Please humor me and explain this to me. What is the purpose of learning this? I have noticed that the majority of homeschoolers teach this. Is there a reason? Okay, my son has a hard time keeping up with everything else he does, well sometimes. So, I was wondering should I add this? I haven't even attempted to teach a foreign language yet, for the fear he will fall behind in the rest of his studies. Is this bad of me not to introduce these things to him? Help!!
I guess I don't quite get it, either. I understand that learning Latin can be beneficial when it comes to things like LA on the SAT/ACTs, but I remembering testing and finding words that I didn't know in English, but looked a lot like words I knew in Spanish. Since Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian are also Romance Languages, why is Latin better than any of them? Like I said, I got the same benefit from Spanish. And Spanish is still useful to me.
First of all, I don't teach Latin. But here's my opinion: 1) So many of our words are based on Latin and Greek roots. (Which is why we DO study "English from the Roots Up", which is NOT the same as "learning" Latin!) 2) As stated above, so many languages are based on Latin. Knowing Latin will make it easier to learn any of these languages. 3) I believe a knowledge of Latin helps up better understand English grammar. I know personally that there were tenses in English I never knew existed until I studied French! Having said all that, here's a poem I learned as a child: Latin is a dead tongue As dead as it can be. First it killed the Romans And now it's killing ME!!!
If I tried to teach everything that I hear about, there wouldn't be enough hours in the day! Yes, it all sounds wonderful and maybe even necessary; but it's not possible. So for now, we are focusing on getting a strong foundation down. The rest can come later.
I guess that was part of what I was trying to say.... That learning Spanish, French, Italian or Romanian would be just as useful as far as broadening an understanding of English, yet be far more useful as a spoken language.
I use to think Latin was just some boring subject people included to make kids think. But I thought it was just a waste of time and something we would stay way away from.:lol: But then people who did latin said how much there kids enjoyed it (hu! they wern't kidding!)and that it helped them with English and I started seeing a point to it. I still don't know if we will ever take it up, but I am more open to it then I use to be.
We do learn Latin. It has enhanced my daughter's vocabulary, aided in her retention of scientific terms and improved her understanding of grammar. I also hope that it will make learning another living language easier when they are older. Plus, we (dd9, ds6 and myself) think it's fun. I consider it an elective, so it is not necessary; the core subjects come first.
I took two years of Latin in high school. It did help in increasing my vocablulary and reading comprehension. I had taken Spanish (7th and 8th grade) and French (9th-11th) before taking Latin. Once I started studying Latin the French became easier to learn. I also took Spanish in College and the Latin helped in that too. I plan on teaching my sd Latin for at least one year possibly two. For dd I may introduce Latin earlier but I will at least do Latin sometime in 7-12th grades.
A member of our church is a linguist and he requires his university students to have at least one course of Latin before taking any of his language courses. He is also teaching his younger children Latin, not even elementary age, because he said everything that was already listed above. Emma's friend is taking Latin and she is doing great in Language Arts. I do not know if this is why but it is possible.
We do latin once a week and it is the base of several of our words especially medical. I figure if the seed is planted at an early age it will sit a lot better than if some day they decide to go to med school and have to learn it all for the very first time. Just for the record...I am encouraging my kids to be Dr.'s but...pretty much anything scientific pulls from latin not to mention things we read in the bible make a little more sense when we know what it says.
