Envision Teaching Latin with Visual Latin

 Classical, Hands On  No Responses »
Dec 162011
 

The thought of teaching Latin made me want to hide under a table. I did not think there would be any way for me to teach Latin. I never took Latin in school. I have no experience in this subject and quite frankly it is an intimidating subject if you are unfamiliar. Knowing that I decided to homeschool to provide a better education I knew I would have to find away to teach my children Latin. Latin will help build a strong foundation for English. A person who knows Latin will have a firmer grasp on vocabulary and spelling. I had to find a way to teach this subject without fear. Enter Visual Latin. The “visual” was enough for my interest to be peaked.


My daughter on lesson 3: Gender Words. She would draw a girl when it was a “girl word”.

Visual Latin DVDs add breathes life back into this dead language. Foreign languages can be intimidating to teach but the “visual” aspect of this program takes the pressure off of you. In fact, you can learn along with the children. I think the most fun about being a homeschool mom is revisiting lessons and learning new ones.I enjoyed learning some Latin and we all enjoyed the ease of this program. In just minutes a day using a multi-sensory approach you can begin to understand the foundations of Latin. The lessons are solid and fun. A far cry from stuffy and intimidating lesson you may have come to expect.

Here is the scope for the first ten lessons:

LESSONS 1 to 10:

1. Being Verbs Basics | To Be and Not to Be

2. Being Verbs Basics | Predicate Nominatives and Adjectives

3. Gender | Boy Words and Girl Words

4. Singular and Plural | E Pluribus Unum

5. Declensions | Meet the Cases

6. Adjectives Learn to Agree with Nouns

7. The Case Files | Nominative and Genitive

8. Counting to 10 in Latin

9. Active Verb Basics | Indicative Mood

10. The Case Files | Accusative

I will disclose to you that this is not my first Latin program. I had one that made me rethink teaching Latin to begin with and a few I truly enjoyed. Visual Latin is in the “truly enjoyed” category. I will be purchasing the other two sets. Visual Latin came highly recommended by a few homeschool friends so when I had the chance to review it I was thrilled. I am also happy to report my friends were right, Latin can be taught in an interesting and fun way.

You may purchase Visual Latin at The Compass Store.

Richele is an eclectic homeschooling mom to four reflections of God’s love whose greatest accomplishment thus far was teaching physics, folding laundry, and playing Candyland simultaneously.  Find her blogging at Under the Golden Apple Tree.

 

Visual Latin

 Foreign Language, Grammar, High School, Middle School, Technology  3 Responses »
Oct 122011
 

Visual Latin | A Quick Explanation from Compass Cinema on Vimeo.

Warning. The free lessons you may download and watch will have you hooked. Watch them with your children only if you want to hear…

Laughter. Soon followed by, “Can we watch another?” Then after the second introductory lesson, “Can we watch just one more?”

 “…better to make students laugh than yawn.” ~ visuallatin.com

Why should you study Latin? Well, not only “because your parents told you to…” but pause here to watch the short video, above, by founder, Dwane Thomas, for a few reasons why plus an overview of the Visual Latin program. Mr. Thomas has 15 years of experience teaching Latin. He and his wife homeschool their five children.

What we have experienced:

  • The short lessons are one of the keys to successful learning with Visual Latin, most lasting four to six minutes. “This is what I want you to focus on…”
  • It is interest sparking: “That’s where we get the English word…but we’ll talk more about that in future lessons.” Mr. Thomas asks questions and says he expects interaction from your students.

  • The sentences, vocabulary and examples are right where your child can see them – on the chalkboard or highlighted on the screen. The lessons start slowly and begin to move a little faster as your child gains confidence.
  • You can pause the lesson if you miss something. You can rewind, repeat.

There are accompanying, downloadable, printable worksheets for each lesson. The questions will have your children laughing too (as you can see from this photo I caught of my son, above, reading a sentence from his worksheet). Following each lesson, the instruction appears on the screen, “Now do worksheet 1B…”

What age is Visual Latin for? ” 9 and up. Kids need to be able to read, but other than that, elementary kids love it, middle school kids love it, high school kids love it, college kids… you get the point.” We enjoy Visual Latin at Hodgepodge with 8th, 7th and 4th graders. However, I’m not surprised when the youngest two show up when they hear the Latin teacher.

Visual Latin is good for high school credit! Students can count their studies as a half credit if only watching the lessons. But why not get a full credit by completing the accompanying worksheets? Full details here.

