What foreign language would you choose to study? Is learning Latin a good choice?
I'm planning to include Rosetta Stone Spanish in our curriculum beginning next year, and my girls have been very excited about the prospect. But Jaden has seemed less than enthusiastic about learning Spanish, so today I asked him what language he would like to study. And his response?
Latin. He chose Latin! (Actually a very good choice since he's so interested in the sciences.)
Last school year Jaden and Jerah completed Latina Christiana I, and although we all learned a lot, none of us were terribly impressed with the course. Since it was mainly memorization of vocabulary words and declensions — not much of anything in context — LC really didn't excite us about learning Latin. So when Jaden — my typically reluctant-learner son — said he wanted to learn Latin, I was more than a little skeptical that he was being serious. But he was totally serious. He really wants to learn Latin.
So I stopped by our homeschool store today to look through their Latin curriculum. I also did a lot of online research and finally decided to purchase the Cambridge Latin Course, which uses an inductive method of teaching — more reading-based than grammar based (plus there are numerous free online activities and study helps available online for the course). I had shown Jaden the Cambridge text at the homeschool store and he was excited about how it looked, so that was a huge plus. I also purchased Beginner's Latin as a supplement to the Cambridge text since it will give Jaden more of a formal, but still fun, grammar study.
I'm excited about how this is going to work out next year, and I'm looking forward to going through the Cambridge books on my own over the summer! (Boy, I'm such a geek!)
Learning Latin is a good choice and I am proud that Jaden chose such a language to learn.
Good for him! I took two years of Latin in high school (we used the CD version of Artes Latinae). It's really helped me out with my science and medical schooling. We also used to play a game called "Rummy Roots". It's a card game with Greek and Latin word roots. I loved it. My sister thought something that involved word roots should not have the word "game" next to it.
My oldest (9) has been doing Latina Christiana in homeschool co-op. His teacher asked who thought they would be continuing with the class next year, and apparently he was the only one that didn't raise his hand. She told me that he went up to her afterwards and told her that he really liked her, but maybe Latin just wasn't his "thing." LOL He was worried her feelings would be hurt.
We will be starting Rosetta Stone Spanish next school year as well!
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