{Review} Memoria Press ~ Prima Latina - From Crayons to Keyboards

When we began to homeschool I knew that I would like our children to study Latin. Recently, we had the blessing of reviewing the Prima Latina Complete Set by Memoria Press, a great introductory Latin program for early elementary students.

The Prima Latina Complete Set includes:

Teacher Manual
Student Book
Instructional DVDs
Pronunciation Guide, Songs, & Prayers CD
Flash Cards

There is also a Prima Latina Copybook also available to purchase.

Prima Latina is a gentle introduction to Christian Latin for children in grades first through fourth. It is designed for a parent with no background in Latin. The course is set up to complete one lesson a week, either once per week or spread over the course of the week. You can teach the lessons yourself or watch the lessons on DVD.

In this course, students will learn: seven parts of speech, simple introductions to tenses derivatives, conjugations, & declensions, 125 Latin vocabulary words, numbers 1 through 10, and basic constellations.

In Prima Latina there are a total of 25 lessons, plus 5 review lessons. For every lesson there are two pages of material followed by two pages of exercises. After every five lessons there is a review lesson with one page of review and three pages of exercises. There are tests (available in the back of the teacher’s manual) to follow the reviews.

During every lesson students will cover, practical Latin, the lesson, vocabulary, Latin prayers, and derivatives. Then exercises will follow where students will review information from previous lessons, answer questions from the current lesson, translate Latin words, practice speaking (also listening to tracks on the Prima Latina CD), writing exercises, and have some fun practice activities.

The teacher manual is set up just like the student book, and includes all of the answers to the exercises. In the back of the teacher manual, there is a vocabulary appendix, general teaching guidelines, reproducible pages, and tests & test keys.

The appendix includes the vocabulary words in alphabetical order, vocabulary words in order by parts of speech, and a list of the practical Latin sayings taught in the lessons.

Sweet Pea has been enjoying the Latin lessons from Prima Latina. She is interested in languages and has picked up Latin lessons quickly. We are watching the lessons together on DVD and I am helping her as needed.

Sweet Pea has learned how to say hello, goodbye, and stand up to one person as well as how to say the same words when more than one person is present.

She is also learning Latin prayers. Throughout the course she will memorize at total of four Latin Prayers: The Sanctus, The Table Blessing, The Pater Noster (Our Father or Lord’s Prayer), and The Doxology.

At our recent homeschool convention I picked up the Prima Latina Copybook to add to Sweet Pea’s Latin lessons. She is working on cursive and the Prima Latina Copybook is done in New American Cursive. The copybook includes practicing writing the alphabet as well as one page of copywork per lesson and one page per review lesson.