The program is tech savvy and portable:

  • Available in DVD format
  • Downloadable. This means you and your child can view lessons on any computer – PC and Mac as well as mobile devices -  iPod, iPhone and iPad. Visual Latin as you wait at brother’s practice? Sure! Or you can stream your download via Apple TV and watch it in your family room together – like we do.

Affordable, one time purchase for the whole family.  Available:

  • in single/family license
  • as a group/class license

You may purchase the program in sets. Downloads for lessons 1-10, then 11-30 as well as DVDs. Visit the Compass Store for more information.

  • Latin I – 30 lessons
  • Latin II – 30 lessons

Equaling about one lesson a week. The line up for Latin 1 – Scope and Sequence – is available here.

All the details on purchasing, downloading, scope and sequence and many more FAQs for your browsing pleasure in All the Specs in One Place on the Visual Latin site.

In summary: Having been a Latin student in both high school and college myself, I know personally the long-term benefits of Latin language study. We have tried two other Latin programs in our home but neither clicked. However, as you see from the quotes at top, Visual Latin is here to stay in our home. It is easy to build a habit of watching the lessons. I so appreciate this short, fun way of learning Latin. But I’m not the only one that is a Visual Latin fan.

I don’t have to remind. They ask, “When can we do our Visual Latin lesson?”

Don’t leave without watching that video at top! Then click over for your four (4) free introductory lessons plus two (2) regular lessons :

  • Lesson A – Why Study Latin?
  • Lesson B – Latin Then and Now
  • Lesson C – How to Learn a Language
  • Lesson D – Stuff You Should Know About Latin
  • Lesson 1 – Being Verb Basics – To Be and Not to Be
  • Lesson 2 – Being Verb Basics – Predicate Nominatives and Adjectives

But don’t say I didn’t warn you!

~Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos homeschooling five children. She contributes a blend of writing at parenting, frugal living and homeschool sites as well as her own daily Hodgepodge.

Latin for Children, Primer A

 Classical, Foreign Language  3 Responses »
Mar 162010
 

When I first attempted to use this curriculum, I had only the Primer.  Boy was I lost!  In fact, I was ready to simply toss the book in the trash until I realized there are other parts that go along with the Primer – like an Answer Key, an Activity Book, a Latin Reader, and most importantly (to me anyway) the DVD Lessons and Chant CD’s.

Yes, I felt like quite a dingbat once I realized how much more there was to the curriculum.  Quite honestly, though, I had taken an upper level Greek and Latin roots class in college, so it didn’t even cross my mind that I couldn’t handle teaching the curriculum by simply having the Primer.  But, I couldn’t handle it.

Once I received the entire package of materials, I was no longer willing to toss the curriculum in the trash – now I LOVE it!

Latin For Children, Primer A is the first of three curricula that teach your children Latin – words, pronunciation, conjugation, memorization and eventually reading.  It is Biblically based with Bible verses being some points of memorization.  Using the same material, you can choose whether to learn Classical Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin or both.  Primer A can be started as early as 3rd grade, but I didn’t start my children until 4th and 7th.  Just in case you’re interested, this program works alongside Shurley Grammar.  It is NOT necessary that you use that grammar curriculum to use this Latin program.

Here’s a look at each part of the curriculum and my assessment as to whether or not it’s necessary or supplemental:

  • Primer: Absolutely necessary!  This is the main student book where your children will complete exercises, read explanations, see conjugation charts, read through chants, learn pronunciations and take tests.  The book is very clean and easy to read.  Assignments are not overwhelming and can be completed in a matter of minutes after the lesson has been taught.
  • Answer Key:  This is not absolutely necessary, but a definite help.  You will be able to quickly check your children’s work with the Answer Key.  I’m actually doing the lessons with my children, so there’s no need for the Answer Key in order to check their work.  It has come in handy on several occasions when we needed to check whether or not our translation or conjugations were correct.
  • DVD’s and Chant CD’s: In my opinion, these are necessary!  (Again, this is coming from someone with a decent background in beginning Latin.)  A Latin teacher explains and elaborates on each and every lesson.  After hearing his explanations, the lessons in the book make so much more sense!  Each lesson begins with a chant of new words and phrases led by a group of children.  This was a HUGE help to me, along with the chant CD’s that you can listen to whenever you like for extra pronunciation practice.
  • Activity Book: This is not necessary, but provides additional practice that my children have found helpful.  The activities are in puzzle and fun format so the extra work doesn’t seem like overload.
  • Reader: This is not necessary, but allows your children the chance to practice their Latin skills in a somewhat “real life” manner.  It also happens to coincide with the Veritas Press History Cards from Ancient Greece to Rome, although it doesn’t matter whether you use these cards in your homeschool or not for the book to be useful.

