Language/Culture studies

Richelle wearing a Roman girl's tunic and belt.

We started a course of Latin language study back in September with other homeschooling families.  In name, Richelle was the student and I was there to audit the class.  In fact, we both learned Latin grammar, pronunciation, word derivatives, culture, and history.  Richelle didn't want to take the class at first but when I told her I wouldn't require English grammar if she studied Latin, she was all for it.  For those who may be wondering, we used Latina Christiana I.  

She had so much fun that she's quite ready for a second year.  This course is rather easy compared to a high school curriculum but by completing Latina Christiana II, she will have one credit of foreign language.  Not to mention a leg up in vocabulary and grammar.

Speaking of grammar, Latin is quite interesting.  Have you ever declined a noun?  Everyone knows how to conjugate a verb (I hope!) but English nouns only have two forms:  possessive and everything else; each either singular or plural.  Latin has five; subject, possessive, indirect object, direct object, and object of the preposition; each either singular or plural and each having their own ending although some endings are the same.  So wherever the noun occurres in the sentence, you know by the ending what it's function is.  For example, we could write "Billy put the dishes on the table." or "Billy put the table on the dishes." and by the noun ending (-a in this the object of the preposition case), there is no confusion.  Handy, isn't it?  

Also, just to make things more interesting, Latin has five declensions: feminine, masculine and neuter, and third, fourth, and fifth declensions (they don't seem to have a label other than that) each with their own endings.  We just touched the third declension the last few lessons this year.

The class had an end-of-year party last week.  They all dressed up in as close of dress as they had available, brought food that would have been eaten in Roman times, and watched a movie that had some Latin spoken in it.  A tunic is basically a pillowcase with holes for the head and arms and a belt around the waist.  Boys' were just below the knee and girls' were ankle length.  Men wore the togas we associate with Romans and women wore something very similar to an Indian sari.  Richelle decided she wasn't a woman yet and I made her a tunic from an old sheet.

The class was lots of fun and, although it required a weekly trip to town, it well worth the time, money and effort.  We're looking forward to next year's classes.