Homeschool Review: Latin for Children Primer A

Latin for Children Primer A from Classical Academic Press

This Latin program is absolutely one of the best additions I made to our homeschool this year.

Really! We all love it!

Primer A, written for students in fourth grade, is comprised of seven units, each with a review chapter and a final end-of-book review chapter at the end, for a total of 32 chapters. We've done one each week and while each chapter seems focused and small in scope, the overall progress is rather amazing. We still have a couple of chapters left, but I feel confident enough to go ahead and post a review.

Each chapter has a memory page with a chapter maxim, a chant (a verb conjugation, noun declension, or prepositions, etc.), and vocabulary (usually ten words, but it varies a little). Then there's a single page called Grammar that presents the material for the chapter, like sentence patters or direct objects. The third page is a Worksheet. The fourth page shows some of the English derivatives based on the Latin vocabulary for the week. The fifth page is a quiz. The final page usually covers something interesting like military names or some Roman history.

I chose this book over Latina Christiana after using Prima Latina because I was confused myself reading through Latina Christiana. Many people had said I could use it without any Latin knowledge myself, but I was struggling with the most basic lessons! A friend of mine reminded me of this program from Classical Academic Press (from which we used Song School Latin) and I decided to give it a try.

The main disadvantage of this program is the cost. It's made up of a number of pieces that go together and is followed by Primer B and Primer C, meaning the higher cost continues for three years.

Latin for Children, Primer A (Latin Edition) is the main text and is absolutely essential to the program. It contains all the vocabulary, lessons, worksheets, and quizzes. We use this book as a non-consumable. I started the year asking First Son to write the answers in a notebook, but quickly discovered he was hampered by his slow handwriting, so we switched to oral exercises instead.

Latin for Children, Primer A Answer Key is just that, an answer key. Because I was doing the lessons alongside First Son and he answered everything orally, I rarely needed to consult it. It was nice to have, however, on the few times I wasn't sure of an answer.

Primer A DVD and CD set  contains DVDs with a short program for each chapter as well as CDs with chants in ecclesiastical and classical pronunciations for all the maxims, chants, and vocabulary words. Personally, I found the CDs invaluable. First Son and I listened and chanted the chapter's track, usually only 3-4 minutes long, twice each day. (He asked about half-way through the year if we could do them only once a day and we gave it a try. After a few weeks, it was obvious to him that his retention had decreased, so he agreed to go back to twice a day.) The DVDs are less important, I think. The chant on the DVD is the same as on the CD but not quite as clear. The lessons seem quite good but really just reiterate exactly what's in the book. Because First Son and I read this together, watching the DVD lesson was redundant. It would be more valuable for a student completing the primer alone. There was often a short skit at the end which all the children enjoyed, but it's a little expensive for just that bit of fun. The only place I have seen to purchase the CD without the DVDs is on Classical Academic Press's website. I really think I could have taught this program without the DVDs at all even though I have no Latin background. I would not have wanted to attempt it without the CDs, but I have a friend with some Latin background and I think she taught it without either the DVDs or the CDs.

Latin for Children, Primer A - Activity Book! is completely optional, but I think it's a wonderful addition to this program. The activity book is full of crossword puzzles, matching exercises, and other little word games, all using the Latin vocabulary for the week, including pages for the review chapters. For the most part, First Son loved these pages. They were fun and quirky. Every once in a while, he would become frustrated by an error in the puzzle. One crossword puzzle in particular seemed to be numbered incorrectly and he was very upset, so I told him to just skip that one. Problem solved! (First Son also found a few errors in the text, but nothing we couldn't figure out.) I think you could easily do the program without the activity book, but I also think the activity pages helped First Son develop an increased fluency with the vocabulary, which was a major goal for the year.

Latin for Children, Primer A History Reader (Libellus de Historia) is another optional book. This small book provides four to six sentences in each of the fifteen chapters written entirely in Latin for the student to translate. An introduction in the beginning gives some good ideas on how to use the book and there are even discussion questions (in Latin) for each chapter. We started this book about half-way through the year and read through one chapter each week. First Son would probably rather just skip it, but I think it provides a great boost to realize we're really reading Latin, even if it's akin to an early reader in English. Some of the chapters are about Jesus, just as a warning. There is an answer key for this available for download at Classical Academy Press, which I often found useful.

