It all began with The Latin Road to English Grammar. I’ve always felt my dc and I had a rather solid base of grammar from our years of A Beka English and drilling from my 8^th and 9^th grade English teachers. However, as we worked through LRTEG, I discovered verbs I had never heard of before! Imperfect Verbs? Perfect Verbs? Pluperfect Verbs? Future Perfect Verbs? Over the weeks as I learned to conjugate each one in Latin, I kind of sort of understood what they were. I definitely understood present tense. I thought I understood past tense until I was introduced to imperfect and perfect verbs. Well, at least I was comfortable with future tense verbs. Whenever Barbara Beers talked about imperfect vs perfect tense verbs on the DVD, I wasn’t really getting it. I think she explained it well, and I could apply it and have my Latin translations correct.  However, I didn’t have the background of experience to truly grab hold of it. I could spit out a textbook definition, but beyond that was a haze.  In other words, I was doing things correctly, but I didn't really know why. Nevertheless, I persevered. After all, that is one reason for learning Latin, to learn English grammar better.

Another distinction of verbs I learned in LRTEG was the 4 principal parts. Even that was a haze. I had a vague memory of principal verb charts in English grammar books, but we had never dissected them. Nor did we learn much more about them than mere chanting and memory work to use in sentences. Now in Latin, I am forced to deal with them, and I never knew what the purpose of each of the principal parts were. My poor brain has felt rather hazy with verbs in the last two years of Latin.

Recently the clouds parted and the sun began to shine through my brain! Yesterday I was doing a lesson on verbs with my son in The Bridge to the Latin Road. We learned the 6 verb tenses (Simple Tenses: Present, Past, Future; Perfect Tenses: Present Perfect, Past Perfect, Future Perfect) and suddenly it made sense. We did not relate them to Latin, but merely looked at the English version of the tenses. Interesting! I had thought those extra tenses were invented just for Latin! Looks like we actually use them in English! We also used that information to review his principal parts charts he had made a few weeks before. I had thought those principal parts were the only verbs we used in English. I had never really thought about how it all related. Now they are making more sense! In preparing for the rest of this week’s lesson, I learned about Progressive Verbs! Progressive Verbs? I haven’t even heard of that in Latin! Perhaps it’s coming up in a future lesson. Then we have Time Line of Verb Tenses charts to fill in. Barbara Beers thoroughly explained them on the DVD and I felt more clarity in my brain! We have a verb timeline chart in Latin, but they are not in as much detail as the ones for The Bridge to the Latin Road. Although I understood the Latin charts, The Bridge to the Latin Road has helped me to understand it much better! Here is ds filling in the Verb Tense Timeline charts today.  He is copying from my notebook on the right.

Feeling victorious with this new knowledge, I put The Bridge to the Latin Road away and pulled out LRTEG to study. I reviewed the Third Conjugation Verbs that dd and I are currently studying in LRTEG. Wait a minute! Because I have to use the four principal parts to conjugate the verbs in each of the six tenses, I got to thinking about what I had just learned with my son. I saw the verbs in a whole new way! Ah, such clarity! What a beautiful thing to apply useful information! Suddenly I was having an easier time with my memory work! I was getting goose bumps!

Therefore, for anyone like my friend Pam, who has asked me about the value of The Bridge to the Latin Road in preparing a student for Latin, here it is! I think this is the first lesson ds and I have done that would have immensely helped dd and me. Or at least me. I need to show this to dd. It may already make perfect sense to her! LOL (Later, I did show this to dd and except for the progressive verbs it didn't seem like anything new to her.  She had picked up on it better than I did!)

