Simple Latin

Parents these days think it's good for elementary aged children to learn Latin, yet the sound of that word is enough to scare kids...and homeschoolers who (like me), have no experience with that language! Charlotte Mason began Latin with students around 5th grade, and Year 4 of the Ambleside list recommends it. I made it my goal this summer to find a way to teach Latin so we wouldn't be afraid of it, or loathe it.

Again, my experience with Latin was limited to: "Coram Deo," "Deo volente," "Veni, vidi, vici," and the name of our church, "Missio Dei." I have been a Spanish speaker all my life, but in no way did I count that toward my confidence in teaching my children (and myself, by default) Latin. I started looking at curriculum for elementary, or beginner, students.

What I found was either singsong or overly academic; there was no in between. We could either learn to memorize a bunch of words through song (yet not really know or care what they mean), or focus on lists of words, verb endings, declensions, and other stuff that wouldn't promise to endear my 4th and 5th graders to Latin. It seemed I would never locate a way that would work for us!

I listened to a podcast of the ladies from A Delectable Education on teaching Latin. Then I listened to it twice more. It shed much light on the how, but also on the why. These ladies explained, in practical terms, that we teach Latin for kids to better learn language and vocabulary; also to later be able to read passages from famous works in their original Latin for clearer understanding. Latin isn't learned to be spoken, but to be read, so it is to be taught in addition to a foreign language. Knowing that we don't have to worry about "speaking" Latin takes off more pressure than I imagined.

Charlotte Mason's students studied Latin only twice a week, in 30-minute periods. I decided that twice a week, in even shorter lessons, would be great for us. I asked Delectable Education for a book recommendation, and they suggested Cambridge Latin. One look on Amazon, and I knew this book would produce the simple lessons I desired.

We take our time. As with all lessons, we keep it short. The book begins like this: 

Kids understand what most of this means just by the pictures and context. If there are words they don't know, we simply translate them. Recall that the goal isn't speaking, but rather translation. I want them to see these sentences and be able to know what they mean, and what the individual words mean. That's all I'm striving for in these early years. No verb endings, no declensions; the book doesn't even go there! The book fulfills my desire entirely: to familiarize ourselves with Latin; to learn its vocabulary and how it flows. 

At this point, we don't need to know why certain endings are on certain verbs. I care about how much my children care. Kids can seem to "know" a lot without having a clue why they need to know, or caring one whit about learning. This book allows us to learn Latin without drudgery. Grammar structure will come later. For now, they're making connections between Latin words and words in English and Spanish.

The book does include a snippet on the nominative and accusative cases, although it's not these hard-sounding names that's important. My kids fully understand the difference between "coquus est in culina" and "coquus culinam intrat." They know why one ends in -a, while the other ends in -am. They understand this, plus word order, in the two months we've been doing this. 

This book also spreads cultural stories throughout. We follow the family of Caecilius, a banker who lives in Pompeii during the first century, A.D. There are paragraphs throughout, in English, that explain daily life and historical events. The characters of this family also make up the Latin practice readings and stories. With the use of Caecilius and his family, we stay interested; real people spoke Latin, and they lived interesting lives! The practice readings are funny, too. This is as close as a Latin text gets to one of Charlotte's "living books"!

It's amazing what can be accomplished using this Cambridge method only twice a week, in just two months. I don't mind if they look up some words in the back; isn't that why the dictionary is there? Don't we want students to look up words they don't know, rather than guessing or giving up? They're learning! Last week, I left them alone; together, with no help from me, and not much flipping to the back of the book, they completely translated this in their notebooks: 

Latin doesn't have to be as scary as many parents, students, and teachers have led me to believe. I haven't heard one groan when I announce it's time for Latin. No endless memorization, just simple enjoyment. Move on when they're ready, no sooner or later. Don't make them hate it before they even know why they're learning it! Latin may have "killed the Romans," but it doesn't have to kill us!