To buy the entire curriculum is quite expensive at a bundle price of around $100.  However, you get A LOT for this price.  Essentially, you have a 32 week DVD-based program that allows you to either take the class along with your children or let your children complete it on their own.  If Latin is a serious subject you want to teach, the money is well worth it.

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three.  You can find her blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.

English From the Roots Up

 Classical, Elementary, Foreign Language, High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Science  6 Responses »
Jan 212010
 

Years ago when I was first introduced to the classical method of homeschooling, I was determined to have my boys attempt a Latin program as suggested in The Well-Trained Mind.

We tried two different programs to learn Latin. We got a little farther with a DVD based program, but we still were not able to stay motivated. I know I had a bit of a bad attitude about Latin and at some point I made the decision to set it aside and learn Spanish instead. I thought in our family that Spanish would be more applicable and practical. It was a great decision.

We have not totally ignored all Latin. We have used English From the Roots Up as the basis for our very simple Latin and Greek roots curricula.  Why do we even bother learning these roots? I have found that my boys are able to easily decipher the meaning of an unfamiliar word by looking for roots within the word.

For instance they can remember what igneous means because they see the root ignis, meaning fire, within the word.

Another example would be the word hydrophobia with hydros meaning water and phobos meaning fear or a fear of water. Learning the Greek and Latin roots has been especially helpful in their study of high school level biology.

Some Quick Thoughts About English From the Roots Up:
We started off with the English From the Roots Up book and the flashcards but what has endured to the end are the cards. The box set comes with 100 pre-made cards with the root on the front and the meaning and some vocabulary words on the back.

Many roots are in both Greek and Latin

We took the roots very slowly, discussing and learning each root one at a time. When I say slowly, I mean it has taken us four years to cover the box of one hundred Latin and Greek roots. Taking the slow approach has allowed my boys to learn and retain every root in the box.  I would not hesitate to start using these cards even with young children using this slow approach, keeping it light and fun.

We used the cards each week to drill the roots into our memory. We played simple games with the cards if we had some extra time during the week. We studied five minutes a day, four days a week. Of course I could have made up my own cards with markers and a good list of roots, but I know that I always am more motivated to stick with something if I don’t have to produce the foundation myself (some might call that lazy). It is much easier for me and well worth the money to purchase the box and have the roots all lined up for me with no preparation on my part.

Here are a few of the activities we used with the pre-made cards:

  • Quiz each other: I give the root and they give the meaning or I give the meaning and they give the root.
  • Speed: Use a stopwatch and see how fast we can get through the cards we know.
  • Made Up Words: Use the roots to make up new words, mixing together funny combinations.
  • Matching: Many of the roots are given in Greek and Latin. I give them the Latin and they tell me the Greek or vice versa.

Cost:

Book at Rainbow Resource- $22.95

Cards at Rainbow Resource- $13.95

I highly recommend this system for learning Greek and Latin roots the simple and easy way.

Please note: You can use the book without the cards. The book gives you instructions for making your own set of color-coded cards to study with each week. The book also has additional activities to reinforce the roots in your child’s mind.

Written by Barb-Harmony Art mom.  She also blogs at http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com and her business is found at http://www.harmonyfinearts.com. I would love for you to join us for the Outdoor Hour Challenges: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com.

Latin in the Christian Trivium

 Classical, Foreign Language, Highschool  1 Response »
Nov 072009
 

latin volume 1

Our oldest son is in his 6th year of Latin this year.  He began with Prima Latina in 3rd grade, followed by Latina Christiana 1 and 2.  These programs were great for a young Latin student, but it was hard to find a good option that would take him to the next level.

Enter Latin in the Christian Trivium. I can’t remember how we found this program, but I am so thankful that we did.  It is systematic and thorough, rigorous but not overwhelming.

Strengths of this course:

  • The first three volumes are accredited by the University of California as three years’ High School Latin credit.

Volume IV is currently under review by the University of California.

  • Beginning in Volume 2, the student reads Bible passages in Latin.  By Volume 3, the student is translating Bible passages.  Volume IV contains a significant amount of Bible, including the entire book of James and the Ten Commandments.  Most upper level Latin curriculum focuses on secular texts and vocabulary.  It has been wonderful for our son to learn Christian vocabulary and he really enjoys the Bible translations in this course.
  • This series incorporates an interesting story line based on the centurion in the Bible who met Jesus.  This story line continues throughout all 4 books.
  • Students are required to answer questions using Latin, generating grammatically correct answers using previously learned vocabulary.  This is no mere fill-in-the-blank course.  As the child progresses through the course he is required to think more and more in the language.
  • Over 1,000 vocabulary words are taught in the first three volumes, which is the standard for three years of high school Latin.  The student will also learn a good deal of Latin grammar.
  • Latin history, culture and Italian geography are included in the course.
  • Latin 1 incorporates the use of a grammar notebook and index cards.  Students are asked to classify vocabulary according to part of speech on color-coded notebook pages or index cards.
  • The third  course, in particular, will help prepare students for the National Latin Exam.  Our son did well on the exam even after completing just one year of the course.

