Picta Dicta Natural World

Homeschool Review Crew

We recently have been working through a fun classical curriculum to help us learn.  With Picta Dicta Natural World we’re expanding our Latin vocabulary thanks to Roman Roads Media.  This is an online subscription for 14 months to Picta Dicta Natural World for up to 7 users in our home.  

About the Program

This program is a vocabulary program that is going to help you or your child learn Latin.  There are varying levels of difficulty that you can set a student up for within the one program so that multiple ages can use it.  It is self paced so that your child can work at their own level and pace.  For instance, a younger child may do one lesson per day three days a week while an older child might do one or two lessons a day.   This program is designed for elementary age children.

I have had seven children working this program.  The youngest is seven years old and the oldest is thirteen.  Because of the age differences we have been able to use Reader I and Reader II within the Picta Dicta Natural World program.  You can go back and change the level your child is doing if you find it’s not working.  I like this feature!

This program works by using more than one way of learning so it should work for most learning styles.  You hear a word, you see a word(and picture), and then you are to say the word as well.  

The main subscription is $49 with each additional student being $10.  Subscriptions last for 14 months and are entirely self paced so you could do one level or two in that time depending on how many lessons are done per week.

This program will work on any platform so it can be used on a laptop, phone, or tablet on the go.  An internet connection is required though.

Different Levels

A main difference in Reader I and Reader II(that I noticed) is the amount of reading to be done.  But, both levels have a spot where you can have the information read to you.  Information pertains to the word you are learning.  For instance, for dog you are told about a dog, what it does, and a fable or story that involves a dog.  As you work your way through the program the lessons do increase in difficulty.  

If a question is missed within a lesson they do adjust and customize the lesson to allow the student to have more review on that word.  This is a good aspect as it increases the frequency of them seeing and hearing that word plus gives them a chance to feel like they’ve better mastered the lesson.  Lessons can be redone as well if desired or a need is felt. There are a total of 400 nouns being taught in this program though at different levels depending on which level you signed your child up for.  Each child must have their own log in.

The different levels are:

• Basic
• English
• Reader I
• Reader II
• Express
• Teacher

Basic and English only focus on English words and everything is read to your child so those would be the easiest levels for non reader children or beginning readers.  Reader I is meant for a student who can read while Reader II is definitely the more advanced reader as they have longer passages to read.  Express teaches everything that the two reader levels teach but at a faster pace for someone who maybe has Latin experience already.

What We Thought

One of the children I’ve been watching and sitting by while she works is my seven year old.  At age seven she’s doing roughly a 2nd/3rd grade level in school. She’s an avid reader and about to start third grade math.  I placed her in Reader I level which is the beginning level for this program.  She definitely did not have trouble reading the short captions under the pictures but it is the right level to put her as she has had no Latin before.  It’s also a good introductory level.

The second child we’ll talk about is using Reader II.  He is eleven and working through around three lessons a week.  We have found that the lessons do get progressively harder and you are required to remember things that you learned previously.  Both Reader I and Reader II cover the same subjects below and the same nouns just in a slightly different format. 

Both children have loved the program.  I think it’s a fun way to learn Latin, much more so than a textbook!  The hardest part that they have had is with spelling Latin words.  I can definitely relate as that can be hard to do.  My daughter in Reader I doesn’t much care to redo things now as long as she gets three stars.  Reader II and my son is a different story though.  He is very much a perfectionist and wants all those stars lit up.  This means that he has not covered as many lessons as she has because he has gone back and done them over and over and over until he gets them perfect.  I love watching the differences in how they learn and what they struggle with.

All of the children I have working in this program currently are in Reader I or Reader II though I have logged into the other levels and had a look.  I would say for adults Express would be the way to go.

What’s Covered Noun Wise

Sections or chapters that they learn Latin words for nouns are:

• basic animals
• fruits, berries, and nuts
• anatomy I
• land forms and terrains
• small animals
• parts of trees and plants
• human anatomy II
• water
• birds I
• growing things
• sky and weather
• animal anatomy
• sea life 
• trees
• hand and foot
• constellations
• exotic animals
• flowers and herbs
• veggies and legumes
• human anatomy III
• birds II
• insects, arachnids, and worms
• sign and habitat
• light and fire
• metals and stones
• ground cover and vegetation

Learn More

You can find out more about the other two products offered by Roman Roads Media to Crew members as well as get a different opinion or two on how Picta Dicta Natural World works and what others thought about it.  To do this simply visit the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew Blog.  Roman Roads Media can also be found on facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.