Eccentric Eclectic Woman: Memoria Press Latina Christiana: An Introduction to First Form Latin Review

Memoria Press Latina Christiana Complete Set

My family had the privilege of trying the Latina Christiana from Memoria Press for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy-to-use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by a woman named Cheryl Lowe in 1994. They currently have preschool through ninth grade in most of their curriculum and some through twelfth grade. They also cover subjects in: Classical Core Curriculum, Latin, Classical Studies, Christian Studies, Logic & Rhetoric, Phonics & Early Reading, Penmanship, Literature & Poetry, American & Modern Studies, Writing & English Grammar, Science & Math, Greek, Modern Languages, Educational Resources, eBooks, Special-Needs, and Art & Music.

Latina Christiana is a Latin grammar course for younger beginning students. It comes with a Student Book, Teacher Manual, Pronunciation CD, Flashcards, and Instructional DVDs. This is a new and improved version and has been updated to make the product even better. This course was designed for teachers with no background in Latin. Intended for grades 3-5, but can be used for as a beginning course for students of all ages. After completing Latina Christiana Memoria Press has the next course in the series called First Form Latin. There is also a course that is for grades 1-3 called Prima Latina that you can have your younger children do before this course, but it is not required.

The Latina Christiana Student Book is a consumable workbook that can only be used by one student. This fourth edition book consists of 105 pages of 25 lessons and 5 review lessons. The lessons begin with a Latin Saying that teach Christian or Classical tradition of culture, 10 vocabulary words per lesson with corresponding English derivatives, Grammar Forms, and end with appropriate exercises that go with each lesson. It also has Pronunciation Rules at the very beginning and after the lessons it has an Appendix with Prayers, Conversational Latin, Songs, Latin Sayings, Grammar Forms, History Guide, Vocabulary Indexes, English to Latin Reference, and Derivatives & Definitions. On this page there is a Student Book Sample in PDF format.

The Latina Christiana Teacher Manual is a spiral bound teacher and parent guide to First Form Latin. It is 187 pages and is the fourth edition. It consists of Pronunciation Rules, a Teacher Guide that includes a Grammar Overview, Student Goals, Teaching Guidelines, Vocabulary Drill, and Grammar Drill; Lesson Plans, an Appendix with Prayers, Conversational Latin, Songs, Latin Sayings, Grammar Forms, History Guide, History Chart, etc.; Advanced Grammar Overview, Quizzes & Tests + Answer Keys, and Latina Christiana Final & Key. The Lesson Plans have an opening with a Latin salutation from both teacher and student, prayer in Latin and music sung in Latin; Recitation of cue words, Latin Saying, Word Study, Derivatives, Grammar, and the pages of the Student Book in miniature with answer key on the page for each lesson. It also has some reproducible pages in it. On this page there is a Teacher Manual Sample in PDF format.

The Latina Christiana Pronunciation CD is the complete verbal pronunciation (the way the word sounds when it is spoken) for each lesson. It also includes the prayers and songs and how they are supposed to be said in Latin. It has 32 parts. We received the second edition although they picture the fourth on their picture. You can listen to a CD Sample here.

The Latina Christiana Flashcards are a large stack of cards to help with study and memorization. It includes: vocabulary with derivatives, Latin sayings, and conjugations & declensions. These are second edition and contain all the words in Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. On this page there are Sample Flashcards in PDF format.

How The Flashcards are Laid Out:

Vocabulary (Latin, lesson number, and any derivative, on one side; English on the other)
Latin sayings (Latin and lesson number on one side, English on the other)
Grammar forms(cue word, lesson number, and form name on one side; Latin forms on the other).
For the lesson number, Latina Christiana is first followed by Prima Latina (PL) lesson number in parentheses, e.g. “1 (PL 4).”
Flashcards are 3.5 x 2.5 inches and are Pre-cut.

The Latina Christiana Instructional DVDs are a set of 3 discs having a total of 5.5 hours. Lessons take an average of 15 minutes per lesson. The teaching of grammar, recitation, review, vocabulary, and derivatives is done by Jessica Watson. There are on-screen notes, illustrations, and diagrams. This makes it easy to educate yourself in Latin. This is the fourth edition. Here is a DVD Sample.

Teela working out of the Latina Christiana Student Book.

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:
We love Memoria Press and their classical christian curriculum for our homeschooling! We have a bunch of their other studies and have found them all wonderful. We've been very blessed to have been able to also receive a number of their curriculum to review here.

Latina Christiana is a fabulous curriculum for kids to learn Latin. Even though it is recommended for grades 3-5, I would say it is a good first Latin program for grades 4-7. We did this curriculum for my daughter Teela who is in 4th grade. We did this on an average of three days per week. This classical christian homeschool curriculum is fantastic!

I found the teacher's guide very convenient and thorough. I loved how it was laid out and how it explained things. The information is given to me, the parent and teacher, so I could teach the student in a way that we both comprehend all the information even though we have no background in Latin at all. I also had all the answers of the student book at my fingertips so I didn't have to seek them out myself. This also had vocabulary drills, grammar drills, tests and quizzes that could be reproduced so that Teela could work on these. I am glad that this was spiral bound so that it lays flat and I could copy the reproducible pages easily.

Both DVDs and CD were very helpful tools. We started out watching the lesson for the day on the DVD. The DVDs helped me learn along with Teela since I too did not know Latin. The DVDs I found especially great because of the illustrations and diagrams they used as well to clarify and explain the point better. These lessons are the perfect length as well which helps the learning happen without information overload. The CD we used to teach the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary in the student book and flashcards.

The student book can be easily followed along with the DVDs and teacher's guide. I had my daughter work from the book after each lesson. We liked that the vocabulary and grammar was on one page and the exercises were on the adjacent page. If we needed to review something it was easy to get the lesson back up on the DVD and find where the specific thing was talked about or look it up in the teacher's guide.

Teela working with the Latina Christiana Flashcards.

We also thought the flashcards were very handy to have with the set. This deck is huge and covers both Prima Latina and Latina Christiana vocabulary. I love that I didn't have to punch out the cards or cut them out myself because this would have taken me a long time. I am glad that these were pre-cut. I also liked the fact that these had the lesson number on each card so we could reference back to it if needed. We used these as a further study and memory aid reinforcing learning the First Form Latin vocabulary.

We highly recommend Latina Christiana: An Introduction to First Form Latin by Memoria Press! It is a great Latin curriculum. I look forward to using other curriculum books from Memoria Press with my children in the future and after finishing the Latina Christiana moving onto First Form Latin.

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