some frustration picking it back up in August last year.