I'm an advocate for learning Latin and the importance of all school children to learn it. I wished I had the opportunity and since I didn't, I couldn't wait to start and provide a review of Latina Christiana: Complete set by Memoria Press. I never think it's too late to learn and by taking the course with my children, I feel I provide them with further motivation in succeeding. One of the options Memoria Press provides is the option to purchase online instructional videos (streaming) instead of the DVDs. Some people have a preference in how they like to take courses. This is the second course I have had the opportunity to utilize with my children and I honestly can say that I think it's a terrific program. The course has a Teacher's Manual, a Student book, a pronunciation CD, an instructional CD, and a large set of flashcards. There are also Review Worksheets and lesson plans that can be purchased separately as well as a couple of downloads that I printed and used from Memoria Press' website:
- Classical Pronunciation Guide is for anyone that might be interested in learning how they might have talked in the late Republic. This program utilizes Christian pronunciation.
- Conjugations and Declensions - this one was a bit more difficult to teach as with any language, one learns new terms and meanings. Declensions organize nouns and conjugations organize verbs. With only five declensions and four conjugations to learn, it's not overly cumbersome. This is one area that I probably took a bit longer to understand with my student. I wanted to clearly understand as I've always heard how learning other languages are so difficult compared to the English language. Once I was positive that my student understood the declension cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and ablative, I proceeded with ensuring she understood 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons ability to be either singular or plural and the sixth tenses such as future, past, present, and so forth.
In your account with Memoria Press under downloads, are also some printables such as Quizzes and Tests and Latina Christiana Reproducible Vocubulary & Grammar Drills. These were also helpful in ensuring they were retaining the knowledge they just learned from the DVD and worksheets in the Student Guide. Here is an example of two quizzes from Lessons 1 and 2:
Starting the Course:
To begin, the Teacher's Manual has a very thorough comprehensive beginning from Pronunciation Rules, Grammar Overview, Student Goals for First Year Latin, General Teaching Guidelines, Vocabulary Drill Sheets, and Grammar Drill Sheets such as this:
Next are the lessons that are also comprehensive and provide enough direction to start teaching your student(s). I highly recommend reviewing the Teacher's Manual a couple of times especially if you are new to Latin, along with the Student Book. Watching the video ahead of the lesson will also help to teach the course. Since I wanted to learn Latin as well, I found that the best way for me to provide them with instruction was to thoroughly understand the content first, although it's not a requirement as Memoria Press does an excellent job with providing a lesson plan point by point in the Manual. An example page follows and additional pages can be found by clicking this link: Latina Christiana: Complete set.
My first student enjoyed the beginning so much that it prompted my other student to join in. Initially, I started this review with just one of my children and immediately had to purchase an additional Student Book so they both could learn together.
Back to the Teacher's Manual, another aspect that I liked were the overlaid answers of each page from the Student's Book within each lesson. I didn't have to stop and ask to see one of their books rather everything was provided in the Manual.
Instructional DVDs
- The video from the Instructional DVDs for Latina Christiana contained three discs averaging about 15 minutes per lesson so it's not too long for the students to lose focus. During times when my daughters might be feeling a bit overwhelmed, the lesson came to a conclusion which allowed me to press upon them that the lessons aren't long and are very manageable which quickly calmed them and gave them the motivation for the next day of instruction.
- The instructor, Jessica Watson, speaks in a manner in which you can understand and is pleasant. I think she does a great job trying to bring relevance to how Latin is like English so the students can understand the relationships better such as noun endings and how order is different between the two.
- The additional recitation and review really helps to reinforce what the students are learning and it helps to ensure everyone is pronouncing each word correctly. This was invaluable to me!
- Vocabulary practice, illustrations and notes were also essential.
Flashcards
Both girls don't mind practicing the flashcards since there are only a handful per week. My younger one noted how there were more after the first week but I walked her through how she already knows the meaning of some of them thanks to our English language using a lot of Latin roots already. She really loves to show me how well she retains the words right off from the start of week 1:
Pronunciation CD
This CD was also instrumental in teaching the course as it had complete verbal pronunciation for every lesson. For myself, I best learn through repetition and I do believe my girls are the same so this was key. The prayers and songs were a nice treat to hear!
Student Book
The Student Book contains lessons at the right length without bogging students down. It provides instruction that repeats previous words as well as looks ahead and requires the students to look for answers. I have them write out the different new words to help them reinforce it in a separate notebook. The video also provides a repeat practice of the previous words which also provides the reinforcement factor while building their vocabulary. We liked how it's set up and how it's easy to follow along each week. Each day after watching the video, I encourage them to relook at the work they completed in the Student Book to help retain the new information they are learning.
An example page follows and additional pages can be found by clicking this link: Latina Christiana: Complete set
I was honestly quite pleased at how easy it was to get both girls interested in learning Latin and completely the lessons.
Overall, even though some of the photos don't appear they are having a great time as it is education after all, they are enjoying the lessons. It's fun to watch them engage in the lessons and although sometimes a competitive nature hits my younger one and causes a bit of a rift, I think it still provides motivation to my middle one to keep pressing forward. Last year, I reviewed the Memoria Press' First Form Latin Complete Set with one of my other children. I think the Latina Christina is a good starting place for my 11 year old and cannot wait to start with First Form Latin next year. Also, since beginning this course, I purchased a second Student Handbook and I also purchased a Latina Christiana Review Worksheets Set, Fourth Edition to further assist in our endeavors. The course in itself is very complete but I thought the additional review worksheets would be nice. From the instructional DVD to the Teacher's Guide, the Student's Guide, the flashcards and the Pronunciation CD, it's a very comprehensive learning experience that was put together to ensure success. Latina Christiana: Complete set by Memoria Press is a well rounded curriculum for teaching Latin and we highly recommend it.
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We used First Form Latin previously and was impressed with it. This program looks just as good and like it will set them up for success with Latin.
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