Our Busy Homeschool: Roman Town software

Homeschool is not all hitting the books to learn. Far from it, as a matter of fact! Our family has been learning information about life in an ancient Roman town called Fossura (destroyed in 79AD by Mount Vesuvius), and about being an archeologist - all while play a computer game. Roman Town, from Dig-It! Games, has 6 levels that take you through the main rooms in a Roman home and is targeted to 5th-8th graders.

You begin each level at the archeological dig, uncovering artifacts as you manage a crew of diggers. After recovering the artifacts in the level you go to the tent. The tent is your mobile field lab. Here you can learn more about each artifact with the interactive built-in encyclopedia. Players sort artifacts into crates, from mosaics and pottery to glass, metal, and more.

Then each level has several activities on the table. These must be completed before you can make your report. In the Old and New game you match up artifacts with the items we use today for the same jobs: Some levels have a game where you do a 2D reconstruction of a mosaic with the pieces you dug up earlier, or even a 3D reconstruction of jars like this one: Before you can leave a level you fill out a report about all you have learned, which is a great review opportunity.

What We Thought: We had 4 people play Roman Town at my house so I’ll share each one’s perspective.

Makayla, at 9 years old, was the one thrilled to play Roman Town, and the only child able to play it independently. She has already completed the entire game (6 levels). She loved learning more about Roman life and was able to complete the reports and move through each level.
Joseph, age 6, liked some of the activities in Roman Town. However, the game does not speak to the player and teach them about each item, you have to read all instructions and information off the screen. Being a beginning reader, he had to have someone with him the whole time to read the screen to him. He also preferred the games to the information areas, so he did not want to learn more information about the artifacts. This meant he could not complete the reports correctly, and could not pass the levels without someone to fill the report in for him.
Emma, age 5, only liked the 2D and 3D reconstructions. She was not able to read the instructions and had no interest in the game beyond doing those two games.
Mommy, age 29, oh wait! that’s me. I played Roman Town as well to see just what it was like. I sat down with the goal of making it through the whole game as fast as possible. I completed it in less than 2 hours. However, I already knew quite a bit about Roman life and did not need to read too deeply about each artifact to be able to pass the report for each level.

Ultimately, we enjoyed Roman Town for the fun and the learning value. Makayla has asked if there are any more levels, as she finished the game in just a few short weeks. At the moment there are not. We will pull the game out again when we study ancient Rome in a few years. I have a feeling it will be a fun supplement for my children who were still too young to really play independently this time. I do not think the game is long enough for the price, honestly. Spending $39.95 for something my kids will finish in less than 3 weeks isn’t really in our homeschool budget, but every family is different.

If you have a budding archeologist or ancient Rome enthusiast, I have good news. Between now and February 21, 2011 you can get Roman Town for $19.96 with the code TOS2011 .

You can learn more about Roman Town by reading my Crewmates’ reviews.

{Disclaimer: I received a free download copy of Roman Town for the purposes of review. I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}