One-Sixteenth

Bless you! Dropout or not, you are my Latin Hero. Thanks for the Henle link. (Like I need another list to join?! Ack!) The Henle is just for me. The boys have PL and LfC. I think James will thrive w/ LfC - he's chomping at the bit to know "how it all fits", and drives me insane trying to decline, conjugate, whatever it is Latin calls for. I cannot help him (hence, the Henle), so I'm hoping LfC will be good for him. I think John will be thrilled to stick w/ PL, then moving on to LC1. He's wired differently, and whatever it is MP does in the PL/LC series seems to satisfy John's needs. It's best if they have as much of their studies as possible in separate books. More work for me, but less angst for them.



Okay, so now I'm rambling. I wanted to say that I don't have AIM. I have windows messenger. Do you have that? My ID on that is cdedington@msn.com (although that email is no longer valid, they won't let me change the ID).



Before I venture into the realm of the yahoo list, though, I do have one question. I printed out the dowling information, read through it thoroughly, and began Lesson 1 in Henle. I'm trying to use pre-existing knowledge to get a foothold, here. In writing the forms, is this something that can be done similar to the way we wrote conjugations for verbs in hs Spanish? Did you do that in hs? I doubt I can format it in a comments section, but if I'm just clear as mud, let me know and I'll try to describe it better. :-)



Thanks so very much!!
Dy



P.S. I finally managed to get line breaks in my comments! Yay!

I have the same book as you do :) I wish we had an answer key somewhere...I also wish mine wasn't missing some pages - I thik my oldest would actually like this book! We have Cambridge and he enjoys that (we're starting it again this month) and we are seeing some benefit to the little bit of Minimus we did last year with having to learn Italian this year!
By the way, what does the book cover on pages 15 to 18?

Have you looked at "Latin's Not So Tough!"? It's a series of workbooks (www.greeknstuff.com) created by the homeschool mom who made "Hey, Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek!"

My kids started using these Greek workbooks over a year ago and have been progressing steadily. Last year, the girls mentioned to their doctor that they were planning on learning Latin (which was news to my wife and me!), so perhaps I should start looking into Latin books more closely.

Incidentally, I notice that in your "Latin at the Core" essay you declare that "if you're not teaching Latin, you're not doing classical education." So, are those of us who are doing Greek and not Latin (at least not yet) not doing classical education?

Dave

Good catch, Dave.

Yes, Greek counts. If you're learning ancient Greek, you're still working on an honest classical education. Traditionally, though, if one language was going to be studied it was generally Latin. Latin *and* Greek - so much the better. But Greek alone is nothing to sneeze at, and will give you many of the same benefits that Latin does.

I phrased it that way to rebut a chapter in "The Well-Trained Mind" in which Susan Wise Bauer states that Latin is not the defining element of a classical education. (And she was not speaking of learning Greek instead.) I disagree. Strongly. But I do make an exception for Greek.

I have seen the Latin's Not So Tough curriculum. I think it's fine in the early books, but after about the 2nd book I don't care for their approach. I like a very systematic approach with Latin, and theirs is more inductive. (I have no problem with inductive approaches for modern languages, but Latin is different.) However, I am seriously considering using the first few books of their Greek series, to teach us the alphabet and basic sounds/words. But after that, I'm looking at having us use Open Texture's Elementary Greek.

Anne - are you the one who asked me that same question over at the Denim Jumper, and I forgot all about you?

Dy, yes, write them out just like you did in Spanish. It'll work just fine :)

Our kids are only seven, so I think the inductive approach may work OK for them as a beginning introduction to the language. Obviously, you cannot master Greek from the "Hey, Andrew" books, but I think they may prove a good beginning for us before moving on to more rigorous books. (I've tried high-school/college Greek books myself in the past and could never get through them -- I'm finding I get more myself out of "Hey, Andrew").

Incidentally, we're not fixated on the idea of pursuing a "classical education." However, there are a number of things written in ancient Greek that I would really like to be able to read in the original; the girls are fixated on Greek mythology.

I do have a nagging feeling that there is something wrong with a society in which very few people can read anything in the original language written before 1500. It's sort of the equivalent of never having left your home town in your entire life -- I think it has been labeled "temporal provincialism."

Dave

Dave,

I think you're right. I do favor a more systematic approach, but this *only* works at the point where the student is old enough to grasp the grammar. Minimus is also great for that age. We had fun with that, last year.

This is also why I like "Using Latin Book One" so much. It does present solid, rigorous grammar, but it does it in the framework of interesting readings and just a bit of inductive work. It keeps a middle-schooler's interest, while having them do quality work. Henle would suck my son's soul dry right now, as Latina Christiana (straight grammar/vocab) seems to do after about lesson 15. And although Henle's been great for *me*, I need a break from the grammar progression, and need to just read for awhile.

It's not only that few people can read anything in the original before 1500, it's that so few people read *anything* in the original, even in translation. We have reading textbooks that give us snippets. We read texts that tell us *about* great works. And more and more, we are brainwashed into thinking we *can't* read great works without a class, or a teacher. I still struggle against that brainwashing myself.

Quick question: is the Dowling method considered heresy on the Henle yahoo list? I'd printed off the essay Dowling wrote on how to learn Latin and have been writing daily (did you do that, btw? How much writing did you get done each day?) and it seems to be helping tremendously with making everything fall into place, mentally. Of course, that might be some deeply hidden response in my brain that's been crying for something to make sense. LOL.

Anyway, I've been combining the two - doing a little writing, then doing an exercise or part of an exercise, each night. My steps are tenative at the moment, and I didn't want to go spouting off on the Henle list about the Dowling method for helping to reinforce things if there's a sub-cultural taboo or weird angsty thing there.

Thanks, Dy

Anne - are you the one who asked me that same question over at the Denim Jumper, and I forgot all about you?

Yep! That's me, but I figured you were a bit busy and all. We're going to start Latin again soon, but Italian is a more pressing need. If you get a chance just let me know what the pages cover..that way I can supplement for the oldest kiddo. We have Cambridge and he likes that pretty well, so I may see which one works better for him. Minimus is great for the younger kids though, and fun to do as a group.

Dy, I think I first heard about the Dowling method on the Henle list. No worries :)