As the books state, "Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware - this series has made Latin the favorite subject of many homeschoolers…." This thorough program can help you teach your children Latin effectively even if you have no background in or experience with Latin. The books are divided into a handful of different units, with a total of thirty-two lesson per book. Primer A starts right at the beginning. Each lesson introduces new vocabulary words alongside a Latin concept, starting with verbs and nouns in the first unit and moving on to linking verbs, adjectives, more verb forms, predicates and nominatives, and a bunch of other concepts found therein. The lessons are fairly short, just four pages each, except for the periodic reviews which generally have a couple more pages. The lessons begin with a list of vocabulary, a chant, and then a discussion/explanation of the target concept. The last two pages hold a variety of short exercises practicing the grammar concept using the vocabulary words. Primers B and C build upon the skills learned in Primer A, progressing through more vocabulary words and more advanced grammatical concepts. The lessons get slightly longer in the later levels, but they follow the same simple format. Each level introduces students to 240 of the most frequently occurring words in an engaging, easy manner with plenty of practice to help them retain what they’ve learned. Helpful glossaries are included in the back of each primer. Spiral bound.

The teacher guides provide answers for all of the student exercises, mirroring the student worksheet pages except for with all of the answers. Spiral bound.

To further enhance the program, there are DVDs available for each level, which show the author actually teaching the lessons to his two daughters, explaining the grammatical concepts in a clear, easy to understand manner. The girls sing the chants and paradigms, with the text showing on the screen, which helps your child learn them as well as the correct pronunciation. Each DVD holds five or more hours of instruction.

Activity books and history readers are now also available for each level. Each activity book includes over 100 pages of games and puzzles that follow the text chapter by chapter. This will supplement and enhance Latin practice and make it a bit more fun for students. Mazes, word searches, and lots of crossword puzzles are typical of the activities included. The history readers each offer a selection of 15 stories about ancient Greek and Roman history. The stories are written in Latin suitable for each level, with specific grammar and vocabulary from the levels integrated so students can learn about ancient civilizations as they read in the ancient language. Tips are included in the readers.

While this program is certainly flexible, it was designed so that each level is completed in one year, at the rate of one lesson a week, split up into at least two days of assignments. Also, while the target grade range for this program is 3-5, with Primer A being taught in 3rd grade, it can be used for older children. If you want to start in 5th grade, you should still begin with Primer A before moving on to Levels B and C. We offer the materials separately or in Packs, which include all three components in that level - the student text, answer key, and DVD. Mastery Bundles are also available at every level, which include the level’s Pack (student text, answer key, and DVD) as well as the Activity Book and History Reader. - Melissa

Customer Reviews

 
Amy G. from TN wrote the following on 05/27/2008:
Our daughter, who is in the third grade, just finished using “Latin for Children: Primer A.” We used Prima Latina in second grade, and after completing that we realized that we needed to find a Latin program with a different teaching method that better suited her active learning style. “Latin for Children” provided a nice change of pace, and it taught our whole family a lot of Latin vocabulary using fun, rhythmic chants and songs that we still go around singing, and sometimes shouting—“Clamo, clamare, clamavi, clamatum, I shout, to shout, I shouted, shouted!” We purchased the mastery bundle, which includes the DVDs, CDs with chants, the workbook, activity book, and the Latin history reader that corresponds with the “Veritas Press New Testament, Ancient Greece and Rome” history program. We have used the DVDs over and over. They feature several children in a relaxed home environment chanting and singing Latin vocabulary and using hand motions to make it more fun! After the Latin vocabulary section for each chapter, Dr. Christopher Perrin teaches the Latin grammar part of the lesson from his home office. This is done in an inviting and stress-free manner. Following almost every grammar lesson, there are entertaining interviews and hilarious old Western-type skits starring homemade puppets who tell their story using mostly English, but with a bit of Latin thrown in to keep the students’ minds engaged in the Latin lesson. Sometimes, we have paused the DVD at the spots where the puppets used Latin, and we tried to figure out the words to see what they meant before the narrator told us. This was very challenging and fun. The DVDs and CDs now include both Ecclesiastical and Classical pronunciations of Latin (for the most part)—sometimes even the students and teachers in the DVDs/CDs seemed to mix the two pronunciations together. Dr. Perrin does mention in the DVD that it’s good to be exposed to both pronunciations. The chants were enjoyable and effective (even our 4-year-old ran around the house singing “Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant!”). The activity book was very fun for me, but my daughter was not too crazy about doing it. I ended up doing most of the crossword puzzles to further my own Latin study. For a child who loves challenging mazes, word searches, and crossword puzzles, the activity book would be a wonderful bonus! The workbook contains typical fill in the blank exercises for Latin vocabulary, grammar, and derivatives…the lesson is explained thoroughly in the workbook, but in my opinion, it contained too much writing for a third-grader. It is probably more suited to a fifth-grade or older student. Many times, we just did the workbook exercises orally, which worked out better for us. As far as the history reader goes, I picked it up a couple of times and translated a couple of stories, but that’s as far as we went with that little book—again, it was way beyond a typical third-grader’s understanding and level of interest. The teacher’s manual is not a manual at all—just a book with the answers in it. But no teacher prep is necessary anyway because the DVDs and CDs take care of the teaching for you. It is recommended that you read the grammar lesson with the student from the student workbook—this is no problem at all, and an older student could do it independently. All of our children, 4-, 6-, and 9-years-old, enjoyed the chants, songs, and skits. "Latin for Children" is terrific for teaching auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners because of the chants, DVDs, and hand and body motions. This program is a good value for the money, not only do the DVDs do most of the teaching, the publisher, “Classical Academic Press,” has a wonderful website where you can print out lots of extras to go with each level of the program—there are flashcards, memory games, tests, and other additional aids. They are also available to help if you have any problems or questions. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken two years instead of one to finish Primer A with my third-grader. Doing it in one year was a bit overwhelming at times. But all in all, it was a fun and beneficial learning experience for us, and we do plan to use "Latin for Children" again in the future.

 
S. F. from S.E., IL wrote the following on 06/04/2008:
When we researched Latin curricula for our classical home school co-op, we appreciated the Latin for Children Primer "A" Bundle for a variety of reasons. The entry-level lessons are designed for students 3rd grade and older (our Latin students range from 4th-12th grade). The deluxe bundle--which includes a student primer, answer key, history reader, activity book, chant CD and DVD instruction set--aims to equip students with a basic vocabulary and understanding of the grammar and logic of Latin. The curriculum is appropriate for both a co-op and home school setting. The writers wisely aligned their text with Shurley Grammar's format. Thanks to the DVD lessons, a parent or teacher can learn alongside students, though ideally the instructor should stay several lessons ahead of the class. Although academically challenging, this package brings silliness and fun to the rigorous study of Latin through Dr. Perrin's dry humor and whimsical wit, as well as through goofy skits sprinkled throughout the DVD lessons (reminiscent of a family-friendly Monty Python). That playful spirit likewise romps through the pages of games and puzzles contained in the activity book. Plan to visit the errata page on the Classical Academic Press website as there are corrections to the text noted there. (These errors can be a burden to the novice teacher, but, fortunately, the editors are quite responsive to user feedback and diligently post corrections and incorporate changes and corrections in updated editions.) Once there, you will also find many freebies, including downloadable flashcards and worksheets. In our opinion, the greatest strength of this program is how strongly it appeals to kids--and that's a huge plus when seeking to capture and focus the attention of entry-level Latin students.