Curriculum Series {Latin}

Its a "dead" language, right?  So why study it???

Friends who have their kiddos in public/private school always give me that look when they find out Latin is part of our curriculum.  

First I'll go over what we use and why.  Then I'll go over why Latin (the cliff notes version!)

Prima Latina and Latina Christiana I from Memoria Press and Classical Conversations Latin memory work

I bought the Prima Latina series last year (maybe the year before?) and we are just now really getting into it.  I started my (then) 4th grader, but we only made it a few lessons on our own and it always seemed to get pushed for other items on our "to do" list.  I didn't really get Latin or why to teach it and I didn't know it myself, so I couldn't really teach it.  At that point in time, I wasn't wanting to spend the cash on the DVDs, partly because they were an "extra" as far as I was concerned and partly because I didn't want my kiddos to be "doing school" in front of the TV.  

I got over it.  

I'm so glad I did!  

Here's what we have and how we use it...

Prima Latina (link) and Latina Christiana (link)

We use spiral notebooks, the DVDs, the student workbook, teacher manual and occasionally the flashcards.  We have the CDs, but haven't used them yet.  We also use Quizlet for this subject as well.

My girls are going at two different paces.  My 5th grade, is double timing it through the course with 2 lessons a week and my 3rd grade is taking it at a normal pace.

DVD course

These lessons are about 15 minutes each.  They each watch their assigned lesson for the week and have their student book handy to follow along with, underline derivatives and anything else brought up in the lesson. Although they are not the most exciting videos to watch, they are able to hear the pronunciation, see the words, and bottom line....Leigh Lowe (the creator) knows Latin and teaches it well.

Spiral Notebook

Next they do their copy work.  (I'm kind of addicted to spirals this year....not sure how I've made it this far without them!?!?) The girls copy the Practical Latin section, the Vocabulary section, and the Latin Prayer section.  They do this once for each lesson and I have them do it before they do their book work.  

Student Book

I have them review the lesson in the book, then do the bookwork.  (This takes around 15 as well.)  The lesson covers Latin sayings, vocabulary, prayer, memory work, derivatives, etc.They are able to look up the work in the lesson if they need to since the lesson is on a two page spread and the book work on the next two page spread.  There is more copy work there, so they have now copied their vocabulary words a few times at this point.  

Flashcards

I bought the flashcards separately before they were with "Prima Latina" when they were "Latina Christiana."  My youngest has used them, but not my oldest.  The reason being, they cards aren't marked for what lesson that are in so I only pull them apart when my 3rd grade gets to a new lesson.  My 5th grade uses Quizlet (see next point)

Quizlet (link)

Have I mentioned before how much I love this site? :)  Maybe just once or twice?  Really, you'd think they are paying me to advertise for them, but no.  I just really, really like it!!! Both of my girls use this to "play" on the iPad.  I'm amazed at what I can get them to do when I give that to them! I group the quizlet sets in 5 chapter sets, so 1-5, 6-10 etc. ThiS causes them to learn words ahead (but is easier than having 25 sets of words) and gives them a cumulative section review each time they study. 

Teacher Manual

Just the same as the student book but with the answers. I use this for correcting.

CD

We should be listening to the CD for pronunciation, but don't.  Its just one more thing.  Maybe I'll start playing it at night as they fall asleep like we do for the bible and books on CD?  Osmosis???

Classical Conversations Latin memory work

The kiddos have weekly memory work for CC, which they practice each week.  I figure it will just benefit them when they get to conjugations in Prima Latina and Latina Christiana.

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So this post is already long enough....I'll post tomorrow on the "why" of Latin tomorrow.