An Engaging Way to Explore Ancient History Through Literature

Check out the fun and engaging way we have explored Ancient History through Literature!! You will love it as much as we did!

Though I was compensated for this post, the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. 

This year has been a fun focus on Ancient History! We’ve learned about the Greek and Roman Gods, we studied the Roman Empire, and we learned about the numerous wars that engulfed that time period.

All our history didn’t just come from a textbook though. Some of our most engaging conversations revolved around literature with an ancient civilization setting. 

 These books from Beautiful Feet brought our history to life and helped us dive deeper into history. 

Exploring Ancient History Through Literature

So we love books! We have way more books than we need, but we ALWAYS get excited when new books show up at our doorstep.

One cold winter morning, a soft knock preceded by a thump alerted my children to a package on our doorstep. As with any package, they all crowded around pushing for the best view to see what we got. And this box didn’t let us down at all.

This box was filled with 13 colorful books that grabbed my children’s excitement. I was even a little amazed at the quality of the 13 books all about Ancient History. They each grabbed one and began looking through them. 

But one, in particular, caught our eye, and before any “lesson” could happen we found ourselves examining the pictures and reading through it. 

It was the Encylopedia of the Ancient World. I have to share this book first! It is the glue to this series. It ties the fiction in with real facts. And it provides a wealth of knowledge!

All my children gravitated immediately to this book, and since we have been learning about the ancient world, I soon was hearing a lot of great conversation.

“Is that really Ur?”

“Ohhh, Egyptian Mummies!”

“Hey, it is Mesopotamia!!!”

“Is that a Greek god or a Roman god?”

This book is the highlight of the whole pack!!! It’s bright and vivid pictures make it fun for even my young kiddos, and the information is perfect for my fact loving oldest child. 

A Day with Beautiful Feet: 

The excitement from the day before did not die down for my oldest. He was thrilled the next day when I asked him to get out his reading notebook, The Golden Bull, and The Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. 

The packet comes with a Teacher’s Guide that guides you through different activities that you can do or not do depending on your child.

As suggested in the guide, we began by reading a part of the Golden Bull Book. But later that week, we began to research info that was presented in the book. With help from the guide, we got to do a lot of activities that increased our learning. 

• We read in the Ancient History Encylopedia about Ur, the kings, trade, and craftsmen. (All of the things had been discussed in the Golden Bull, and helped him see where the fiction was and where the facts were. 
• We drew maps that helped my oldest recognize the places he had read about in the book and had learned during our history time…..I love it when connections are made!!!
• There was a chance to define words he had read, and that extended some of the learning we had already done on Ancient History. 
• And one of my favorites was creating a Venn Diagram. We compared the main characters life to our life. It was a great discussion and a wonderful opportunity to be grateful for our blessings. Life was so much harder back in those days!

We learned so much going through the Golden Bull….and learning is important. But what is also important is that the book is interesting. It got to the point where my oldest was begging to keep reading. He desperately wanted to see how the story ended…and of course, I let him finish it. 

Then we went back to do some more of the wonderful hands-on activities. 

What else comes in the Ancient History Unit?

A Teaching Guide With Hands-On Activities

With four kids on all different levels, life is crazy busy. I need simplicity in my life, and the teaching guide provides this. 

• There are fun hands-on activities that help my child explore ancient history.
• I knew what vocabulary to preview with my sweet boy.
• And when he had finished his reading for the day, I was provided with questions that led to meaningful discussions. 
• The guide also helps the student, and the mom, connect the historical fiction book to actual events in history. 

Timeline Activities:  

Once again I have to reiterate how easy Beautiful Feet has made it to connect the engaging historical Fiction books with events in Ancient History. 

The interactive timeline is another easy way they make this happen. The guide clues you in on when to add an event to the timeline. Then, there are fun pictures to color and add to the timeline…… which, by the way, makes a great wall decoration. 

Ancient History Living Books :

At the beginning of the school year, I found myself on the library website searching for books that might cover what we were learning. Sometimes I would hit the jackpot and find the perfect book. Other times the story was boring or maybe it was too hard to read. Until I went to the library to pick up the book I didn’t know. I spent a lot of time looking for books for my son to read. 

When Ancient History by Beautiful Feet showed up at my doorstep, I knew I had found a great fit. All the books are on a Middle School level, and we haven’t found a boring one yet. They are well written and spark the imagination. These are books I probably wouldn’t have found on my own. But now they are at my fingertips without any more searching the library database and making trips back and forth to the library….oh and paying library fees because we didn’t get it back in time. Whoops!!!

Geography Through Literature

Even with my children memorizing geography locations weekly, I don’t enjoy teaching it. The guide though once again came to my rescue and makes it apart of the lesson. For example, while reading the Golden Bull, it was suggested that we research where the semiprecious jewels used by Sidah. Then using the map provided in the guide….yep, I didn’t have to find one and print it…..we labeled where each jewel came from. Then we labeled other landmarks that we had read about or are important to understanding the Ancient World.

We love Beautiful Feet. Last year we went through their geography study and it was just as good as this study is!! Next year, I know our focus will Medieval Times. And I can’t wait to grab that series!

You’ve Got This,

Rachel