Catholic Review of: Prima Latina Text Set

When the description for Prima Latina says it can be used by any parent with *NO* knowledge of the Latin knowledge, it is totally accurate. This course is about seeing the patterns, seeing the connections to the English language and making it as user-friendly as possible.

 

If one follows the coursebook to a tee,  your child will have a complete introductory foundation for further Latin studies. Based on the relative ease and flexibility of this program, I cannot imagine trying to jump into any higher level Latin studies without this one! This one provides just enough to keep us going without being overwhelming - we are learning but can also back off when we need to and know that we have plenty of time to get it right :)

 

 Many who are not from the southern United States, have stated that the southern accent is a distraction, but reality says that Latin said by anyone will have an accent - and since it is the basis for many of today's modern languages, the accent problem simply should not pose a problem.

 

The course book does recommend using Prima Latina in conjunctions with some lesssons, and while the course can be successfuly done without it, Prima Latina provides a very nice supplement (and practice in application of the language, and exposure to beautiful music, and... and... and... ;) ).

 

With my own child (age 6) at this time, we are not using the entire course. We go through each lesson via the teacher book and the CD, listen to the pronunciation and practice it with our own self-made flashcards (NOTE: flashcards are recommended as well, that will later be used with Latina Christiana I and II, but we do not yet have these since we are only using a portion of the program). We then memorize the lines of the prayers in Latin (one line for each lesson), listen to any corresponding song on Lingua Angelica and sometimes I'll read a Latin reader I purchased elsewhere (there are many children's books in Latin available now - we just read them for supplement - neither of us even know most of the words!).

 

Next year, we will go through each lesson again and add in the written excercises in the student book as well as the suggested flashcards. By the time he is 8, we'll move into Latina Christiana and continue from there.

 

We highly enjoy this program, even though (or because!) it has no bells and whistles. It is a simple, straight-forward program that allows us to tweak it as we see fit, instead of feeling locked into doing it only one way.

 

Purchase Prima Latina.