When I hear the name Memoria Press, I automatically equate that with high-quality, easy to use curriculum for homeschoolers. I have reviewed several of their products before and I have purchased even more of their products personally for our homeschool--enough so that my kids are definitely fans of Memoria. The most recent product that I have the opportunity to tell you about is First Form Latin Complete Set, a rigorous Latin curriculum which (spoiler alert!) I would recommend if you want to teach Latin in your homeschool or co-op.
Boom. Done. Recommended.
Haha, just teasing, of course I will tell you about the product and why it is that I recommend it! :)
Are you a homeschooling family who values learning Latin? If so, this product is a really nice curriculum to use with your student or students. It can very easily be used with a group of students.
I was VERY intimidated to get this product for review, firstly because I do not know Latin (beyond what I know for scientific names of things in biological contexts) and secondly because I had heard about the conjugations and that seemed crazy difficult to me :)
When I first got my set of the First Form Latin books and resources (DVDs, CDs, and flashcards) I opened the teacher's guide right up and began reading--and became even more intimidated!! :) The guide lays out how a lesson and a week of Latin ought to look. This included things such as recitation, review, Latin sayings, the actual "lesson", workbook pages, vocabulary, grammar, etc. I thought, how can I ever do this if I don't even know Latin?
Well, I started right in and got going in the student text and the workbook. Hmmm, it started to seem a little more do-able to me. I worked through the workbook exercises for lesson one and noticed that it actually started to make sense to me. But how could I teach it, being so inexperienced myself? I remembered the CD and popped it into my computer to see what that was all about and it is the pronunciations of the words in the lesson! Excellent! That's a great help and can be listened to over and over (reading plus listening makes the learning easier).
And THEN I had my moment of inspiration!!! :) Well, it probably was an obvious thing that I should have begun with, but there are instructional DVDs! :) Hmmm, well, let's check those out!
Ahhhhh!!! :) (cue the angels singing Hallelujah!) The DVDs are an actual teacher teaching the Latin class! From the first part of the lesson (hello students, hello teacher -- in Latin) through the lesson (explaining about each of the sections that the lesson covers--the grammar, the conjugations, the new vocabulary words, how they are used, etc.), the reviews at the beginning of the lesson, everything! :) There are also the drill lessons, for practicing the translations of Latin to English and English to Latin! Hooray!!  |
| The teacher goes through the drill selections with the student, translating between English and Latin. |
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| And the teacher is so upbeat and calming and kind-sounding! |
The student workbook is spiral bound (which makes it so much easier to write in!) and is filled with all kinds of exercises for the student to do to help in their learning/retention of the material.
It might seem like a lot of writing work, but the course is set up to complete one lesson per week, so there's definitely plenty of time...plus, by writing the material, the student will learn so much more thoroughly as they experience the information not only verbally or audibly, but also through writing it. That is one of the things I really love about this approach to learning Latin--the way that it incorporates all sorts of learning styles and methods into a student learning the Latin language.
There is even a set of already-made flashcards for the student to practice vocabulary, phrases, and more.
Oh, there is a phrase per lesson that the student learns, as well, which is pretty cool. It is so easy to learn phrases that you hear over and over again...and it will expand the student's vocabulary without them even noticing (for instance, how many of us non-Latin knowing folks know what Veni, vidi, vici means, even if we don't know Latin?!) :) The drill/memorization/repetition of the different forms of the words is super helpful as well--I didn't know if it would be annoying :) But it is actually really helpful! The first set you learn helps you to remember all of the endings that you need for the other base verbs!
Grammar is covered, which will help a student with English grammar as well. A little bit of geography and history are thrown in, as well as some Latin roots of English words. This is a very thorough curriculum, so easy to use for the parent/teacher.
I definitely recommend this curriculum to homeschooling parents who would like their students to learn Latin. If you are intimidated by the thought of teaching a classical language that you do not know, the First Form Latin Complete Set is the curriculum for you! It hits all of the learning styles and will reinforce with review and drill. It is well-written and the DVD lessons are well-made. It is not babyish at all, yet not too advanced to use with a younger audience. I think it would be great for families with multiple students to use concurrently. The tests/quizzes and instructional lessons are also downloadable, which adds to the ease of use.
If you would like to read more reviews of this product by other homeschooling parents, please click on the link below! There are a few other products that reviewers will tell you about as well, including the sets for Prima Latina, Latina Christiana, Second Form Latin, Third Form Latin, and Fourth Form Latin. Click the link below and you will be able to read all about them!
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