Learn Latin at Home {TOS Crew Review}

Have you ever wanted to learn Latin?  I self taught Latin when I was in high school by borrowing books from my English teacher.  I have always wanted my children to learn but never really knew where to look for a curriculum.   In 2013 we got the chance to review Prima Latina through Memoria Press.  I was very excited that my children could continue their study to learn Latin this year through our review of Latina Christiana I thanks to the TOS Review Crew.

Latina Christiana I is the continuation of the Latin series.  This course is recommended for grades 3 and up.  We received the complete set to review( a $98.90 value) which includes the student book, teacher’s manual, pronunciation cd, instructional dvd’s, and flashcards.  This course is ready to teach the beginner or novice all about Latin!  Because we were able to review the Prima Latina before we may have had a leg up on most beginners.  

Let’s talk a short bit about some of the components.  The student book contains 25 lessons with 5 review lessons.  Within each lesson you will find:

• Latin sayings that teach their Christian or classical heritage(this ties in well to a history lesson)
• grammar form
• ten vocabulary words
• and reviews of course

Within the Teacher’s Book you will find:

• a complete copy of the student book with overlaid answers(talk about easy!)
• detailed weekly lesson plans which takes the stress off of you, especially if you yourself do not know Latin and are learning with the children
• comprehensive teaching instructions
• grammar overview
• recitation schedule
• background information on the Latin sayings and Roman history(again ties in well to a history lesson)
• tests, quizzes, and keys

The CD provides you with the correct pronunciations for each lesson as well as prayers and songs that are used with the lessons.

The Instructional DVD contains has 5 discs containing 18 hours of material.  Within this you have lessons that are 35-40 minutes in length.  In this you will find:

• thorough teaching by the Prima Latina author(again back to our first review)
• coverage of each new grammar lesson
• recitation and review
• vocabulary practice and explanation of derivatives
• on-screen notes, diagrams, and illustrations
• additional examples
• all within a self-explanatory format

The flashcards are pretty self-explanatory as well.  They are cardstock with the vocabulary words on them to go with each lesson.  Each card has the Latin word and the English derivatives on them.

Again, this is very easy to teach as it is all laid out for you and you really have no prep work.  This is something that I love because I don’t have time to prep for all of my subjects.  Having a few that are all laid out for me so all I have to do is teach is wonderful!

This is an easy course to do with multiple students as once you have the complete kit all you have to purchase are the student books. Each student book is only $16 so doable for almost any family.  As you may have noticed above I have noted how you could incorporate history lessons into learning Latin.  If you don’t want to take the time to prep that out you can purchase the Famous Men of Rome course through Memoria Press.  This is actually another product that some Crew members reviewed so make sure to check out those reviews if you’re interested in it.

There are many ways you can use this course and plan it out, but with my kids we did one lesson per week.  That seems to be the easiest for us.  On Day 1 we would watch the lesson on the DVD.  On Day 2 we would listen to the CD.  On day 3 we would do our flashcards and work on the lesson in the student book.  On Day 4 we would review.  This might include reviewing a part of the lesson on DVD or relistening to the CD.  Basically we would go over all the material again but specifically focus on anything that wasn’t clicking.  Day 5 was when we would do the rest of the workbook if we had not finished it.

Some fun things that we also added to help with retention and memorization was to have the kids write out the words as copywork in their copywork notebooks.  We also would write the word and the meanings on construction paper to make a guidebook for each of them to keep.  Little things but repetition is key with some of my children.  

So for our verdict, my kids enjoyed this program.  I enjoyed this program.  We knew what to expect already since we had been given the opportunity to review Prima Latina and were still as in love with this one as we were with it.  I love that it has the same basic structure and teaching methods as Prima Latina so that it was familiar to the kids and we didn’t have to spend a long time getting into a routine.  I would recommend this to anyone who want their children to learn Latin or who wants to learn Latin themselves.

If you would like to learn more about the three products that Memoria Press offered Crew members for reviews please visit the Main TOS blog to read the reviews.  You can also connect with Memoria Press on Facebook and Twitter.