I hope you all had as much fun on Monday as I did! It was the smoothest, least stressful
first-day-of-co-op I have experienced so far!
Thank you all for your eagerness and hard work! Now, I have a confession to make: I don't
know Latin. Latin was the subject I
dreaded the most in college. I've never
been good at languages; even English grammar has never been my strong
suit. In college, Latin chewed me up,
spit me out, and crushed my hopes of being a philosophy or theology major (at
Christendom, you have to take two years of Latin and PASS to go into those
majors). It all works out per God's
design, though. I have no ill-will
toward the Language of our Holy Mother Church.
Quite the contrary! A longing has
grown in me for the assistance that an understanding of Latin would lend to
using our own English tongue. I also
wish I could get more out the Tridentine Mass by having access to the meaning
of the Latin and not having to rely on the English translation. I wanted to give my children this great
treasure and tool, but I thought it would pass me by. Someone else would have to give it to them
because it was not mine to give. Now, I
say with great delight, that I will be learning along with the students at
Sancta Familia and I hope, if you missed receiving this treasure, that you will
join us!
I have spoken to all you moms, at least briefly at co-op, about
the issues regarding time and work load in Latin. English from the Roots Up suggests that children as young as 2nd
grade will enjoy making their own set of flash cards. Having the kids write their own cards during
co-op isn't going to work for our group.
We aren't meeting every day, so there is no extra time for writing. Our class time has to be packed with
learning! :) To streamline things, I will provide the card with the root word,
pronunciation and definition on it for both the Dominicans and Franciscans. The students can fill in their cards as we go
over them in class, or they can save the writing for home work if that is too
much pressure. Either way, some of the
card will have to be filled in at home.
If you have students in several of the classes, you can decide
if you want to make a family set or if you want each student to have a
set. If you choose to do a family set,
then everyone can participate in the making of the cards, which lessens the
work load for each person (and me!) but the whole family can come together to
learn these roots. Or it may be more beneficial
for your children to each do a set of cards.
Please let me know how you would like your family to handle the cards:
each (older) child makes a set or one set for your family? If you choose to make only a family set,
please let me know with which child I should sent the cards home. Also, I heard from one mom who is going to
start the cards for her kids before our weekly meetings. If you would like to do this, let me know and
I won't start cards for your family. I
will, however, send a stack of blank cards home with you. :) There
are only 10 families with students in Latin, so I don't mind customizing. That is the beautiful of homeschooling, right?!
We will spend the last 5-10 min. of class going over the Little Latin Reader (LLR). We will listen to the CD and do a lot of
repeating out loud, together and individually.
This will help to get them comfortable with saying Latin words and just
speaking in front of their peers in general.
In the future, I will send a handout home with all the
information needed to make the cards. If
you have the book English from the Roots
Up, then you have the information already; all you will need to know is
what roots we are doing on what day.
Carmelites (1st-2nd): I will NOT be doing the cards with them. We will go over each root word in class and they
will copy them to a piece of paper. Then
they can draw pictures to illustrate the meaning(s) of one or more of the roots
we learned that day. This will be laying
the foundation for future years. Parents,
you will have the all the information to make the cards, so if you would like
to do this with your child at home, go for it!
I know most of the students in this class have older siblings who will
be making a set of cards.
I forgot to mention the differences
in pronunciation In class. One mom noted
that the Vs are pronounced as Ws in English From the Roots Up. This
is the Classical pronunciation which is used by most of the world, I think,
except the Catholic Church. I'm
pretty sure The Little Latin Readers use Ecclesiastical (Church Latin). I think we
should use Ecclesiastical pronunciation because that is what The Church uses.
The only place we will actually hear Latin spoken is in Mass or among
clergy (or if you went to Christendom during Latin Lunch Wednesdays where all
the more enthusiastic language students sat together and actually SPOKE in
Latin. I was never able to participate
but I sure got a kick out of hearing it!)
I changed the pronunciation on the cards, so if you look at the book and
see a difference, that is why. I found
this pronunciation guide extremely helpful:
http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/ecclesiastical_latin.htm
Hopefully,
I will get my schedule of root words typed up for you all can look ahead and
even work ahead, if that is your style.
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