Latin Primer Series

There was a time when a child with a good classical education could translate Greek, Latin, and English before entering high school. Martha Wilson and the rest of the folks at Canon Press are doing their part to help today's grade school youngsters learn Latin the traditional way. Although this challenging course was originally written for teachers with some knowledge of Latin, the publishers have begun revising the earliest levels of the program to make it more user-friendly for parents and teachers who are new to Latin. At this time, Latin Primer: Book 1 and Book 2 have been revised in this manner, while Book 3, Grammar 1 and Grammar 2 are older versions and will probably be more of a challenge for parents to use.

Latin Primer: Book 1 can be used as early as third grade. Upon completion of this book, a student will have a Latin vocabulary of 350 words for everyday concepts like farming, sailing, the human body, constellations, and the family, will recognize the English derivatives of Latin words, will understand and use 1st and 2nd declension nouns and 1st and 2nd conjugation verbs, will memorize Latin charts, and will be able to do simple translation work. The student book includes word lists, chants, worksheets, quotations and exercises for each week as well as space to keep a weekly journal or material learned. The teacher's edition is necessary. It contains information on Latin grammar, Latin quotations to use in weekly exercises, games, teacher's notes, weekly quizzes and unit tests with answer keys, and worksheet/exercise answers. The revised 3rd edition of LP 1 described above takes fundamentally the same approach as previous editions although much easier to use. The overall layout has been redesigned (and some material rearranged) using a lesson-by-lesson format with added exercises in each lesson. The teacher's edition has been expanded, and organization follows the student book in a week-by-week fashion. Exercises are shown in the teacher's edition with answers, making it easy to follow along with the student book. [3rd edition material is not compatible with older editions of the Latin Primer I.] A supplemental Audio Guide covers the pronunciation of the vocabulary and chants, gives students a chance to check their answers as they listen, and provides some bonus word stories that are not included in the text. Note: This has been changed from an audio CD to a download and is only available for purchase through the publisher's website. Flashcards are also available for purchase or can be downloaded from the publisher's website (although the cost of printing them on cardstock may be close to our price). We offer packages with and without flashcards.

Latin Primer: Book 2 builds on Book 1 and covers nouns to the 5th declension, verb tense, verb voice, and more translation work. In 2010 this level was revised in the same style as Latin Primer 1, with an easier-to-use format and expanded teacher's edition.

Latin Primer: Book 3 adds more vocabulary, simple translation, and more grammar.

For more teacher help, Julie Garfield of Logos School Materials has put together lesson-by-lesson video sets. A Teacher's Packet is also available which includes a test and quiz book. Please note that these have not been updated for the newest editions of Primer 1 and 2.

As you can see, this is a serious course. The author states in the preface that upon the completion of this text, students will have completed the grammatical equivalent of two years of rigorous high school Latin.