I’ve been wanting to bring Latin into our homeschool for a while, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it. We received the First Form Latin Complete Set from Memoria Press as a review and as our first introduction into Latin.
I used these materials with my 12 year old daughter. The set includes soft cover Student Text, Teacher Manual, and Quizzes and Tests book, as well as spiral-bound Workbook, and Teacher Key. We also received a set of First Form Latin Flashcards, a Pronunciation Guide CD, and (my favorite resource of all!) Instructional DVDs.
This program is meant for beginners of Latin from about Grade 4 or 5 and above and contains 34 Lessons. The general speed of the lessons is to complete one lesson per week, so this would cover an entire school year if done at that pace.
We DID rely on the videos for this, though you don’t absolutely have to have them. I found the video to be extremely helpful and valuable to me as I have no Latin background and honestly felt a bit lost just reading text. With the aid of the DVD and the CD, at least I knew my kids (and I) were learning it correctly the first time!
The different aspects of this complete set really make it possible for students of all learning styles to pick up Latin in a way that clicks for them. I wanted to point out quickly that Memoria Press has many Latin programs for students as young as 1st grade and all the way up to high school or adult learners.
Using First Form Latin
This is a 4 to 5 day per week class. The fifth day is added if a student doesn’t pass the pre-test you give them. For reference, Lesson 2 for us went something like this:
Day 1: Watch the DVD. It covered Recitation (personal endings, tenses, aspects of a verb), the Latin saying for the day, then the information covered in the Student Text. For this lesson, it was talking about Imperfect Tense. Instructor Glen Moore went through the grammar forms and pointed out things that were different from the last lesson and what we might have expected. We followed along in the Student Text book as he was teaching, and my daughter took some notes in there to help remember some of the extra things that he said. I liked that he gave examples and ideas of how to understand and implement the information as we went along.
Mr. Moore told us more about what imperfect tense actually meant. He talked about how different languages work as far as tenses go. It was explained that imperfect tense describes past events/actions that are uncompleted or ongoing. He illustrated this with elaborate examples so that the meaning was well understood. I’m so glad to have had the video for this, because when my daughter asked me about it before we watched, I honestly didn’t have a good understanding myself!
He then covered the tense marker with examples. Next, he reviewed the information from this lesson and previous lessons. We practiced the conjugation of specto. Finally, we did some of the Oral Drill covered in the Student Text, but he mixed up the order that we did it in. Way to keep us on our toes! 🙂
The Teacher Manual does contain a truncated version of the Student Text, as well as point by point notes and information. If you did not have access to the DVD for the lessons, you could use this alone as your teaching resource. I have to say, though, that I don’t think I would have been very helpful as far as pronunciation went because I have been learning alongside my daughter and am not very good yet! We also used the Pronunciation CD quite a bit to help us between video lessons. It covered the saying, the vocabulary, grammar forms, and more. The CD only took a few minutes a day.
You can complete the worksheets for the lesson however you want during the week. We tried to work in the Workbook each day, so we did complete section I. Word Study and Grammar this first day, which was fill in the blank. Grace did this partially during the video and partially by reading the Student Text.
Day 2: On Day 2, I had my daughter complete Workbook Section II. Conjugations and V. Translation Skills.
Day 3: She completed III. Form Drills and IV. Form Drills. Listen to CD, and look through all Flashcards. I punched a hole through the flashcards and placed them on a ring as we covered the information in the lessons. This means that Grace’s Flashcards ring is growing with each lesson we complete, but it is being given to her in small pieces rather than all at once to look at.
Day 4: We completed VI. Enrichment and I did the Oral Drill in the Student Text with her. I wanted to note that the answers to all of these worksheets are located in the Teacher Key book. We reviewed Flashcards and listened to the CD for the lesson.
Day 5: This is the day I would have Grace do the First Form Latin Quiz from the Quizzes and Tests book. I did allow her to look through her Flashcards and listen to the CD first if she wanted, which she usually did to brush up beforehand. The quiz was not open book for us, and she has done pretty well on the ones she has taken so far.
Final Thoughts
I’m pleased with how it is working and appreciate the methodical lessons. Once you understand the flow and format, it’s simple to implement every day. I’m learning right alongside my daughter, and this is a challenge! I’m glad she’s learning while she’s young, because doing this as an adult is proving to be quite interesting. She is starting to notice Latin more in our day to day lessons and in phrases and words that we regularly use as well. It’s great as a way to get her prepared for testing such as the SATs for when she’s a few years older. She’ll have this in the back of her mind and it’ll come more naturally to her!
I truly don’t think I would use this program without the CD and DVD. Both have been lifesavers for me. I love that we can rewatch and relisten as needed. While the workbook approach has been challenging for my daughter, being able to review using those resources and the flashcards has been very helpful. If you do decide to get this program, I highly encourage you to get the complete set like we used.
Once a student finishes with First Form Latin, they can move on to Second Form Latin, Third Form Latin, and Fourth Form Latin! I love that it is progressive and that you can go from level to level to cover four years of instruction.
To see how other Crew members used this program, or many other programs Memoria Press offered for review, click the banner below:
Candy Evabs says
Thanks for this! I’m considering this to add with our Classical Conversations!
Jenn L says
If your kiddos do well with the Classical method of learning, this is a great fit. You’ll be surprised how much you learn doing it alongside them, too!
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