Over the course of our home education journey I have come across many different philosophies as well as what you should or should not teach to your students in order to give them a well rounded better than average education. The teaching of Latin is one topic that seems to pop up routinely.
I was very excited when Roman Roads Media offered me the opportunity to try out Visual Latin for two reasons:
- Firstly Latin has been a point of much debate in our home. My Latin pronunciation is something of a challenge to Paul who works in animal husbandry at Werribee Open Range Zoo and uses it in his employment.
- Secondly I can't decipher it when I see it written and find that extremely frustrating. I would really like to know how to for the high school years with Sir N as the science curriculum I am aiming to utilize uses Latin on a regular basis.
What we received
- Latin 1 | Lessons 1-30 [Download] This was a 31 zipped folder download totaling 5.53 GB. Each folder contains one lesson. You can see a summary of each lesson HERE
How we used it
Once I had downloaded the lessons I started extracting them. We started off with the introductory lessons which helped us understand the class structure with Dwayne and why we should be learning Latin.
We discovered that the MP4 format of the lessons can be read by our DVD player and so each week I save them to a SD card which we then use to play the lessons on our television in the lounge. Sir N is not officially doing the lesson but I did require him to sit in on them in order to become familiar with the pronunciation of Latin.
Each folder contains three lessons. We watched one lesson at a sitting, three days a week.
Grammar
Each Video lesson has a corresponding assignment in the Worksheets. These are easy to follow and use. Each one follows along the video and contains the explanations which are taught in the lesson so there is no need for extra note taking.
Sentence
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| Lesson B Worksheet |
Hearing, reading and speaking Latin
Lesson three is a reading lesson. These follow the format of Dwayne reading in Latin and you repeating after him. The Latin words are on the screen at the bottom. The purpose of this exercise is become familiar with Latin pronunciation.
The benefit of watching the video is that you become familiar with the pronunciation in relation to the Latin spelling. For example caelum is pronounced "chay-loom" this makes a difference to how efficiently you learn Latin
The third lesson Worksheet is one or reading and translating Latin using the Vulgate as a source text.
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| Worksheet Sample Lesson C |
Letting the video play in the background like a CD is not a good idea for the first time you do a lesson as you might end up a little lost.
Cost of Visual Latin 1 (Lesson 1-30)
- Lessons 1-30 Download $100.00 This is currently on sale for $70.00 until 11 August 2014.
- Lessons 1-30 [DVD] $100.00 This is currently on sale for $70.00 until 11 August 2014.
- Dwane's Awesome Latin Lists [PDF] FREE
- Visual Latin 1 - Complete Downloads FREE. Contains:Teacher's Guide, Lessons 1-30 Worksheets, Lessons 1-30 Quizzes, Vocab Lists to Lesson 30, Dwane's Awesome Latin Lists
- Visual Latin | 5 FREE Lessons [Download]
Recommended Age Range
- This program has been designed to be used by students in 4th grade and up.
- A minimum age of 10 is recommended.
Connect with Roman Roads Media
Dwayne has a sense of humour which really appeals to Sir N. I have enjoyed my lessons and becoming more familiar with Latin. My pronunciation is S*L*O*W*L*Y improving. I like the fact that I can watch the lessons over and over again until I "get it" and that I can go back and watch a lesson when ever I need to do a refresher. There is no pressure to move on either. I can stay in a lesson until it is familiar and easy or I can keep pressing forward and challenge myself.
If you would like to try Visual Latin you can access the first 5 Lessons for FREE as a Download.
Blessings
Chareen
