Seriously? Latin?

So, you might remember that I purchased a Latin program over the summer. You might also have noticed that there have been exactly no postings regarding our Latin studies. Ahem...I've been a bit preoccupied with impending surgery and of course now have been recovering from it. So, Latin wasn't so high on my list of homeschool priorities! Translation...I put it off!

Reminds me of back in the day when I was in high school. I lived right on the school districts line and convinced the county to let me attend my high school because I wanted to take Latin and the other school didn't have it. When I say I lived on the line, I mean half our street went to one place and the other half to the other high school. I thought I had four years to get it in- you know sometime while in high school I needed to take it, but it turns out I needed to take it the whole time in order to stay enrolled at the high school of my choice. I found another way to stay at good ol' Liberty High without constantly taking Latin, but I did manage to take one year of Latin in my senior year (along with the five years of Spanish and three years of French). Latin was like my study hall it was so crazy easy!

Funny thing though...somehow while doing homework for other classes and participating once a week to get my A, I don't remember all that much! Ha! But... I digress-

I pulled it off the shelf to mull it over about a month or so ago and wondered what I could have been thinking with this workbook program. Seemed dull and I had some serious doubts about its success in our home. Fast forward to Friday. I pulled it down again and really read it to see how I would teach it with my kids. R8 begged to start at that very moment. After some hesitation I threw caution to the wind and put together the beginnings of their Latin notebooks.

We all gathered on the floor next to the CD player and we had our first lesson. Salvete! I'm telling you...there is almost nothing cuter than a 3 yo who eagerly sits in a group and repeats latin words. E10's favorite part is to see the English word derivatives.

Prima Latina focuses mainly on vocabulary without too much in the way of declensions and conjugations...that's next year.

Lesson 1 a rousing success. Next week the kids will begin to learn the Sanctus. I think a field trip will be in order...anyone think I can convince the local Episcopalian priest to say the Sanctus in Latin next Sunday? How about my Roman Catholic friends...any masses still in Latin?

Seriously though, if you are looking for a fairly light investment in a language program consider Prima Latina. I'm hoping to give the kids a basic start with Latin and then as they get older they can choose a language. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to teaching four different languages, but why not. Actually, having had three languages already I'm looking for a new alphabet. How about some Russian? Or a character based language? Hmmm....

Oh wait, I think my next language of choice is American Sign Language- another homeschool elective for R8 that has been put off so far this year. Stay tuned for updates!