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. This challenging course was written for classroom teachers and assumes the teacher already knows Latin, making this course particularly well suited to co-ops. Of course, a parent can adapt the program for homeschool use, provided they are willing to learn Latin along with their child. 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 the word list, chant, worksheet and quotation 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, songs, teacher’s notes, weekly quizzes and unit tests with answer keys, lesson plans for 27 weeks, and solutions to weekly worksheets. 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. [3rd edition material is not compatible with older editions of the Latin Primer I.] A supplemental CD 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. Flashcards are available for purchase or can be downloaded from the publisher’s website although the cost of printing them on cardstock is very close to our price. Although not currently available, a DVD program is expected in the future.

Latin Primer: Book 2 builds on Book 1 and covers nouns to the 5th declension, verb tense, verb voice, and more translation work.

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.

From here you go to Latin Grammar: Book 1. Designed for 6th grade students, lessons cover 5 noun declensions, four verb conjugation, adjectives, prepositions, and pronouns. Translation to and from English is a large portion of the exercises. As you can see, these courses are no cakewalk, but will require some effort on the part of the student. Memorization and study is necessary. The reward is a better understanding of the English language, and a peek through the door to the classical world. The publisher also suggests that if you are using this series with an olders student, it is a good idea to use the Latin Grammar Book 1 alongside Latin Primer Book 1.

Latin Grammar: Book II provides a deeper study of Latin grammar. It begins with a review section and then moves into nouns, adjectives, adjective comparisons, possessives, numbers, interrogative adjectives, pronouns, verbs, infinitives, the subjunctive, participles and gerundives, and adverbs. Each of these sections ends with a few exercises. Then students move into reading Latin paragraphs, and then into Latin poetry. At the end of the book, they complete translation work on longer passages of Latin, such as the Aeneidos Liber Primos, the book of Esther, and some hymns and psalms. The hefty paper flashcards available in the past for all the levels have been upgraded, and now come in the form of Interactive Computer Flashcards. This is a CD-ROM that not only includes word lists for each week, but provides an audio pronunciation of each word. Students will learn vocabulary by both seeing and hearing the words and they have the option of typing out the Latin or English answers. The software also makes it easy for parents to track student progress and each CD-ROM includes over 350 vocabulary words for the featured level.

As you can see, this is a very 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.