Latin you say? If you think teaching or learning Latin is dull, boring and unnecessary, you have never had the opportunity to use Visual Latin. I wish that I had been taught Latin this way, but I am so glad I have had the opportunity to use and review Visual Latin with my 9 year old.
From the website: "Visual Latin is a rather unusual Latin Curriculum that thinks:
- It’s better to make students laugh than yawn.
- Shorter videos teach more effectively than longer ones.
- Small successes lead to big successes.
- Children like reading Latin more than memorizing it
Visual Latin uses a series of short videos and worksheets to bring Latin to life for your children (recommended ages 9 and up.) Each lesson is divided into 3 parts: Grammar, Sentences, and Reading. You watch a short video listening to the teacher, Dwane, and seeing his examples on the board. Then you compete a short worksheet giving the child the opportunity to do what Dwane has done. Children learn by hearing, seeing, and doing in only minutes a day.
Visual Latin is available as both a DVD with PDF files for printing worksheets and answer keys, or as a download using iTtunes making it viewable on your PC, iPod or iPad making it convenient for using on the go (not that homeschoolers ever need to do school in the car or Dr. office :).
Pricing for Visual Latin depends on what you are going to purchase, in what format, and for a single family or co-op license. They also offer live online classes. To see all of the different products available, click HERE.
Want to try it out before you buy? Visual Latin offers 6 downloadable lessons completely free! You will get to use 4 introductory lessons and first 2 full lessons before you commit to buying! Click HERE to download your 6 free lessons!
I have to admit that while I think that learning Latin is very important for kids, my 9 year old son gave me that look (you know the one) when I told him we were getting a Latin program to review. But, he was hooked halfway into the first Introductory Lesson. Why? Dwane Thomas teaches to kids at their level without dumbing the lessons down. He has a wonderful sense of humor and love of what he is doing that comes across the screen. He laughs and jokes with the children as he is teaching. He even makes mistakes sometimes and corrects himself on screen (that's what would happen in a "real" classroom.) The Introductory Lessons give the children (and the parents too) great reasons why studying and learning Latin is important. He got all of my boys attention when he started talking about words that come from Latin and used Transformers as an example! The lessons are taught in digestible chunks that the children are able to learn by seeing, hearing, and doing. The worksheets are not designed to simply be busywork for the child, but to reinforce the lesson that they have watched.
Grammar is not necessarily a fun part of learning a language, but it is taught and broken down in ways that are easy to understand. Every 3rd part of the lesson is translation. Dwane reads the story, your child repeats it, and then translates it on a worksheet. Nick was so proud of himself the first time he was able to translate the Latin words into English all by himself! He has gained great confidence and knows that he CAN really do it! I also really that he doesn't put too much importance on pronounciation (especially since no one really knows what the right way is!)
To see what other crew mates had to say click here.
I received a free DVD of Visual Latin for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation.
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