Our Family

Our Family

Monday, June 2, 2014

Visual Latin Review and Giveaway!!



If you think learning Latin has to be boring and uninteresting, you have never had a chance to use Visual Latin.  Visual Latin teaches children (and their parents) ages 9 and up Latin using a series of short, interesting videos and corresponding worksheets.  We have been through all of Visual Latin 1 and were recently given an opportunity to review Visual Latin 2.  At the end of this post you will have an opportunity to win a downloadable version of your choice of Visual Latin 1 or 2.

I want all of my children to learn Latin.  While many people think that it is a dead language and serves no importance, they are wrong.  Our children can get a great understanding of language and grammar by learning Latin.  Many English words are based on Latin and once you learn Latin learning other languages will become easier.  But, many of the things that excite us as homeschool moms don't exactly excite our children.  Mention to your 11 year old son that you want him to start learning Latin and you will see what I mean.  The sigh, eye roll, and possibly the whiny voice will come out in an instant.

I can honestly tell you though, that once you start up the Visual Latin lesson, the boy's attitude will change. Why?  Because Latin can be fun.  Really.  Dwane teaches the language in a fun and interesting way and with a sense of humor that children will understand.  My boys still repeat one of the first jokes we heard in one of the very first lessons.  The video segments are short, fun, and to the point.  The corresponding worksheets for the lessons are not designed just to be busy work, but to reinforce the lesson that has been taught.  Grammar is not the most interesting topic to learn and my son has never begged for more worksheets, but they are split up into short digestible chunks to make the grammar a little less painful :)

One of the greatest features of Visual Latin is that it brings the teacher into your home and your children can learn Latin even if you have no experience with the language at all.  Everything you need is contained on the DVD or download.  

Lessons are split into three parts: Grammar, Sentences, and Reading and Translation.  First your child watches a short video segment listening to the teacher and seeing his examples on the blackboard.  Then your child completes the corresponding worksheet.  The DVD even tells you at the end of the segment which worksheet you are supposed to complete.  Each video segment is around 10 minutes long. If you purchase the download version, the worksheets are included as a PDF file.  If you purchase the DVD, the worksheets on on the DVD and you just have to pop it into your computer and you will find the worksheets in the files.  Answer keys are included.

There are 30 lessons in Visual Latin 1 and 2.  They recommend completing one lesson per week, but you certainly can adapt that however it works best for your homeschool.  You can purchase Visual Latin 1 and 2 prices starting at $100 depending on whether you choose digital or DVD or starting at $209 for both combined.  Visual Latin is also part of the Premium Membership offered by Compass Classroom.
You can get the first 4 lessons for free here.  Check them out!

Lessons in Visual Latin 1 include:
1. Being Verbs Basics | To Be and Not to Be
 2. Being Verbs Basics | Predicate Nominatives and Adjectives
 3. Gender | Boy Words and Girl Words
 4. Singular and Plural | E Pluribus Unum
 5. Declensions | Meet the Cases
 6. Adjectives Learn to Agree with Nouns
 7. The Case Files | Nominative and Genitive
 8. Counting to 10 in Latin
 9. Active Verb Basics | Indicative Mood
 10. The Case Files | Accusative
 11. The Case Files | Vocative
 12. Changing Your Moods | Imperative & Indicative
 13. The Case Files | Ablative
 14. Meet the Pronouns & Question Words
 15. Pronouns | Relative
 16. Accusing Prepositions of Accusative Case
 17. Verbs | Active & Passive
 18. The Case Files | Dative
 19. Pronouns | 1st & 2nd Person Personal
 20. Pronouns | 3rd Person Personal
 21. Pronouns | Demonstratives: this, these
 22. Pronouns | Demonstratives: that, those
 23. Pronouns | Relative and Interrogative
 24. Pronouns | Possessive
 25. Nouns | 3rd Declension
 26. Verbs | Infinitives - Active & Passive
 27. Verbs | Infinitives - Ability, Negation & Indirect
 28. Nouns | 3rd Declension - Neuter
 29. Nouns | 4th Declension
 30. Adjectives | Positive & Comparative



Visual Latin 2 starts off where Latin 1 Finished up.  Lessons in Visual Latin 2 include:


31. Nouns | 5th Declension & Superlative Adjectives
 32. Adjectives | Irregular Comparison
 33. 1 to 100 | Cardinals, Ordinals, and Fractions
 34. Pronouns | Reflexive
 35. Adjectives | Indefinite & Irregular
 36. Conjugations and Macrons
 37. Verbs | Present Tense
 38. Verbs | Imperfect Tense
 39. Verbs | Future Tense
 40. Verbs | Four Principle Parts Review
 41. Present Participles
 42. The Rest of the Participles
 43. Supine
 44. More Infinitives
 45. Perfect Tense
 46. Pluperfect Tense
 47. Future Perfect Tense
 48. Volo, Nolo, Marco Polo
 49. Deponent Verbs
 50. Impersonal Verbs
 51. Gerunds
 52. Adverbs
 53. Introduction to Subjunctive
 54. Ut and Ne
 55. Imperfect Subjunctive
 56. Gerundives
 57. Perfect, Fear and Cum
 58. Pluperfect, Indirect Discourse
 59. Verbs | Ablative Absolute
 60. Verbs | Fio, Comparative Subjunctive

