Subjects: Latin

I never understood the point of teaching Reese Latin.  Who speaks Latin anyway?  I feel like our homeschool plate is pretty full...did I really want to add one more thing that I didn't even see the value of?

Well, after reading The Well Trained Mind, my opinion  has changed.  Go figure!

The goal of introducing Latin at an early age isn't to have a fluent Latin speaker.  The Well Trained Mind encourages introducing all sorts of "advanced" topics at the elementary age to just plant those little seeds of knowledge. 

By working on Latin, we'll learn about the origin of English words, which I hope will help Reese understand English better as he grows. 

Notice I said we?  Meaning...I have never taken Latin, and I have NO IDEA what I am getting myself into!  We will definitely be learning together.  When I told Reese about it yesterday, he seemed excited to learn something new as a team.  We were giggling together listening to a YouTube video of the Latin alphabet. 

I've chosen to use Song School Latin as our introduction.  Written by Amy Rhen, it is a very gentle introduction to common Latin words & phrases.  The Student book comes with a CD, & catchy songs are included in each weekly lesson to help remember words.   There are 31 Chapters, and it looks like there are Review chapters built in about every 4 chapters. 

The reviews I read on Amazon.Com said the Teacher's Edition wasn't necessary at all, so I only purchased the Student Book.  But, after looking through the book, I started to panic because I have no idea what I'm doing!   So, for a few more dollars, I ordered the Teacher's Manual, if for no other reason than to give me confidence.

The Teacher's Edition, in my opinion, is much more than just a replication of the Student Book & will be useful.  Each lesson has an answer key (thank you!), as well as Teacher's Notes to help you along.  For some lessons, Additional Activities are suggested to reinforce what's been learned. 

The second half of the Teacher's Edition is what I like best...a page for each chapter with extra activities!  Cross word puzzles, drawing activities, word scrambles, word searches, etc. This part makes the Teacher's Edition worth the money. 

I look forward to starting our studies.  I feel confident that using Song School Latin will be a great place to start!