Im thinking of teaching my ds Latin - Am I completely mad?

[Yurtgirl]

Hello
My ds (year 1) is perfectly happy at school most of the time - but does get bored because it doesnt always stretch him enough (and thus I do often wonder about HE)

He is showing an interest in learning Latin - Is this something any of you do whilst home edding

Is it a good idea for me even to consider this given that I know zero latin?
What resources do you use?

[Yurtgirl]

"Maximus" looks good - is it???

[ravenAK]

I teach Latin (secondary school). I think it's a great idea , but if you've to learn Latin one step ahead of him it's going to be um, challenging!

Are you good at languages? The thing with Latin is that the grammar is such an integral part of the meaning (& pretty much the point of doing it...) that if you don't have a coherent overview of it before you start, you're going to struggle with it.

Not familiar with 'Maximus' - is it a primary resource?

You could have a look here www.cambridgeonlinelatin.com/.

[Yurtgirl]

I am jealous that you studied it at school bb
Does anyone have any current exp of teaching latin to their kids

It is (I think) very unlikely that any school in this area teaches Latin even secondary schools

[ravenAK]

'Before you start teaching it to someone else', that should've been. Obviously asking quite a bit for you to have a 'coherent overview' before you start learning!

[Yurtgirl]

Oooh thanks for your thoughts Raven - I had a look at cambridge online - It seemed scarey! I will give it another go

Maximus is a book available on Amazon that people seem to like - suitable from age 7 up apparently

Ds is taught in a language other than English at school anyway - I am learning that language also

Ds has definately got room for another I think

[RosaLuxembourg]

I think you mean Minimus. I use it to teach a Latin club of Year 5 and 6 pupils at my children's primary school. It would be a rather expensive way of doing it for just one child as you need the teacher's resource book as well as the pupil book so it would cost £50 or so to get started. Also, if you have no previous experience of Latin, you would need a primer for yourself, something like the Cambridge Latin course, so you could keep ahead.
Rather than that I would consider starting off with something like the Usborne Latin for beginners book
which is probably better structured for a Year One child anyway and easier for a parent to learn alongside with.

[Piffle]

there must be online resources available to help.
I did Latin at school and oh it is only with hindsight that I understand its massive value.
I'd study it yourself a few weeks ahead to be honest.
start slow with basic vocab
casa
alta
luna
tis fun!!!!
dd is reception and can recite some Latin in context.
trouble is it always goes unrecognised. I know Latin is called a dead language but now it seems even more so. Sadly imo

[Ellbell]

I think you might be thinking of Minimus. It looks fun! I think you need to have a reasonable understanding of grammar (in English) to explain Latin, because you need to be able to explain what each word is doing in the sentence in order to understand what case it is in. So, if you are not convinced you can identify subject, direct object, indirect object, possessive, etc (Raven can probably remind me what the ablative is all about - I seem to recall it being described as 'everything else', which was very unhelpful), then maybe learning another modern foreign language together might work better. On the other hand, if your ds is keen, then go for it... what have you got to lose?

[gigglewitch]

I learned latin from 10 yrs old, loved it and did it to A-level thus am totally insane.
Hey, they even do harry potter books in Latin these days
My kids go to school - not home ed, but i do keep throwing the good ol' Latin vocab in to help their understanding of English, so they are like little walking dictionaries, according to their teachers [tee heee]
Have fun learning it yourself, and good on ya for doing this for your DS!!!

[Yurtgirl]

Rosa - yes I did mean minimus!!

Ive had a look at the usborne one and dismissed it as its only a translation of the origonal book that was teaching french or german. Its full of conversations and very little grammar.

I didnt realise you needed the teachers book in order to use minimus for kids - that is a shame as that one looked good.

Whats the latin for "What next?"

[Hassled]

I think it's admirable and really worth while. I did Latin up to A Level and it is so useful in understanding how language works. You could learn together - go for it!

[Ellbell]

Sorry - slow posting and Rosa got there before me.

Piffle - given the difficulties we currently have in getting children to study any modern language to GCSE, it's hardly surprising that Latin is becoming ever deader. Very sad, though. It's a wonderful language. Have just (well, a few months ago now) finished a translation project (Latin > English). Even though Latin is not my best language (understatement of the century), working on the translation really made me appreciate how wonderfully expressive it could be. And that was fairly boring medieval Latin. Wish my Latin was good enough to read (and understand... properly) the Classics.

Have thought about doing Minimus with my dds when they are older, but it sounds as if it might be better with a 'proper' teacher. (Sadly, I don't think I live near you, Rosa!)

[Yurtgirl]

Thanks for that link ellbell - an excellent site!

I am definitely going to give it a go - I just need to know what resources to buy

Is it essential to have the minimus teachers book in order to use the kids one. I was wondering/hoping if i could get a beginners book for me and the maximus book and use the two together.

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone

[Ellbell]

Quid nunc?

[RosaLuxembourg]

I would say it IS essential Yurtgirl. I wouldn't fancy my chances without it anyway, it contains all the worksheets, activities and background information. Marina also runs a Minimus club, and unlike me, she has done the training day, so perhaps she will be around later to give her advice.
Meanwhile take a look at this which I got to supplement Minimus on Marina's recommendation, and is pretty good.

[Ellbell]

I did some Latin at school, but when I took it up again, I used this course (there are various books), which was quite intensive but clear and helpful.

[RosaLuxembourg]

That's a version of the one the OU uses Ellbell. I am doing OU Latin at the moment and finding it excellent.

[SugarBird]

I started the Cambridge Classics Latin course with DS2 when he was about 10 and he loved it! It's very well done and perfect for beginners. You can get the books on Amazon.

[jojosmaman]

I studied Latin at school but can't remember the name of the text book apart from it had a Caecillius in it and he was some times in horto! It was 15 years ago though!

[Tommy]

I'd always thought it might fun to get DS1 to learn Latin (not for me to teach it to him though ) they learn it in the independent school near me. He knows a couple of words (from church - we are RC!)

I remember a lot of amo, amas, amat

[Yurtgirl]

Sugarbird - thats reassuring
Off to investigate Cambridge classics latin course

[Ellbell]

jojosmaman... I did that one at school too. 'Caecilius est pater; Metella est mater; Quintus est filius...'. The course attempted to teach Latin without using any 'scary' () grammatical terms, so of course we were all terminally confused! I got an O'level without knowing a genitive from a gerundive. In fact, I got an A, mainly by virtue of my ability to rote learn huge chunks of the translations of Aeneid IV and that Pliny letter about the eruption of Vesuvius.

[ravenAK]

Caecilius is the (very dull) hero of the Cambridge Latin Course (the one I linked to earlier). He's a real person - a Pompeian bigwig from C1 AD.

Just been looking at the Minimus website. It looks OK actually, but you are looking at £50 for teacher & pupil books. Don't know if they'd be ebay-able if it didn't work out?

I really think you should give it a go. As other posters have said, even a tiny amount of Latin is brilliant in building understanding of the 'mechanics' of language. Great for other languages; also great just as brain gym!

(Ellbell - the ablative sort of is the everything else case. It's the one that goes with various prepositions like in, by, from, out of, under etc.)

[ravenAK]

'The course attempted to teach Latin without using any 'scary' () grammatical terms, so of course we were all terminally confused! I got an O'level without knowing a genitive from a gerundive. '

Yep - that's always my issue with the CLC. The objective is to rapidly build vocab. & get onto reading proper paragraphs quickly - rather than spend months amo, amas, amat-ing before you can muddle through a simple sentence.

I think it's crap actually - I use bits of it but supplement it with some good old fashioned grammar like wot I was taught