I prefer the DVD version over the downloads because I live in the country and have VERY slow internet.  For me it is much easier to put in the DVD then download all of the videos.  But, rather then printing out all of the worksheets, I put those in Notability on the iPad to save paper and ink.  I also put the answer key on the iPad so I can grade the worksheets when they are finished.




Before we had an iPad, I printed out the worksheets, three hole punched them, and put them in a 3 ring binder.  I did not print the answer key, just read it off the computer.


We love Visual Latin!  I love how easy it makes learning Latin for my children and me!  Dwane is a wonderful teacher with  great sense of humor.  I love that there is not a whole lot of emphasis on correct pronunciation as there is nobody living who knows exactly how the Romans pronounced it.  Children learn by hearing, seeing, and doing in only minutes a day.  The worksheets help reinforce the lessons.  My favorite are the translations :)  I like too, that one of the things they are translating is Scripture.

My only wish is that more languages would be this fun and easy to learn.  Visual Spanish maybe??

I would highly recommend Visual Latin for children and their parents ages 9 and up!

Now for the Giveaway!!!! Giveaway Now Closed

Would you like to win your choice of the downloadable version of Visual Latin 1 or 2?  Enter by using the Rafflecopter Below.  Giveaway will close on Sunday June 8th at 11:59 pm.  Entries will be verified and a winner will be chosen at random.

Good Luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary copy of Visual Latin 2 for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

*links to Visual Latin are my affiliate links.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend. 

30 comments:

Homeschooling6 said...

I would love to win this for my 14 and 16 year old kiddos.

zekesmom10 said...

Forget the kids! I want to learn Latin. (But I'd share it with all the boys; 9, 7, and eventually, the two year old.)

Bugs said...

My kiddo is 8.

Carol said...

I would love Visual Latin 1 for my 14 & 16 yr old girls

Tricia said...

I have a 10 year old that would love to learn Latin!

Kristy said...

I would love to have this for my munchkins. We've done Song School Latin, but as they are getting older, this would be wonderful!

Kristy said...

Oops...my kids will be 9, 7, 5, and 1 in the fall.

sunnymum said...

Hoping to win this for a 9 and 11 year old who are very interested in learning Latin!

evie said...

We have used the free lessons and LOVE them. If I don't win them, I'm going to buy them!!!

Beth Hollmann said...

I have girls who are 13 and 14 who would love this program.

oneblessedmamma said...

My kids that would use this are 14, 12, and 9. We LOVE Visual Latin 1, and would love to win VL 2.

edeemarie said...

I have a 10 year old I would love to use this with (along with his younger siblings:-).

Unknown said...

I'm hoping to win for my 9 year old son. After learning a Latin piece in choir, he expressed interest in learning the language.

Unknown said...

I have been looking at this program for my 11 year old son, I would love to win it!

batmite267 said...

I have a 9 year old. We were just told about this program by some friends. Thank you for offering a great contest!

Unknown said...

I have just started to look at Latin programs - this one looks great.

Kristi said...

My kids are 14, 11 and 6, thanks!

Unknown said...

I have a 10, 8, and 6 year old that I would use this with now and a 4 year old who would benefit later.

Unknown said...

My 9 yo needs to start latin in the next year, and this sounds perfect! Thanks for the opportunity to win it :)

Sparky Lou said...

I would love to win this for my 14 year old who loves vocabulary and reading. I would you it for my 9 and 11 year olds, too.

kyadams2 said...

I would love to win this for my 8 and 13 year olds!

Anonymous said...

I have a 7 year old, this would be an amazing gift for her!

House of Five said...

I have six kids, ages 10, 9, 8, 5, 3, and 1. :)

Unknown said...

I have 4 children ages 13, 11, 9, and 5. I would love to use this with all of them as much as possible!

Pebblekeeper ~ Angie said...

My boys are 13 and 16. It is on the list for Timberdoodle this year. We've watched the videos for 1 on the laptop. I think we'd be better at it if it were on DVD.

Unknown said...

He is 9 almost 10.

Knittycat said...

My kids are 10 and 15 :)

Stephanie said...

My kiddos are 11 & 4.

Joelle said...

Nice giveaway. Kids, 8 &10

Melissa said...

I would love to win this for my 10 year old son!