I have been homeschooling my fantastic kids long enough to have seen and heard all kinds of opinions on the importance, or not, of teaching Latin. Since I took Latin in high school, I have been on the "yes" side of the fence, even though I understand that some people see it as unnecessary. I have not followed a "classical" approach in our education, taking a more eclectic approach, however, I do see great value in learning Latin. Several of my children are learning Italian, French and/or Spanish, so Latin will help with those languages, as well as help immensely with our native language, English. Last fall I decided that I needed to finally add Latin to our list of courses.
I received the downloadable version of Visual Latin 1 and 2 from Compass Classroom for the purpose of review. Each lessons pairs three videos, featuring teacher Dwane Thomas, with worksheets for different learning styles to guide students from grammar concepts, to practice sentences, to reading in Latin! There are 60 lessons in total. Visual Latin is available in three formats: DVD, download or streaming. Included in the downloads are lesson worksheets, a teacher's guide, vocabulary lists and quizzes. This course is suggested for ages 10 and older. It also provides 2 high school credits, which is one reason why I am so excited about it!
This school year we have been working our way through Visual Latin 1, which is 30 lessons. We haven't used too many video-based programs in our school, so I wasn't sure how well it would work. It has worked perfectly! It is super easy to use. Just cue up the video and print out the worksheets for whatever lesson you're on. Mr. Thomas has a quirky and fun sense of humour and is very engaging in the video lessons. Even though I primarily wanted my grade 10 student to work through these lessons for high school language credit, I decided to make it a family affair and include everyone. So, in addition to my grade 10 student, I also included my students in grade 8, grade 5 and grade 4, as well. I am amazed by all they have learned this year. We have a had a great time learning together and already look forward to continuing with Latin 2 next year.
It was rather hilarious to start this program and find Latin everywhere we turned. Books, movies, other school curricula. All the children were noticing it and having a good time doing so. We also had a few laughs over the sentence structure in Latin and how the sentences remind us a bit of Yoda. For example, "They are bright in the sky the stars are." And "At night also stars there are." Another benefit in learning Latin is all the English grammar you learn in the process. It's been a great reminder and reinforcer of what my children have already learned plus even more! This has been a wonderful fit for our family, and we are learning so much. I cannot recommend Visual Latin highly enough.
Give it a try with 2 Free Lessons.
Also, check out the Additional Resources.
And right now, Visual Latin 1 and 2 are on sale! Get $30 off!
Let me know if you have any questions.
Blessings and love. xo
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