Latin

" Latin should be begun as early as possible - at a time when inflected speech seems no more astonishing than any other phenomenon in an astonishing world; and when the chanting of "Amo, amas, amat" is ritually agreeable to the feelings as the chanting of "eeny, meeny, miney, moe""-Dorothy Sayers

I am not sure who Dorothy Sayers is, but I have to agree that learning something 'strange' is best done early.

Latin is the language I have been in the mood for this month, so we have been playing around with it quite a bit.

Here are a few links to some free Latin resources.  It was a bit harder to find than say French or Spanish, but fortunately enough private schools and home educators subscribe to the classical approach, which requires Latin.

We have been playing Flash Dash -chose from a word list that corresponds to a Song school Latin chapter.

We also began listening to the cute -A tale of two princesses.  I really hope the whole story is on this site.  We printed part one of the story and figured out what all the Latin words were together.  This interested Princess far more than Dude.

I printed a few pages from this list of downloadable worksheets.

Unfortunately the words to the story do not match the ones in the game, which don't match the ones in this free book:

Latin for beginners (click to open the pdf in a new window)  we printed just the story to read on page 16, haven't tried translating it yet but we will.

We will need a free online translator when we sit down to try it.

Other fun links:

Latin Alive, not the program but a fun youtube chant regarding how Latin roots are found in English words everywhere.

Disney "A whole new world" sung in Latin - you can actually find a whole slew of Latin songs on youtube.

So Why Latin?

First and foremost, because I was in the mood.  But also because the other day my son took his required end of year test and the tester recommended he try Latin.  Apparently it is a logical language (my son scores amazingly well on logical math)  Last year she recommended piano lessons.  He had been asking for them.  When we were finally able to work out the timing and such he started and not only loved piano, he picked up the basics amazingly fast.  Not that he would impress Mozart or anything, but he does great.  So I thought her idea might be another good one.  (besides I am in the mood for it)

I did some further research on my own and found several sites describing the logic puzzle that is Latin.  Dude loves cryptograms, so he might like Latin.  I also found various other reasons why Latin is often recommended.

Classical Press FAQ - though they might be a bit biased since they are a classical education publisher (BTW I do not condone a classical approach to education, only because they aim to 'teach children how to think' and I am quite sure my children know how to do that)

PromoteLatin.  - really a whole website devoted to encouraging the study of Latin!  I didn't really peruse this site, but thought it interesting someone pays to maintain a site purely to promote Latin.

Many different websites list the following reasons:

• Better understanding of Grammar, English as well as French and Spanish
• Chance to learn about ancient culture
• Develops and expands vocabulary
• Many words used in Law, Medicine, and Pharmacy
• Hone logic skills while puzzling out Latin translations

I also read on one site "60% of our English words are rooted in Latin, 80% of those with multiple syllables.  the romance languages are almost 80% rooted in Latin regardless of syllables.  

I know my own basic Latin helped me not only improve my vocabulary, but also helps me read basic French and Spanish.  

I have decided to give a Latin program a try.  At worst it will cost money, at best it will give Dude a solid grounding in logic and a vocabulary boost.

I will post updates periodically for those interested in how it is going.

Wish me luck!