Thoughts on Latin

from kbmomto3:
I don't really think it's [studying Latin] *necessary.* I do think it helps with vocabulary and it impresses the extended family. ;-) We're going to play at it a bit this year, at least while we're studying Ancient Rome. I'm not sure if we'll continue after that or not.

from nancymc:
like studying Latin, and it's something that has been VERY useful for me in my career (medical field), as I can easily decipher big words and figure out what I need to know, even when I've not heard of the diagnosis before or whatever.

I think that *for us*, it's been appropriate to dissect why we want to study it. I have no desire to have kids who are fluent, and I don't have time to study to that level with them, we just have too much on our plates. So I don't worry overly much about the declensions and the case endings and all that stuff (though we do work on conjugation, as it makes the meaning more clear).

For us it's more about vocabulary, knowing the origins of English words so that we can have a broader vocabulary and can figure out words we might not know otherwise. It's also about knowing the roots for spelling and other languages.

Bottom line, we take our time with it (we only did lessons 1-12 this year, will do 13-24 next year), don't stress about being fluent, and try to just have some fun with it.

from m00minmamma:
I worked through two years of high school Latin with my eldest a couple of years back and it was great (I think she was 11 when we started). But it was only great because she was the one who wanted to do it, for her own reasons. She loved it, but I can't imagine inflicting a formal Latin curriculum on a kid who wasn't dying to do it.

from teddiebear_hugs:
really like the idea of just taking our time with it. I don't even need to plan the lessons out, just do a lesson on whatever day is good for us that week. If we have already spent a large amount of time doing other lessons and projects on a certain day, skip Latin. DS is interested in studying Latin, and this will keep the pressure off me, but allow him to study it.

from jujsky:
It's not necessary, but I do feel that Latin is an excellent elective if you can fit it in. It will help your son with science, and just about any other foreign language he takes in the future. So many words we use daily and in the sciences have Latin roots. I took a year of it my senior year in high school (after 3 years of Spanish) and I still find what I managed to retain useful.

from mom2adeline:
I think it depends on what direction you are hoping to go with the education of the child. As many people here know, I've tried many different things with my dd just to try to keep her occupied. I recently read the first edition of Andrew Campbell's Latin Centered Curriculum from the library and am anxiously waiting for some money to buy the second edition of the book. Many things that he said really made sense to me and he makes a strong argument for making Latin first priority. This is difficult for me because I'm still trying to get rid of the public school experience, but Latin works well for Adeline. She instantly applies what she learns and watching her learn strongly supports what Andrew Campbell says in his book. For example, we learned "habito" in Latin and when she was reading a book about animals she looked up and said "Their habitat must be where they live." She is also learning English grammar in a very gentle way through the Latin that seems to make so much more sense to her.

from cl-susanmercy:
I think some Latin study has some value. I've tried to learn it for myself and I get bogged down by the declensions and conjugations and stuff. So I'm stumped as to how to approach it with my kids, other than learning word roots and meanings so they can be applied to everyday language. Really, that's more important anyway since it's not a spoken language. I toyed with a medical terminology book when I was a teenager--that part really fascinated me. I will probably incorporate word roots and meanings into our studies at some point, as part of vocabulary. Maybe closer to high school. It's in the back of my mind! Meanwhile, on to Spanish ;-)