To learn more about the distinctives of this course, go to the Latin in the Christian Trivium website and click the top link in the left sidebar, Our Latin Books.  A list of all concepts taught in each book will appear.  It is too extensive to list here!

I have read on the course website that a parent who does not know Latin could teach this course.  They even provide a free 7 week preparatory class for teachers, which you can sign up for at any time during the year.  I did not feel comfortable teaching my son at this level, however.   So I was thrilled to find out that  LITCT offers online courses for each volume! I have found the fee to be very reasonable for what you get:

  1. Students in the online course only need to purchase a student manual.  The teacher manual and test booklet are not necessary, so that is a savings on the curriculum.
  2. Students receive weekly “classroom” instruction online (from 1 to 1 1/2 hours per week, depending on the level).  Classes meet in a chat room such as Windows Live Messenger, and students and teacher communicate using text chat and microphones.
  3. The teacher assigns and corrects all homework, quizzes and tests.   Our son is getting an excellent, accredited, college preparatory course, taught by a skilled Latin teacher, from the comfort of our own home.

One caveat:

Although this course is for middle and high school students, some parents might find the course to be very challenging for their younger students.  This is particularly true if you are doing the online classes and the child cannot work at his own pace.   It is important to keep in mind that this course is accredited for high school language credit, and the workload is commensurate with that. We budget an hour per day for Latin homework, and some weeks even more. 

My son was in 6th grade when he did Volume 1.  He was able to handle this workload, but it  was much more time consuming than his other classes.  We had to plan his schedule to accommodate the time this course required.  Now that he is in 8th grade, several of his other classes are almost as rigorous and we feel this course helped to prepare him for that.

Parents will need to consider whether their child is academically ready to handle the pace and rigor of a high school course.  We have found over the past 3 years that a wide age range exists among the students, with some being the same age as our son and others are already in high school.

There is more information about the online classes on the LITCT website. This course has been a wonderful fit for our son.  He is thriving in the online classroom environment, and I am thrilled with his progress over the past three years.

You can find Molly Evert blogging at Countercultural School and at her educational audio book site My Audio School.

Latin for Children vs. Latina Christiana

 Classical, Foreign Language  11 Responses »
Oct 082009
 
ancient rome

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bg/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

We began studying Latin four years ago when my oldest child was in the second grade. I read everything I could find on the different Latin curricula that were available and finally decided on Latin for Children for him. He completed the 3 books in 4 school years and this year he has started
Latin Alive, which is a Latin program for middle school students, also published by Classical Academic Press.

Since I was pleased with Latin for Children for my son, I had my daughter start with the program at the beginning of last school year. Later on in the year I received Latina Christiana I from Memoria Press to review. My daughter seemed the obvious choice to try out the program since she wasn’t too far along in Latin for Children. She also didn’t seem to be retaining the information very well, so I figured a little review would be beneficial. As she used Latina Christiana, I noticed that there were some things about the program that made it a better choice for her. So this year she is continuing to use Latina Christiana instead of Latin for Children.

I was reminded of a few things in this process. First, my children are all different and what may work best for one of them may not be the best choice for all of them. Second, I need to look at products with each of the children who will be using the product in mind, not just my oldest child, and not just what I like. Finally, I can’t spend a lot of money on a product and always justify it by saying I’ll use it with all 4 of my children. That may not work.

I think that BOTH Latin for Children and Latina Christiana are excellent Latin programs with many similarities. Both are designed to be used with students as young as about the third grade. They both teach Latin from a parts-to-whole method. Both include Latin grammar and vocabulary as well as derivative studies. Latin for Children does include more vocabulary and grammar, but that is reasonable since it has one more text than Latina Christiana. An optional video is available for either product as well as audio cd’s.  However, there are some key differences which I have outlined below.

