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.