This is how we structured our Latin study:

• Monday - Go through the chant together twice (8-10 minutes), read through the grammar page together (5-10 minutes), watch the DVD (15 minutes).
• Tuesday - Chant twice (8-10 minutes), complete the worksheet orally (5-10 minutes).
• Wednesday - Chant twice (8-10 minutes), read through the derivatives page together (5-10 minutes), First Son usually looked up a few of the derivatives or wrote some sentences independently (5 minutes), read a few sentences in the history reader (starting about half-way through the year, 5 minutes).
• Thursday - Chant twice (8-10 minutes), complete the quiz orally (5-10 minutes), read a few more sentences in the history reader (5 minutes)
• Friday - Chant twice (8-10 minutes), read the final page in the chapter together, or First Son would read it independently (5-10 minutes), finish the history reader (5 minutes). We could easily combine Thursday and Friday's work if we needed a shorter week.

Independently, First Son made vocabulary flash cards each week. He'd write about half of them on Monday and the other half on Tuesday. He would review them every day, using the same system I have for memory verses (daily, every other day, weekly, and monthly practice). Once a week or so, I would go through the flash cards with him and move them back as he mastered them. He was responsible for finishing the activity book pages by the end of the day on Friday and would sometimes save them all for one day or do a page or two on different days.

It seems like a lot, but most of the days I would spend only 15-20 minutes with him on Latin. I personally think daily practice is essential for learning a language and was willing to devote that time to the subject. (Latin and Math are the only two things we did five days a week.) His Latin vocabulary has grown tremendously (as has mine!) and I have caught him wandering the house conjugating verbs or declining nouns absentmindedly. The derivatives work was probably the most difficult for him, but the most beneficial for me. I often found I could remember the Latin vocabulary because I knew the English derivatives.

I think you could use this program with a range of ages, but First Daughter in first grade was not yet ready for a program with this much grammar. She went through the first book of Song School Latin this year, independently, and I will probably buy the second book for her to use next year. I will probably then start Primer A with her in third grade though we might go more slowly. When she's ready for it, I will only need to purchase the activity book.

As I said, we've been really pleased and we'll be starting Latin for Children Primer B in the fall. In addition to Amazon (all the affiliate links above) and Classical Academic Press, I've found competitive prices on these products at Sacred Heart Books and Gifts (update - this store has closed). I also purchased some of my books used on Cathswap, though there aren't many available there.

Docendo, discimus. - Seneca

By teaching, we learn.

Homeschool Review: Prima Latina

Prima Latina is published by Memoria Press. You can read a great deal about it on their website, where you can also purchase the materials. They recommend it for students beginning Latin in grades 1 through 4. In first grade, I opted for a more relaxed introduction to Latin with Song School Latin. (See my review here.) We started Prima Latina in second grade.

Each lesson in the Student Book includes two pages of text and two pages of exercises. The text of the lessons includes Practical Latin (a common phrase), the Lesson itself (verbs, invisible verbs, constellations, etc.), Vocabulary (five words or phrases), a Latin prayer for memorization (one new line each week) and Derivatives (English words based on the Latin vocabulary from the lesson with definitions).

The exercises generally included Review Questions, Lesson Questions, Translations of the lesson's vocabulary words, Speaking Latin practice prompts, Write and Learn (writing each vocabulary word and its meaning twice and answering a question or two) and Fun Practice (find invisible verbs in a favorite storybook, etc.). First Son wrote his answers directly in the book and usually had ample room. I was concerned at the amount of writing, as we had struggled with handwriting in first grade, but he started the year filling everything out without complaint. (Later, he started to groan when he had to write, but that had more to do with him than with the lesson.)

There is a Review lesson after each five new lessons, for a total of 25 lessons and 5 review lessons. We made it through Review Lesson 4. I had originally planned to finish the book in second grade, but I decided later to decrease our Latin lessons each week to take advantage of a basketball camp in the spring.

I also purchased the Teacher Manual. It has an overview of Latin grammar and a brief explanation of the lessons followed by tests for each of the review lessons, answer keys for the tests and a vocabulary drill form. I copied the tests for First Son. He would complete it at the beginning of a review week using his book, then again at the end of the week without his book. I used the vocabulary drill forms every week because I firmly believe (based on my own experience with Spanish) that writing a word is helpful in remembering it. The Teacher Manual then includes the entire text of the student book with answers. I think you could teach this course without the Teacher Manual. I found the answers fairly easy to discern even though I have no Latin knowledge outside of what we've done in our lessons. I liked having the tests and drill form to copy, but you could also devise your own. I do wish the binding of the Teacher Manual didn't look so similar to the student book. I often pulled it off the shelf instead of the student book and First Son would laugh at me.

We listened to the Pronunciation CD as part of every Latin lesson. At the beginning of the year, I played it off my laptop, but I loaded all the tracks on First Son's Kindle Fire after Christmas so he could access them all himself (which he liked). He practiced his Roman numerals every time he scrolled through the tracks. I found the pronunciation CD well done. It's very easy to understand and gives enough time to repeat the words or phrases before moving on.

