Latin for Children

I had never considered teaching my children Latin. I knew learning Latin roots would be helpful and thought we’d hit that eventually, but that was it---just a thought. Then I was given Latin for Children Primer A from Classical Academic Press for review. I will admit, I was not sure what to expect but was looking forward to seeing what Latin was all about.

What it is:

This is the first book out of three in the Latin for Children series. It is geared toward children in the upper elementary grades. Along with introducing vocabulary, students also learn grammar and derivatives.  The goal of Classical Academic Press is to eventually have students able to read original works in Latin.

LFC (Latin for Children) Primer A — Student text and workbook. The foundation of the curriculum

LFC Primer A Answer Key — features the actual text with answers in bold print

LFC A DVDs & Chant CD — offers chapter-by-chapter training by the author with 2 students. The chant cd contains all 240 vocabulary words chanted and sung in both the classical & ecclesiastical pronunciations.

LFC A History Reader — Read Latin stories from history that are geared toward the grammar and vocabulary being learned in each Primer.

LFC A Activity Book! — Play games and puzzles that help students master the Latin vocabulary and grammar from each Primer.

If you would like to see more, check out the sample pages.

What We Thought:

As I mentioned before, I don't teach following a classical model of education, so I had never really considered teaching my children Latin. I had never had any Latin classes as a student, so I was not familiar with anything concerning Latin. I decided to try this program out with my three oldest children: 12, 11, and 10yrs. old.

The first day we played the DVD lesson, we had some participation problems because certain students  didn’t want to chant aloud. After changing some mindsets and having them try again, things went so much better! After listening to the DVD and the CD chants for a couple of days, we were all able to understand what the presenters were saying :) Because we were so new to Latin, we stretched out the lessons to 1 1/2 - 2 weeks instead of weekly lessons.

We enjoyed learning from Dr. Perrin. He would throw in a little humor every-once-in-awhile which kept my kids’ attention. They especially liked the "How the West was Unus" dramas and went ahead to watch them all.  The student textbook did a good job of reinforcing the teaching in the DVD. This program is meaty and requires kids to learn how to conjugate verbs and decline nouns. It presented it in a way that wasn’t too overwhelming though.

This curriculum was an unexpected hit at our house! Even my 2yr. old and 4yr. old can tell you some Latin words and meanings now. If you are new to Latin, purchasing the whole bundle is the way to go. I could not have done it if I didn’t have all the components----that’s what made it easy for this Latin newbie to implement this program with my children. I saw how much my little girls liked learning too, so now I have Song School Latin on my wish-list as well.

Classical Academic Press Homepage

Latin for Children Level A bundle price: $99.95

Free Additional Latin Resources

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Disclosure: I am a member of TOS and I was given this product free for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.