The Value of a Latin T-shirt

My two oldest have been taking Latin online this year.

Freshman Ayeka is taking Latin 1. The pace is quick at two weeks per chapter, but Ayeka enjoys it. At the start of the school year I was ahead of her in Latin. By Christmas she was ahead of me.

Aku is taking J.H. Latin 1. I was worried at first that this class wouldn't challenge him enough, as he'd had some Latin already, and this class took four weeks for each chapter, but it has been a great fit. He has needed the extra time to assimilate the grammar.

Ayeka loves Latin, loves learning Latin. She has thanked me many times for starting her in Latin and finding the online class.

Aku has enjoyed answering questions correctly in this his first ever academic class with other students. He has said to me many times, "Can I quit?" and, "Tell me again why I'm studying Latin?"

Would he stop right now if I let him? Yes. But we have a policy that once a class (academic or sport) is paid for, the child must follow through and put forth effort. It hasn't helped that his class starts at 7:30 in the morning, and he is not a morning person. It didn't help when he missed early morning basketball practice for his Latin class, and it doesn't help now that he misses early morning weight lifting with the other junior high kids because of his Latin class.

As I type this I'm reminded that partway through the equestrian year last year, Aku asked to stop. He was the only boy in our local club and this played a part in his wanting to quit. I reminded him that because of his choice to learn this he'd committed to the year and we'd paid his fees and paid for his lessons. He then chose to follow through, had fun, took pride in his growing skill, and when we went to Rally - he was the only boy there and got a kick out of hearing the girls say things like, "There's the boy!" Even so, at the end of summer Aku was undecided about doing it for another year, and I suspected he wouldn't.

Then a new school year started and my son took his first class at public school - PE. He knew several of the kids from having participated in basketball, but still had a period of adjusting to the ways of kids in mass quantities. One day he wore his Pony Club shirt to PE.

Boy: "Pony Club? PONY club?"
Aku: "Yeah."
Other kids gather around.
Boy: "But Pony Club. I mean, PONY?"
Aku: "Yeah, I ride horses."
Boy: "But it says PONY. I mean, PONY! You're a guy."
Aku: "I jump things. On a horse."

He was asked how high he could jump (not very, it was his first year) and if he'd ever fallen (yes, and it hurt). Soon after this he told me he wanted to do equestrian sports for another year.

So who knows. Maybe if I buy him a Latin shirt...

If you buy the boy a Latin shirt, he’ll wear it to PE

And when he wears it to PE, a student will try to embarrass him

And when a student tries to embarrass him, the boy will have fun answering

And when the boy has fun answering, maybe, just maybe

An awareness will come, unbidden and without conscious thought

“This is something I value”

And maybe it’s all just wishful thinking by a mother who loves Latin.

Today in Home Education

We took a six week break from Latin. Because of that we have started back at chapter one and are reviewing. This has made for some wonderful Latin time. The kids always enjoy going back because the work is relatively effortless. The review is good too. Besides reading passages in Latin in ease (such a boost for moral) the kids get a thorough review of past vocabulary and grammar. Yesterday we started chapter one and today we finished it.

Here's Tuesday:

Meditation
Parables From Nature read aloud
Latin
Math
World History
Chemistry
Penmanship
Logic
Spelling

While the older two were writing in Latin (yes, I love that they are, enough that I'll write it again, the older two were writing in Latin) the youngest did phonics and penmanship. She does Math when the older two do, though not for as long, and she sits in on History and Science. In the afternoon she gets another read aloud, currently book one of The Boxcar Children.

Today in World History we are starting a set of DVDs from The Great Courses, aptly named World History. As our study of Roman History involves a lot of writing and map work, my plan is to keep World History relaxed and go for exposure. We'll also continue reading from Van Loon's The History of Mankind.

I Love Latin

We don't hit, but that doesn't mean the kids don't get frustrated with each other at times and have some wishful thinking. Last night my 6 yo was reaching overload when her 11 yo brother had to open his mouth just one more time. Her reply?

Hedera Severum pulsat!

It was a great tension breaker as even she laughed about it.

On my list of things to do: Find more ways to expose my youngest to spoken Latin, so she can continue to keep up on the vocabulary. The older two have the oral exposure plus oodles of reading and writing.

The kids' current location in Lingua Latina? Capitulum IV, Lectio I.

Another excerpt from our Latin journey...

Lingua Latina, Day 17

Here's the pattern I've adopted. On day one of a new lectio we TPR the vocabulary first, then I read it out loud while the kids follow along. Next we take turns reading it, or take parts and read it together. Somewhere in there we listen to our CD and follow along as Oerberg reads it.

That's it. I STOP. We have wonderful days where they grasp the vocabulary and understand the lectio, and I want to gain even more ground, but I've learned the best thing I can do is STOP. Just stop. Let them have a day (or sometimes a weekend) and then after we TPR, read, and listen, all to the same lectio, they do the exercitia. And it goes so much better.

Today we had TPR'd all the new verbs and that left just two words I was pretty confident they would get from the text, but it never hurts to be introduced to vocab before you read it. So enter the halo and the horns. It was fun seeing how the kids acted out being good and being wicked.

We read scaena secunda and they had no questions and begged for more. I caved and we read scaena tertia too. Only 40 minutes had passed and a part of me wanted to push on, to put in a full hour of Latin. I gathered up our books instead.

Of Latin and House Points (LL Day 3)

My kids wanted house points this year and so have them. Each their own house, they enjoy gaining points by answering review questions correctly, and occasionally they lose points for not having chores done on time, or for distracting a fellow student. The ones most often to lose points are the 6 year old and the 10 year old. They know each other's buttons and love to push them. The newly turned 6 year old does not like to be referred to as little or young.

We were reading together from Capitulum I, Lectio II:

Me: "Nilus fluvius magnus est." At magnus I opened my arms wide to indicate large. "Tiberis non est fluvius magnus, Tiberis fluvius parvus est." At parvus I indicated small with my fingers.

10 year old to 6 year old: "Hey, you're parvus!"

6 year old to 10 year old: "I am not! You're parvus."

I was about to deduct points from both houses when I realized, "They're insulting each other in Latin!"

Each house was awarded 3 points.

Our Lingua Latina Journey, Day 2

In the middle of reading Capitulum I, Lectio I, my 12 year old looked up and said, "I'm reading this, and I understand it." Wonderful. And the ease with which the 10 year old answered the exercitia let me know that he understood it too.