Inspire Your Child’s Curiosity in Archaelogy

I found another great gem at the largest manufacturers trade toy show, a.k.a the Toy Fair, earlier this year.  It’s a computer game called Roman Town*.  Roman town simulates a real archaeology dig in which your child is the archaeologist managing workers (diggers) in an archaeological excavation.  Kids uncover artifacts and discover how their various pieces fit together and how they were used in Roman times.

Roman Town, was created by Suzi Wilczynski, founder Dig-It! Games.  Wilcyznski, a professional archaeologist, and past middle school teacher, saw the need for kids to interact with history to better comprehend and be excited about it.

My son and daughter took to Roman Town right away.  They played it nearly non-stop, so excited to complete all of the digs.

Roman starts out in the Dig-It! office where an e-mail is received about a great site to escavate in an ancient Roman town.  The e-mail is asking for help in escavating the site.  Once your child adds her/his name when asked, s/he arrives at the site.

There are six different areas to dig up at the site.   Each area ends up being a different room of an ancient Roman house.  Each room contains the escavation site, some games, and a journal where your child writes the answers s/he remembers learning about throughout each room of the game.  The other rooms cannot be accesses until the child successfully completes the first area.

Once the dig begins, the child selects workers (red stick figures) and the right tool for the area they worker will be digging in.  My five-year-son in particular enjoyed managing the workers.  As soon as the worker finds something, they signal your child with a green bubble so your child can do the rest of the work…the fun part…just taking off the last layer of dirt.

Here your child uses the trowel to uncover some shards of frescoes, painted on the walls.  Later, your child will put chard pieces together to discover how objects originally looked like.

Once an item is completely uncovered, Roman Town describes the item and how it was used.  By clicking on the L.E.A.R.N button, a child can get even more details.  My children loved learning about how ancient Romans used various objects.

Each area of the game has various activities to explore.  There is an area to sort the various artifacts and shards your child finds, there’s a quiz, a tour of how a room would have looked in Roman Times, a fun Roman game to play called Calculi, and lastly a Report to fill out documenting your child’s findings.

Once all the activities are completed in one of the escavated rooms, your child fills out a Report, filling in the blanks in the journal with word below the journal to make it more complete.  Your child must go back and relearn anything s/he does not know so s/he can fill in the blanks correctly.  Once this Report page is complete and correct, you child can move onto the next area of the house.

A Mom’s Perspective

Any game that engages my kids, especially my daughter, into the world of science, history, and archaeology is a win in my book.  Role-playing games, like Roman Town, stretch your kids’ imagination and give them the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes to see the possibility of “what if I become” a certain profession.

The graphics are a little crude, not nearly as advanced as today’s video games, but don’t think for a moment that it won’t catch your child’s attention.  I spent hours with my son reading the words for him as we explored the ancient Roman ruins.  It was a great bonding time and to this day he still plays it.  My eight-year-old daughter likewise has spent hours on Roman town.

Roman Town helps your children with

• analytical thinking
• problem solving skills
• learning scientific methodology and real archaeological techniques
• reading comprehension
• learning historical, detailed information about Roman life