Son2 finished Prima Latina a few days ago, and the new materials arrived today, hurrah!

I decided on Minimus, the Latin program for 7- to 10-year-olds from Cambridge University Press. It looks great! It has an ongoing story in Latin about a family in Roman Britain, told in comic strip panels, and followed by vocabulary, grammar, and Roman Britain history and culture. I got the accompanying CD because I want a checkpoint for my pronunciation, even though it uses the classical pronunciation and we're using ecclesiastical. It turns out that I really like it -- so much so that I might have Son2 listen to it after all.

Son2's comment when he looked the book over:  "It's in Latin!" Um, yes...

I have the feeling Son2 will really enjoy this. I bet Son1 will pick up the Minimus book from time to time and check it out for himself.

Or, how I learned to trust Latin through reading.

I spent some time late last week and today getting ready for Son1's next two lessons in the long out-of-print 1930s textbook Latin Book One and doing a little background study. Last week I read through the LBO lessons. Yesterday I read slowly and carefully an explanation of the Dowling method for Latin (learn the grammar forms; memorize the Latin declensions, conjugations, etc; and once that's done, read, read, read Latin, especially Lingua Latina).

Today I worked through the Latin to English translation exercises and reread the reading for the lesson he'll do first this week. Finally, going a step further, I read Wheelock's Latin for the grammatical concepts Latin Book One has introduced so far (lessons I through X). By the way, Wheelock's covers nearly all of the LBO concepts plus a bunch more in four intense chapters with four or five times the vocabulary, all to be memorized. I'm really glad we're not working in Wheelock's!

As I was working my way through the Wheelock's descriptions of ablative of place, predicate nominative, and other grammatical terms, a little light bulb (compact fluorescent, of course!) went on over my head:  Aha!

The grammatical terms got between me and the Latin.

NOW I can begin to see why I found foreign language study much more helpful for my grammar understanding than my high school English instruction. And why immersion/reading approaches (especially but not only Lingua Latina) work just fine to teach the grammar -- the structure -- of the language without labelling the grammar action in English.

As Son1 and I work through the LBO reading at the beginning of each lesson, we refer to the new vocabulary but not yet the grammar instruction. That is a little of the Lingua Latina type of Latin study. We figure out what each word is doing from what we're reading BEFORE getting to the English explanation of what's going on.

Put another way,

- learning how Latin works by reading it, without the grammar labels

reminds me of

- beginning to read by memorizing and using the letter sounds, without the letter names (I learned the alphabet by letter sounds first)

and of

- learning to play the piano by learning which notes on the written staff go with which notes on the piano, without learning the names of the notes (ABCDEFG) (I taught myself from a beginner's book for a year at age 12 before getting a teacher).

For music, a better example still might be learning which musical notes that one hears go with which notes on the written staff, and then how to produce them with your instrument. That is a lot more like my choral experience (the voice is the instrument) from grammar school to beyond college).

Hmmm. It makes sense to me now that you can do just fine learning Latin without memorizing the finely detailed grammatical terms. You will of course learn the grammar -- but the super-detailed English labels are not so necessary. In fact, I think I've run across a book of Latin grammar in Latin, used by centuries of schoolchildren learning Latin, as I understand it. Could be interesting.

Now I understand that Latin through reading and some explanation works just fine (and it's much more interesting and fun than the firehose approach of Wheelock's). I am very happy with Latin Book One, and I am eager to try Minimus with Son2 soon, and Lingua Latina with Son1 this summer.

Wheee!

Latin Book One has been more challenging for Son1 than Prima Latina, but at a slow and steady pace it's great, and much more interesting. It's so cool to watch him, by the end of the lesson, quickly translating from Latin to English and vice versa.

We do one lesson a week right now. After three lessons I decided to introduce a Latin drill page to start his day. That has helped get his brain doing Latin (and remembering the most recent stuff) before we get to the lesson work for the day.

Son1 turned 11 at Christmastime. Currently he's doing one lesson per week. If he speeds up a bit, I plan fill out the week with Latin games & fun (matching flash cards, Latin Go Fish, maybe make crosswords, maybe try Latin Scrabble or buy Ludere Latine for all kinds of Latin word games), and/or Latin fun reading (Minimus, Lingua Latina, Ecce Romani, Winne Ille Pooh? No idea yet).

If he becomes ready to do more, moving a bit faster still, I'll introduce the next lesson on Friday, or maybe Thursday, and plan a quick review on Monday, while keeping some games or fun reading in the mix.

Incremental creeping toward a faster speed, but not getting out of his challenge-comfort zone, that's my plan!

For summer Latin study I want to use Lingua Latina to read, read, read our way through fun Latin stories a few times a week. Since we stay indoors at least part of our blazing hot Oklahoma afternoons, especially in July and August, perhaps a little fun Latin reading will help Son1 hold onto the Latin he learned this year and be ready to pick up Latin Book One again in the fall.

Son1 and I started Latin Book One in December. I'm using the copies of the lessons available through the LBO yahoogroup; if after a couple more lessons (we've done four) I'm happy with it, I'll start looking for a copy of the book. I've been able to look at a copy thanks to interlibrary loan. So far I really like it.

Right now, in the first lessons, I sit with Son1 and work through everything with him, coaching and encouraging all the way. I think this is because it's a HUGE leap from Prima Latina, LOL, and I'm not at all sure what grammar he learned in public school. He's picking up speed as he gains confidence, so I think he'll be able to do the lessons on his own pretty soon, though I want to continue to do the first part with him (the readings). I'm looking forward to refreshing my college Latin and learning more.

So... we just take it in bite-size chunks, as much as seems good to work through in one sitting. The lessons seem to take about three days right now, so our new plan is to start each lesson on Monday and do some Latin practice or games to fill out the week. It may be the case that my son will start working through the lessons more quickly, but I'll want to make sure he has each lesson pretty solidly at whatever pace.

Along those lines, I'm about to add some Latin drill to help him see the big picture of the current conjugations and declensions. Once we get further along I would like to add Lingua Latina for fun reading practice.

As for how we tackle the lesson, we read the Latin reading bits aloud together. Then I coach him toward understanding while avoiding translation if I can, with this process: find the verb and identify it, find the subject, find the object or predicate whatever, note new vocabulary, read it in Latin again, then talk about how we would say it in English. I hope to drop the "say it in English" part at some point. Next, he reads the grammar explanation and I discuss it with him. Then he puts it all to work in the exercises (including explicit translation work). If he's really frustrated or balking (like the Monday we had started the lesson on Friday so it was unfamiliar already, oops), I work with him, again coaching him through every step.

This is the first Latin work that has challenged Son1, but I think he's going to enjoy it. We'll see how Lesson 5 goes this coming week :)