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The Johnson family's discoveries regarding classical education
Mar. 13, 2006
Latin anyone?
Until
I began reading the Bluedorn's books, I saw no reason to study Latin or
other "dead" languages. Greek makes sense, since it is the
language of the New Testament (though I didn't know where to begin);
and Hebrew, perhaps, although I have the impression that it is
difficult for an English speaker to learn. (Not impossible, mind
you, but more challenging than other languages.)
But now, we have been attempting to learn bits of Latin. We started with a book titled, Amo, Amas, Amat and More,
by Eugene Ehrlich. This is full of short Latin phrases, some
commonly known. It includes pronunciation guides and brief
descriptions to impart meaning. No grammar is presented
here. But we are able to recognize certain words as used in their
various declensions, which will, hopefully, help the grammar to make a
little more sense, when we reach that point. One of our first,
and favorite, expressions is "fiat lux," which means, "Let there be light." We often say that, in either language, when we turn on a light in a dark room.
We have also begun trying to learn a few verses of Scripture in Latin,
as well as in English. We are working on Psalm 1, which we
memorized last year in English. Since I don't have pronunciation
guides, I can only hope I'm not destroying the language too badly (need
to know where to put the accent, mainly). Even so, it is proving
very interesting, as we meet up with more words that look vaguely
familiar.
We recently subscribed to The Home Educator
magazine, which has a number of useful tidbits for our use. Term
2 includes a definition of obedience, from Webster's 1828 dictionary,
which we have copied. There are also a number of verses, first in
English, then in Latin, that relate to that character trait. So I
have selected some of these to work on as well. And there is a
short list of Latin phrases, which we are happy to add to our
list. There are also stories, and many other interesting things
in this magazine.
Much of our language study has fallen by the wayside due mainly to our
major move, and trying to get settled in, then a bit of sickness and
other unpredicatable happenings. But we are attempting to pick of
the pieces, so to speak, and I am feeling a little more encouraged at
present. We are still learning the Greek alphabet, slowly, using
the Bluedorn's Alphabeterion and Huppogramon. And we will again
be picking up our reading through the history of the Old Testament,
using the Greenleaf Guide.
We are nearly finished, for now, with our study of Ancient Egypt (dare
I say, finally!). We still need to finish our timeline
comparisons, and read through, together, the reasons for reducing the
Egyptian chronology mentioned in my earlier post. Then I want a
brief summary of contributions made by Ancient Egypt to the world
(science, architecture, etc.). I hope to finish up all of this by
the end of the week, and then move on, probably to study Ancient
Greece. We'll see how that goes.
If you are still reading, I want to thank you for your patience, and I will try to shorten my posts in the future.
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Posted by
Mar. 13, 2006 - Archimedes!