The Latina Christiana I Flashcards are recommended as supplements for Prima Latina, but I decided to wait on flashcards. They're not usually very fun and I was more interested in enjoying Latin this year than concerned he memorize every vocabulary word.

I thought the lessons were reasonable for the target ages. First Son generally understood them without too much additional discussion. The explanations of parts of speech (like noun and verb) worked well for him and were even sometimes entertaining.

Overall, I think Prima Latina is a good course. First Son started out very well with it. I noticed him struggling as the year went on, but I think this is mostly because I stopped listening to the CD and working through the exercises with him. Being more involved would have been better for both of us (as I would like to learn Latin), but I often used that time to change a diaper or attend to another child. When I slowed down the lessons in the spring, I tried to take more time with him and plan to do so next year.

The next time we use Prima Latina, I think I'm going to plan on spreading it out over two years, especially if I start it with First Daughter in first or second grade.

We're going to start third grade with a review of the first twenty lessons, probably using the four review lessons we've already done. I'll ask First Son to write the answers and vocabulary on another sheet of paper. I'll be introducing the flashcards along with the pronunciation CD. I'm going to continue the remaining five lessons slowly, two weeks for each lesson. Once we finish, we'll move on to Latina Christiana I.

I did not receive anything for this review. I purchased all the materials myself.

Homeschool Review: Song School Latin

Song School Latin at Amazon You can also find it at the publisher, Classical Academic Press.

Kansas Dad was excited for First Son to begin learning Latin. He's always wished he'd learned it earlier as it would have been very useful in his philosophy and theology studies. Of course, Latin is useful for all sorts of studies. I believe Charlotte Mason would have us wait to start Latin, but we'll consider ourselves Classical for this subject. I wanted to start in first grade, but I was a little nervous about Prima Latina. It seemed like it might be a lot of work and writing for First Son.

Then, Brandy at Afterthoughts mentioned they were using Song School Latin. It looked like much more fun, so I picked it up to try for first grade.

First Son loves it. He says every lesson would be better if there were more pictures of monkeys. What can I say? He's probably right.

You definitely do not need the teacher's manual. I purchased only the student book, which comes with the CD. The CD contains songs for each lesson recorded in both Classical and Ecclesiastical pronunciations. The lyrics are printed in every lesson which I found quite helpful. Even so, it was a little difficult to understand the pronunciation. I would have appreciated some tracks for that. (I checked; the teacher's manual did not provide more nuanced pronunciations than the student text.)

Kansas Dad was a little disappointed in some of the translations for the songs; he thought they were a bit weak. I thought they were alright considering they were for children's songs. The translations in the book always seemed accurate.

Each lesson begins with a vocabulary list, mainly nouns. The lyrics for the chapter's song are included. Most of the lyrics are in English, with the Latin words mixed in.There's a short lesson, which I usually read aloud for First Son, though he could probably read it himself. About midway through the book, they introduce a "Famous Latin Saying" in each lesson as well. Some of these were more famous than others. I really liked the "Grow Your English" section which shows how one of the lesson's words is used to build modern English words.

The exercises always start with tracing the Latin vocabulary words. I liked this start. When I was in college, I learned writing out Spanish vocabulary words was a great way to reinforce my own lessons. Other exercises might be matching, circling the correct word to finish a sentence or more active exercises like playing Simon Says. Most of the active ones seem to be best suited for a classroom setting. We did alright on those by including First Daughter.

Each lesson includes at least one little review exercise. Additionally, there are whole review lessons after every three or four that introduce new words. The review lessons include a "Chapter Story," often a fairy tale with some of Latin vocabulary words appearing in the text. (The picture is from the first lesson, back in August. First Son drew his magistra, me. Don't I look lovely?)

The book is definitely Christian, as there are a couple of lessons with Christmas vocabulary and Christmas stories. I think they would be fine for any family that's comfortable with the Christmas story of Jesus's birth, though.

So, has First Son learned how to speak Latin? Not really, but that's not too surprising. Though there are some lessons that teach a little grammar, the vast majority of the vocabulary words are nouns. First Son learned a few verbs and phrases, but he can't really carry on a conversation. His vocabulary is a little shaky, too, but I think that could have been improved by listening to the songs more often. I plan to continue playing the songs for the kids over the summer.

I think this book is great for a family that's interested in starting Latin but not anxious to be too stressed by it. Latin is one of First Son's favorite subjects and I'm sure this book is one of the reasons. In the most recent catalog from Classical Academic Press mentions a Song School Latin Book 2. It's not listed on their website, though. I might consider it for second grade if it were available. Instead, we'll be moving on to Prima Latina next year.

This review is my honest opinion. I purchased the book myself. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.