Lingua Mater Americana

Margot Davidson took the classics Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl, and tweaked them “just a bit.” The result is all the warmth of the originals with just a little more practicality, beauty, and applicability. The same balance between oral and written work has been preserved along with all the basic elements – copywork/dic­tation, picture study, memorization, grammar sequences, and composition. Some pictures are in full color; some changed to appeal to young readers. The language is in line with today’s English. Scripture quotes are taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The typesetting is modern with much more “white space.” Pacing is flexible and a student can be started at any level that seems appropriate.

Primary (138 pages, 164 lessons) can be a one or two year course. Some of the exercises toward the end have been broadened, making them more appropriate for students at the end of third grade. Intermediate (252 pages, 300 les­sons, 3 Parts), is used for two years between 4th – 6th grades.

Part I covers sentences, paragraphs, nouns, letter writing, descriptive writing, dialogue, punctuation, and creative writing. Part II includes quotations, hom­onyms, descriptive writing, abbreviations, describing words, persuasive writing, and letter writing. Part III has expanded writing coverage and includes parts of speech and sentences, journalism, comparison writing, and descriptive writing. The con­sumable Worktexts are softcover.