[holyhelianthus]

I am confused by this. How is it Christian? What is your experience?

I am looking for a Latin curriculum for parents who know little to nothing about Latin, BTW, in case anyone has any suggestions!

 

[User101]

It teaches classic Christian/Catholic liturgical prayers (Sanctus, Gloria Patri, etc). We tried it and didn't really care for it. The lady on the CD has a southern accent, which was always a little odd to me.

 

[holyhelianthus]

That is a little odd!

That'd be a double learning moment for us as I don't think I and especially not my kids know many of those liturgical prayers if any really. You wouldn't happen to have a link to some (in English

) that I could read? (Sorry for my ignorance)

 

[User101]

Sanctus
Gloria Patri and Sign of the Cross

 

[phathui5]

It's put out by a Christian publisher. We're also learning the prayers in Latin.

 

[Materfamilias]

What ages are the children?
For young'uns, Minimus by Cambridge is good and it leads into the Cambridge series, which has awesome teacher help -- but I've not looked at this in terms of not knowing the language, since I'm a Latin teacher

and I've no idea what the series would cost you (though you could try to find it used).
I also really liked Lingua Latina per se illustrata -- very engaging, but no English in that book anywhere, so you may find it rough going. It's excellent for getting even English-challenged, work-resistant kids involved and reading Latin.
You might want to grab a used copy of Wheelock's Latin Grammar for yourself. It's a college textbook, but explains things quite well.
I've not looked into the Christian books much because I've always gone for the classical approach.

 

[mom2ponygirl]

We are loving Artes Latinae. It is more high school level though. www.bolchazy.com has some younger books as well. It is on sale at www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.com right now. You might also check out books from galore park from England. You can find them at www.horriblebooks.com. The site is named that because the guy imports Horrible History books and others of the 'Horrible' series from England several times a year.

Minimus is also a fun introduction as someone else already mentioned. We also used English from the Roots up, which isn't learning Latin but familiarity with Latin and Greek roots has been helpful.

 

[holyhelianthus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Materfamilias What ages are the children? For young'uns, Minimus by Cambridge is good and it leads into the Cambridge series, which has awesome teacher help -- but I've not looked at this in terms of not knowing the language, since I'm a Latin teacher and I've no idea what the series would cost you (though you could try to find it used). I also really liked Lingua Latina per se illustrata -- very engaging, but no English in that book anywhere, so you may find it rough going. It's excellent for getting even English-challenged, work-resistant kids involved and reading Latin. You might want to grab a used copy of Wheelock's Latin Grammar for yourself. It's a college textbook, but explains things quite well. I've not looked into the Christian books much because I've always gone for the classical approach.

Thank you for your input!

My oldest is only 5 (6 in October) and I am not sure if I want to start Latin until 8 or 9. As a Latin teacher what are your thoughts on this if I may pick your brain?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl We are loving Artes Latinae. It is more high school level though. www.bolchazy.com has some younger books as well. It is on sale at www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.com right now. You might also check out books from galore park from England. You can find them at www.horriblebooks.com. The site is named that because the guy imports Horrible History books and others of the 'Horrible' series from England several times a year. Minimus is also a fun introduction as someone else already mentioned. We also used English from the Roots up, which isn't learning Latin but familiarity with Latin and Greek roots has been helpful.

Thanks!

English From the Roots Up sounds interesting. Off to look into that one...

 

[Materfamilias]

My ds is 6 and we're getting ready to start homeschooling in the fall (he's in public school k-garten right now

)

We are reading about the Trojan War currently and doing a little study on the weapons and armor of the Greeks. From there, we'll probably do a bit more exploration into classical mythology and see where that leads us.
When he's about 8-ish, I think, we'll start with Minimus and move on from there. I'm thinking I will just use a variety of things I've collected over the years -- including Lingua Latina and Cambridge -- and do some spoken Latin with him too -- in fact, I hope to start the spoken Latin next year. I found that the students who do better and really enjoy Latin are those who develop a reading competency really early, and LL does that remarkably well -- and spoken Latin really opens up the students' minds to the language. Even if you cannot speak the language, I would read it aloud as often as possible. Any of the reading-based texts should help, though, like Ecce Romani (though I don't personally care for that text).

ETA: I think level one when he's about 10-11 is fine, but we may wait. It all depends on how open he is to the idea.

Once the child has a good handle on grammar (in my program, that usually happens about the end of level 2, but there's no need to rush, and in fact my best students are those who spend 2 years on level 1) you can just pick and choose from a variety of Roman authors (my favorite site to get these is www.thelatinlibrary.com -- and the site also has nice links to online Latin grammars and sheets with paradigms). Catullus and Martial are quite fun (but can be very *ahem* raunchy, so choose carefully), Caesar can be interesting (as long as that's not the only thing one does), but lesser-known texts can also be scream to read -- I love Lactantius, and some of the Germanic law codes, for example.

Here are some other places you can explore:
www.latinteach.com -- a tremendous resource; join the discussion list for lots of cool ideas from Latin teachers all over the world
http://www.vroma.org/ -- virtual Rome
http://www.etclassics.org/ Excellence Through Classics -- the American Classical League site for elementary, middle levels of Latin

From these places (and these are just a few) you can follow links all over to other really great resources.