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.

Eddikashun

The saying is that you're supposed to learn something new every day. I tend to learn nothing new for a handful of days and then fill a basket with new knowledge in one afternoon. Or forenoon as the case may be. I comfort myself on the off days that although I'm not learning anything new, I'm practicing what I learned the last go-around.

Today is a basket-filling sort of day. So far, by 1pm, I've...

...learned how rock is quarried, cut, and shipped. (They pour chemicals down the drilled holes and add water, separating it from the mountain by expansion. Less stress on the rock than using dynamite.)

...learned that onyx is a pale, creamy yellow-ecru color and is about as soft as marble, making it relatively easy to carve. It can also be back-lit for added beauty. ( I always thought onyx was black)

...learned that there's no way I can afford those beautiful counter tops and figurines in the foreseeable future. ($395 for a 24inch vase?!)

...learned that there are so many stone colors and patterns that I can't figure out how a person can decide what to use where in their house if money is not a factor. (Money being a factor I can decide in two seconds...the cheapest!)

...learned that "serpentine" refers to a type of rock as well as a type of soil (I knew about the soil already; the rock part is new. Let's see...serpentine rock is basalt that took on different elements within its crystalline structure as it was forming underwater. Mine is a beautiful jade color shot through with white quartz.)

...learned what it means to click "no" on "convert line breaks" in the settings/formatting tab of my blog. The effect is as if I've taken one deep breath and ran my entire post together as one paragraph.

Languages

Was ist Los?
What's happening is a great language program. Mighty expensive, but The Rosetta Stone is very effective. Richelle has greater command of German in the few months that we've had the program than she did in the two years she struggled to keep up with Cameron and me. Not that Cameron and I are by any means fluent! A person needs to be a bit more dedicated than we were to achieve fluency.

This program teaches a language through the three learning avenues of seeing, speaking, and doing. Seeing the sentences or phrases as the native speaker says and then choosing one of four pictures that corresponds with what was said; speaking the phrases or sentences into a microphone and trying to match the voice print of the native speaker; and typing the sentences of phrases that are spoken.

My favorite is typing. I'm a visual learner so I can understand a written language far easier than I can understand the spoken language. Hearing something spoken and then typing it in correctly is good for me.

I had to get a microphone for the computer the other day. Richelle's pronunciation was off and she couldn't hear it so she needed to work on the spoken part of the program. She's been having a great time with it.

She has a friend over for the day today and all week she'd been working hard to get ahead one lesson in all subjects to have the day free. Before her friend came, she was at the computer playing with the Rosetta Stone, trying to match the voice prints. She has the day free but saw the program as a fun thing to do. That's the way to learn without realizing you're learning something.

I didn't have to pay the steep price for the program because a kind friend gave us theirs. I've always wanted the program but shied away from the cost. Let us be thankful for generous friends!

Wrapping Up the School Year

On the home schooling front, Richelle sat her required testing today and normally I would end the school year at this point. However, (you saw that coming, didn't you?) there are only about four lessons left in her math book and one in her English so we'll finish the year when we finish the month. Last year's scores ranged from very good to awesome so I'm curious to see what this year's testing will show.

Cameron is preparing to sit the GED and go on to the local community college in the fall. He has a job interview Tuesday with an area mill and hopes to be hired on as summer help. The pay is very good and he hopes to make enough to meet tuition and books for the coming year. He's looking at a few different fields of study and will take basic courses until he decides between massage therapy, physics, and chiropractics. He certainly has a knack for finding the release point for sore muscles!

I'm planning a light course of schooling for Richelle this summer. She's staging a student protest. I'm planning for her to develop some lap books with just a few minutes of math each day. I think it will pique her interest and she'll end up enjoying it.