Latin Centered Curriculum

Memoria Press has set up a new Latin-Centered Curriculum online community for Classical homeschoolers who follow the dictum multum, non multa.

Bringing Latin Home

Latin is not only enjoying a resurgence in public and private schools across the United States. Many families are choosing to teach their children Latin as a homeschooling subject. Heather Duncan, a homeschooling mom and freelance contributor to the Knoxville News Sentinel writes this week about the growing popularity of Latin among her friends. She also interviews a homeschool co-op educator who teaches nearly 100 Latin students each week! Read more in "Latin A Growing Subject At Home."

Loafing with Latin: Afterschooling the Classics

Recently from the Telegraph.co.uk

Tom Hodgkinson and his son discover the "absolute genius" of the Cambridge Latin Course as they embark on an "afterschooling" adventure with Caecilius, Metella, Quintus, Grumio and the rest of the lot in Pompeii. This is why reading-based courses are so wonderful. When they are done well -- and the Cambridge Latin Course really is written quite brilliantly -- students (and teachers) want to keep on reading! There is real motivation for learning the forms and syntax!

My favorite line in the whole piece: "I was speaking Latin after two pages."

Read The Idle Parent...

Afterschooling: Supplementing your child's traditional school education by providing educational opportunities in the home.

Latin Boot Camp

This may be of some interest to homeschooling families. Latin in the Christian Trivium, which primarily produces textbooks and offers online courses to the religious homeschooling market, is offering a free Latin Boot Camp course to parents who would like to teach their children Latin. According to their website, the course will last seven weeks and will cover the rationale for teaching Latin as well as an overview of Latin grammar. Each week the Latin in the Christian Trivium staff will send out a worksheet that will be reviewed and returned to each participant via e-mail.

Keeping Notebooks and Portfolios

Many homeschooling parents, especially those influenced by the teaching philosophy of the 19th century educator Charlotte Mason, are encouraging their children to narrate what they have learned in educational notebooks in order to encourage their children to synthesize and reflect upon their learning. Many regular classroom teachers also use this method to encourage higher level learning skills.

Although starting and maintaining a portfolio can be overwhelming at first, most learners find it to be very rewarding as they are able to see their progress over time. While some students create their own journals free-form, many students need some structure especially when they are young or if they have difficulty organizing their thoughts. Notebooking Pages is a wonderful site with many inexpensive notebooking templates, designed by a homeschooling mom, to help young learners create their own educational journals. You'll find templates for purchase that focus on Ancient Greece and Rome as well as Greek and Latin derivative word study. Pages include clip art and ample space for recording narrations. You can view the templates before ordering a CD or downloading to your home computer.

There are many free sample pages -- including a set of Greek alphabet strips in both upper and lower case, some timeline charts and grammar pages. You'll need to have the free Adobe Acrobat software in order to print out and use the pages.