The Latin Centered Curriculum

I thought that I would post some thoughts on how a Latin Centered Education looks at our house :)

Classical Languages

Leland (and I) are learning Latin. Lee is using Prima Latina and I am using Henle Latin Book 1. I will admit that Lee's studies are going better than mine :) I am thinking of folding Greg into Prima Latina come January since he has his English phonics concepts down pat. I am loving that Lee is learning English grammar through Latin....and he doesn't even really know it. What a blessing!

We haven't gotten to Greek yet :)

Math

LCC recommends Rod and Staff or Ray's Arithmetic for the early years. We use Math-U-See. Leland is working from Gamma (book 3) and Greg is just starting Beta (book 2). They are both working on their facts (addition for Greg and multiplication for Lee). We are using Wrap-Ups and Calculadders to help with drill.

English Studies

Gregory is finishing Alphaphonics. Lee has been finished with phonics for a couple of years now. I am thinking about doing a quick phonics review with him after Christmas just to get everything fresh again. For independent reading they are using the BoxCar Children and the Magic Tree House series. I haven't started suggesting the classics yet. We are working into them. For family reading we are using a Landmark Book, The Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt, which coordinates with our current history study.

For penmanship we use Italic Handwriting. Greg also works from the Copywork books from Memoria Press. We are working at Recitation. Since we took a speech class with our homeschool group I think that we have covered recitation there :)

For writing we are using Writing Stands. I know that this isn't at all one of the recommended resources for the progrymnasmata, but this is what we had on hand and it is working well for us. I may re-evaluate this for next year.

We haven't really gotten into the Literature section yet. For 1st and 4th grade there is a large amount of literature suggested. I think that we will try to read through The Real Mother Goose and The Random House Book of Nursery Stories. Both of these are kindergarten suggestions, but I thought that we would start there. LCC is a lot easier to implement if you have started from the beginning :) If we get those done, we will go on to the Fifty Famous Stories Retold and some of the Fairy Tales (both 1st grade recommendations). Shakespeare is recommended for 4th grade and we will see about that :) He may have to stay in England another year :)

Classical Studies

We are doing history chronologically rather than the way the Mr. Campbell recommends. I do have a book of Greek Myths that we will try to read in the evenings before bed.

Christian Studies

We are following the Bible program laid out by Veritas Press (grade 2). The readings so far have been from Genesis and will follow history as close as possible for a while, I think this year at least. The boys also get Bible instruction from Sunday School class.

Modern Studies

Like I said before, we are studying history chronologically, but we are trying to work in some other geography study this year. So far, we haven't done much, but we are going to work on it.

Science

Science is very laid back and hands on in LCC. I enjoy that. We are using some unit studies to cover some other things that the boys are interested in. So far we have covered the Days of Creation and reptiles. We are working on oceans and have dinosaurs yet to go. If we get all that finished, we will probably drop science from the "main studies" for the year and focus on nature study.

As you can see, a Latin Centered Curriculum can be very relaxing to a family that is tired of juggling all the different facets of a classical education. I am very freed in thinking that if we accomplish math, latin and some reading we have done good for the day. What a concept!!!!! Just think, we learn so much by reading, why shouldn't our children as well? And I say this as the mother of a very reluctant reader....but he isn't so reluctant to listen and we can explore all kinds of diferent topics through literature and good books that we get from the library. I firmly believe in following the desires of your children in certain areas. That thought is what guided our science topics for the year. They will learn more if it is something that they love. The interests of children change daily so you have multiple opportunities to teach millions of topics to your children. Feed their interested, their loves and desires. See where it takes you. I am certain that you will learn as much, if not more than your children.