Language Study in Our School

Wow.  I totally realized something today.  I started to write a blog post about where our school year is taking us (because it is taking us in directions that I never could have predicted), but when I began just with languages, something became immediately clear: we really love Classical Academic Press.  Now, I know I have a blog failing, and that is tending only to blog reviews.  That's not because I don't blog or write anywhere else.  I am the editor of the sons channel at BellaOnline, and I blog there weekly (as well as, futilely, try to get people to talk in the forum on sons that I moderate).  I also write in excess of 30 copyblogging articles per week, plus I create educational material for edHelper on a monthly basis.

Now, having said all that, writing reviews is my favorite writing "job." It's the only one I don't consider a job (and, no, it's not my only volunteer position; I actually never count it among my volunteer writing jobs at all.). Still, given that the people who read this blog are the readers I care about most (please don't tell the owner of Bella!), I need to write more here.  Plus, it really helps me keep straight what I'm doing at school! /justification

In any case, languages.  Modern languages = eh.  Ancient languages = Euge! Still, because we live in SE Texas, and because my husband's parents are from Cuba, Spanish definitely has a place in our home, too.  Here, we start with Latin, though.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about our Cardinal Newman experience. I can't revisit that now. Suffice it to say that that was the first time I heard about teaching little kids Latin.  I have to thank JA for that. So Therese has had Latin in some form or fashion since K.  We have moved through a few programs, but she has really thrived on Classical Academic Press (which I never would have tried without the Crew!).  I think she should be in Latin Alive! However, she feels more comfortable in Latin for Children B.  I have chosen not to fight this, as long as she continues to love Latin.

I've done something I kind of said I would never do (ahem!), and I've pulled Nicky off of Latin for a few months o wait for the twins to catch up.  He has been doing Memoria Press.  He was at First Form Latin and loving it (the structure of Latin *really* works for him), but when we reviewed CAP and received the DVDS, I realized how good the chanting would be with students who would do it (Therese, alas, would not. She wouldn't sing with Dora when she was little either).  The 3 younger kids will chant together, and that will really improve their Latin experience, so N with restart Latin with the twins in a couple of months when they finish Song School Latin.  I'm not convinced they are actually learning anything beyond rudimentary vocab with SSL, but they love it.  

What has really surprised me is how much Therese loves Greek.  She will spend hours at a time working on Greek, and I am thrilled with CAP's program.  She spent a year working with the alphabet with another program, but then we switched over (I'm actually wondering if I have an academic crush on Dr. Perrin) to CAP.  I'll confess that my curriculum ADD has kicked in and both T and I have looked at this program.  Proof that I have a problem, because I really do love CAP.  In fact, we'll round out our language study by adding Spanish for Children.  I didn't want to until they had added Primer B, which I see they have.  Therese will be delighted.  I will be wondering how we'll have time to do anything but language.  Hmmm...next up: what we're doing for religion this year.