Latin for Children Latina Christiana
# texts in series 3 (A,B,C) 2 (I, II)
Pronunciation Classical (but has an Ecclesiastical option) Ecclesiastical
Student Text Instruction is in the Student text No instruction in the Student text
Teacher’s Guide Answer Key All Latin instruction is in Teacher’s Guide as well as teaching tips, quizzes, tests, and answers to all the exercises.
Video Lessons include children and some humor. Some variety in filming locations. Lessons are fairly short. Lessons include instructor only. They are thorough and include drill and practice within the lesson. Lessons are longer and are in front of a white board only.
Roman culture included? Very little Scheduled to use with Famous Men of Rome, however Famous Men of Rome is not included.
Variety Pages are printed with Roman themed graphics. Variation in types of exercises from chapter to chapter. Plain pages. Predictable format for exercises and quizzes.
Prayers included? No Yes

My daughter, who has always been somewhat of a no-nonsense kind of girl, really appreciates Latina Christiana. She needs more drill and practice, and the expectations are very clear. The instruction in the text in Latin for Children was confusing to her and didn’t help her to understand the material at all.

My son, on the other hand, would not have lasted a week in Latina Christiana. He needed the somewhat goofy humor in the Latin for Children videos as well as the variety in the text. He is much more able to read and understand a concept, so having the instruction in the text was great for him. And memorizing Latin prayers? There is no way that he would enjoy that.

If you are looking for an elementary Latin curriculum I recommend either Latin for Children or Latina Christiana I. They are both quality programs backed by companies that are continually revising and writing new curricula. Samples are available at both websites to help you compare further and decide which one is more suited to your child.

Written by Kristen, Classical mom of 4. Kristen’s homeschool blog is A Day in the Life.

Lively Latin

 Classical, Foreign Language  2 Responses »
Jun 082009
 

Lively Latin or, The Big Book as it is called, covers all the elements of a first year elementary Latin program in a fun and engaging way. These elements include: 1st and 2nd declension Latin nouns in their cases, and genders, the use of the nominative and ablative cases; 1st conjugation verbs in the present, imperfect, and future tenses; the irregular to be verb in 3 tenses; 1st and 2nd declension adjectives; sentence diagramming; 175 Latin words with the many English derivatives which come from them. 

It also covers Roman history from Romulus’ founding of the city in 753 BC to the end of the 3rd Punic War in 146 BC, complete with maps, paintings, review puzzles and activities.

It is a big book, if you get the printed 4oo high-quality page version. This is my all-time favorite Latin program!  We have completed a year with my 5th grade son, but we have not finished the 400 pg. book.  We  worked on Latin 3 x a week, at our own pace.  

Reasons we love the “Big Book”:

I love the idea of learning grammar and Latin together. Saves me time! Being the history buffs that we are, we love the snippets of Roman history. It has plenty of vocabulary, the organization of the order that you learn things makes sense. The explanations of what and why you learn certain things are excellent (what other Latin programs are missing). The Big Book is a parts to whole program, meaning it starts with the fundamentals and builds up from there to a full understanding of the language. We learn better with this approach as it teaches the patterns of the language. The whole to parts approach forces students to memorize individual words and their meanings without the benefit of the pattern.  We have failed to excel in Latin using this approach in the past.

A few unexpected extras that are included:

1. The history of our language
2. Full color studies of paintings depicting Roman history and other artists.
3. Character studies of famous Romans.
4. Lessons on Greek and Roman gods.
5. Plenty of repetition.
6. Choice of Classical or Ecclesiastical pronunciation

Go here to see the suggested timeline for Lively Latin.

Visit the Lively Latin website for more information and for ordering the Big Book 1 or Big Book 2.

Written by Brenda, Classical eclectic mother of 5.  She is sold on the benefits of teaching Latin to all her children.  She blogs at Tie That Binds Us about her homeschool journey.

Prima Latina – Latin review

 Foreign Language  2 Responses »
May 312009
 

Prima Latina with DVD’s prima_web_cd

I got this for my 2nd grader, a handful of years ago. It was my first introduction to Latin and I remember being very pleased with the amount of vocabulary and Latin prayers etc. We worked through several lessons, and then I decided to only work on the vocabulary portion because he didn’t have great handwriting at the time to complete the worksheets.  So we did the lessons orally. The next year I brought in child # 2 and we did the program again (a repeat for the 1st child, but it was totally ok). This second year we used the DVD lessons and it went very smoothly. My children still recite some Latin prayers they learned from this program and the vocabulary they learned helped them progress through LFC in the first 5 lessons like a breeze.

 

I highly recommend Prima Latina with the DVD’s to ALL families starting Latin in grades 1-4th.  It is a perfect blend of vocabulary and prayers and is an easy introduction into Latin.  Memoria Press has a full range of products for Latin, other languages, classical studies and logic.

 

Written by Brenda, classically eclective mother of 5.  She writes frequently about her homeschooling journey at  Tie That Binds Us.