However, the excitement does not end there! By this point, I had a glimmer of a memory. The fresh sunlight that had entered my brain had reached into a far crevice that had tucked away a bit of confusion for another day. When I first purchased How to Study Your Bible by Kay Arthur ten years ago, I was excited about deepening my Bible study. However as I read through the book, my eyes glazed over in confusion. I was determined to someday, somehow learn what she wrote about, although I had no idea how to do that. I tucked the book away in the bookcase. Yesterday as I flipped through the book, I found a section called "Tense, Voice, and Mood of Verbs." Yes, there it is, the section that sent me over the edge ten years ago...the 6 verb tenses! That’s exactly what had blown my brain away years ago! Hmmmm, I flipped to the Voice section and there is the active and passive voice which we have studied recently in LRTEG. Ahhhhh, such clarity now! Hmmmmm, middle voice? Oh, she says it’s unique to Greek construction. Well, okay, I understand that now. I didn’t ten years ago when I bought this book! LOL Next I flipped to Mood. Hmmmmm, I’ve seen this on the top of our LRTEG verb charts, which was another concept I didn't fully grasp. The Kay Arthur book is helping me to figure this out. Fascinating! Wow! Ten years ago I had seen some of this stuff in her other books, which always sort of went over my head. Since she always applied the concepts for me, I went with it. I had no idea how to use the information on my own. Perhaps now there is hope! Isn’t it amazing how we take things for granted in English, but Latin really makes us think?

My friend, Pam, has also been asking me about the The Bridge to the Latin Road. 

This is a new product that arrived on the market last spring. Because my son had excellent grammar skills, I was considering starting him in LRTEG I this year. He is a brilliant thinker who is easily bored and needs a challenge. Yet he was fearful that Latin would be too challenging for him, even though he wants to study it. My main concern was his ability to do the copy work, which he detests. When we looked at the Bridge last year, we decided to use that this year. It is sold by the same company that sells LRTEG and is the bridge between their phonics program and LRTEG.

Although I do not feel it is essential to do the Bridge before starting LRTEG, I do see some positive results from doing it. The Bridge incorporates lots of dictation into the daily work. DS has learned to hold large chunks of information in his head by copying dictation. At the beginning of the year he struggled to hold a simple sentence in his head. Now he can hold large chunks of information. This ability to hold large chunks of information is a skill rarely used in today’s society. However, our forefathers were able to do this with ease, since they had to rely on auditory skills more than we do today in our visually driven world.

In addition, ds has conquered the copywork issue! It’s still not his favorite thing to do, but he has disciplined himself to copy. This is a kinesthetic aspect to learning that can engage the brain more actively than reading. In addition, he is building an impressive English grammar reference notebook!

I chose Latin Road to English Grammar for our Latin studies. Liking the reputation it had for being clear and through for the teacher, I was sold! Also it had exactly what I wanted my children to do without a lot of extra map work and history readings on ancient Rome. It is a multisensory program for the older child. My children do not like lots of fingerplays, dittys or color sheets. They want the real thing. So this was perfect! LRTEG is so thourough in comparing Latin to English grammar, that no other English grammar study is required. It sounded to me as though this program would effectively and clearly teach Latin while relating it to English grammar. We are now almost done with Book II and we have found all of the above to be exactly what we expected.

For books I and II, I have purchased the Big Fat Latin Special!  LOL  It comes with the teacher set (notebook with lesson plans, answer keys and charts, tests, worksheets, textbook, vocabulary cards and audio CD), student set (notebook, colored paper, colored pens, textbook, comprehensive reference guide), DVDs (for the teacher) and Latin dictionary.  This reference guide is full of everything we learn from the three volumes. Yes, there is more information on the back.

My friend, Pam, was asking me how I use LRTEG. I try to begin my preparations for each chapter by first reading through the chapter in the textbook. Then I read the lesson plans. Then I watch the DVD. The DVDs are only for the teacher. Here the author further explains the lessons to be taught. Then she translates several sentences. This has been the most beneficial to me. I get to see how she analyzes a sentence and makes choices. If there is more than one correct answer, she discusses that and explains why both work. If one is better than the other, she explains why. Wow, this has been the most phenomenal part of the teaching package!

     My friend, Pam, has requested some information on our Latin studies. Four years ago I never dreamed that something like this would happen. I never expected to learn Latin much less tell anyone else about it. I knew homeschoolers who actually studied Latin, but I never understood why. Then I started learning about the benefits of classical education and I was sold! My 15yod began her Latin studies 2 years ago. I’ve been studying to keep up with her and I am convinced that Latin, indeed, has many benefits, including preparing a student for the SAT exam and even impacting our world. Here are some of the reasons why.  

     Latin study increases vocabulary skills. Because much of our language is derived from Latin, it makes sense to study our roots. After all, the ancient Romans did conquer the known world, including the European continent and the British Isles. They left more than architectural monuments that can be visited today; they also left behind their language which seeped into the cultures they left behind. From simply knowing one Latin root, such as nauta, nautae meaning sailor…a host of other words can easily be understood like nautical, aeronautics, nautical mile, and nautilus. Obviously this is a big help with SAT study preparations! 

     Since Latin has pervaded many languages from ancient times, the study of Latin enhances other foreign language studies. Recently we read a literature book about the French voyageurs in Canada. Despite the numerous French words in the book, dd and I were able to understand some of the words merely from our Latin studies. We are surrounded by much Spanish influence in our city. Without any previous Spanish studies, dd correctly translates some of the Spanish vocabulary because of her Latin knowledge. Even my previous Spanish studies have been clarified by Latin. 

     Logic skills are also enhanced while studying Latin. Because there can be more than one correct answer when doing translations, one must analyze the sentence to see if the chosen translation is clear or if there is ambiguity. Latin is like a verbal puzzle, moving the pieces around until there is clarity. Through much practice in Latin, my dd now understands the importance in applying this to her papers. She is learning how to scrutinize the word order in her sentences to find the best meaning which she is trying to articulate. 

     English verb tenses that we have chanted for years in our English grammar books have given us pause in Latin. We have had to carefully analyze their precise function before doing translations. Little studied concepts like indirect objects and passive verb tense are magnified in Latin usage. It wasn’t until our recent study of passive verb tenses that I finally understood how to strengthen verbs in writing assignments. My dd now has clear understanding of passive verbs versus strong verbs and is learning to apply this. In her weekly papers I am challenging her to replace unnecessary passive verbs with strong verbs and she has been delighted with the results. Language comes alive when lifted from a workbook page and applied to writing skills. Latin has been the bridge to make this connection easier for us.

     Of course one could simply learn English grammar by listening and speaking the language itself. After all, that is how toddlers first learn their language. Like looking through a window and viewing the wonders of the outdoors, English grammar is practically learned through experience. Discovering and interacting with a living language gleans as much wonder and joy as in sitting on a window seat and observing clouds drifting through a summer sky, lightening flashing from a storm cloud and leaves rustling in a tree.  

     The next level of learning grammar is with an actual curriculum, learning parts of speech and their proper use and order in a sentence. Training our use of words to have strength and power, one can engage more effectively in communicating with the world. This could be likened to lenses that allow us to see things from afar. Powerful lenses such as field glasses allow one to see the precise coloring of a bird in the distance and amazing rock formations in glacial valleys viewed from across a gorge. Further studies in formal grammar continue to solidify the power of language to more effectively communicate difficult ideas in the same way telescopes allow us to see distant planets and stars in the night sky. One of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, had little formal schooling. Apprenticed as a printer, he became skilled with his hands by using a trade. Yet, a deep desire for learning drove him to study on his own. "I fell far short in elegance of expression…I…thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, and determined to endeavor at improvement." (From The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin) We remember him today with a smile as we recall his experience with lightening, wise and witty sayings, and his contributions to society and our country. He encouraged the signers of the Declaration of Independence when they committed treason in signing the document by declaring, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

     Studying Latin fine tunes the study of English grammar. Like using a microscope that proves the existence of microbes, germs, and the amazing complexity of the human cell, so Latin scrutinizes concepts easily taken for granted in a familiar language. Understanding subtle nuances of word choice, part of speech and verb tense allows us to strike a chord in the human breast when conveying matters of importance. Many of our Founding Fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry, used their Latin and other classical studies to influence the world and shape a nation historically unique from any other. They are remembered today for their understanding, power, clarity, and eloquence. In fact, Thomas Jefferson himself, as a 17 year old law student was spell bound, along with other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, when Patrick Henry condemned King George for his treatment of the colonies. Ablaze with passion, Patrick Henry challenged the House, "If this be treason, make the most of it."

Jefferson later described Henry’s speech as "torrents of sublime eloquence" which he had "never heard from any other man."

    As microscopes have proven new worlds in drops of pond water and onion root stems, so has Latin proven the rhetorical skills of famed speakers of the past who helped to form a new nation.  

     Read more about the benefit of Latin.