Mt. Hope Academy Curricula ~ Latin, Fine Arts, and Extras

If you are just now checking in or would like quick links to previous posts in my curricula series, this is what we have so far:

• The Great Conversation (the driving themes behind my curricula choices)
• The Simplicity Version (my top picks for a basic core elementary curriculum)
• History (The Tie That Binds)
• Geography (the “where”)
• Literature: Part 1 (our history-related literature studies)
• Literature: Part 2 (the remaining literature studies)
• Faith
• Mathematics
• Language Arts
• Science

This post should wrap it up (though I have one in the works with a few new additions for the coming school year).

Latin

I love Memoria Press. I really do. I love their products. I love their articles. I love their magalog. And I love their Latin.

We’ve (slowly) worked through Prima Latina and half of Latina Christiana I. “The plan” is to finish up Latina Christiana I and head into First Form Latin this fall. I’m really hoping Levi can finish it before he heads into Henle the following year in Challenge A with Classical Conversations. I love the prayers and songs. I love the ecclesiastical pronunciation (though CC uses classical pronunciation which drives me crazy!).

Levi and Luke have stayed together in Latin for the most part. I think I’ll be going through Song School Latin with Leif this next year since I have it on the shelf.

The boys also have memorized Latin declensions, conjugations, and some vocabulary, as well as John 1:1-7 in Latin through Classical Conversations.

Logic

We didn’t do much this past year, but I like several of the workbooks from The Critical Thinking Co. such as Balance Benders and Red Herring Mysteries. Levi and Luke will be attending a logic academic camp with CC this month, using The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning. I’ve purchased the book as well as the DVDs, so we’ll be reviewing and using the book throughout the year. I’m really looking forward to some interesting discussions with the boys!

Fine Arts

Classical Conversations Foundations classes include four fine arts units. Six weeks of drawing basics, six weeks of music theory and tin whistle, six weeks of famous artists and art projects, and six weeks of composers and instruments of the orchestra.

Music:

:: The Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! is a fantastic all-in-one book for learning about the instruments and composers (chronologically by period).

The Classical Kids CD series is a family favorite. Titles such as Mr. Bach Comes To Call, Mozart’s Magic Fantasy, Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage, Tchaikovsky Discovers America, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Hallelujah Handel, Song of the Unicorn, Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery, and A Classical Kids Christmas have delighted us all for years. The recordings include a dramatized fictional story centered around each composer, including details about the composer’s life and his music.

This year we have also been listening to Opal Wheeler’s composer series on audio book, including Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia. For an all-in-one title, The Story of Classical Music audio book with music is well-done. For silly educational fun, my boys love the Beethoven's Wig: Sing Along Symphonies audio series.

:: For free online composer education, Classics for Kids cannot be beat. Their radio shows about the composers are excellent.

The beautiful composer picture books by Anna Harwell Celenza are also favorites: The Farewell Symphony, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Bach's Goldberg Variations, and others.

:: The boys have not been in piano lessons this past year, but I really want them to keep up their practicing. Honestly, Lola has been the single biggest deterrent. I don’t want them practicing while she’s napping, and she simply won’t leave them alone if they are playing the piano while she is awake. We are going to work more on that discipline issue this coming year. Sigh.

Both The Artists' Specials and the The Composers' Specials DVDs have been a fun addition to our fine arts studies. The period films are fictionalized stories with historical details. (You can get the DVDs individually or discounted as a set at Rainbow Resource. Our library carries most of them.) 

Art:

My boys love the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series. We have a collection of them that they pour over—especially Luke. (The author also has a series of composers, presidents, and scientists!)

13 Artists Children Should Know and others in the series by Prestel are beautiful hardback books. They include timelines at the tops of the pages for history integration. Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces is a great all-in-one resource for studying the history of art (chronologically) with children. 

And, of course, there is an abundance of beautiful picture biography books about artists, as well as lovely books about art. It would take forever to list them all here! (Check your library.)

Poetry:

A quick mention here of poetry: Three resources I love are A Child's Introduction to Poetry: Listen While You Learn About the Magic Words That Have Moved Mountains, Won Battles, and Made Us Laugh and Cry (a fantastic all-in-one resource that explains different types of poetry and then covers famous poets chronologically—with an audio CD), Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD), and the Poetry for Young People series (each book covers a specific poet with a short biography, a selection of poems, and illustrations). 

Spanish

We have La Clase Divertida and Rosetta Stone. Did we ever get to them? Nope.

Typing

I really want to have Levi working through a typing program regularly, but it is another thing we just haven’t made time for…

Physical Education

Levi and Luke (and Russ) swim on a local year-round swim team. Leif took swim lessons this spring and did very well. He’s so close to being able to swim for the team.

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I think that sums up the rest of our basic curricula and resources (though I’m certain I’ve forgotten a few things).

I have a couple more posts in the works with plans for this coming school year.

Any questions? Feel free to ask in the comments.

Discere Docendo

(To Learn Through Teaching)

Latin ~ One of the foundations of a Classical Education. Sounds scary, doesn't it? And yet it is one of my favorite subjects. Yes, I realize we are learning very elementary Latin, but we are LEARNING LATIN. Even Leif has memorized full prayers in Latin.

Prima Latina is a program designed for early elementary students, and very simple to teach, even for an adult with no Latin background. In just one year, we are covering:

• Recognizing English and Latin Verbs
• Invisible Verbs
• Nouns, Proper Nouns, & Pronouns
• Prepositions
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• To Be Verbs
• Present and Future Tenses
• First Conjugation
• First Declension
• 125 Latin Vocabulary Words
• Approx. 150 Latin Derivatives
• 25 Latin Sayings
• 4 Latin Prayers
• 4 Latin Hymns
• 12 Constellations
• Latin Numbers 1-10
  
  

Are you curious as to why students should learn Latin? Read here.

Or why teach Latin to elementary students? Read here.

I am enjoying learning the Latin phrases (mea culpa, quo vadis, stupor mundi), and I recently came across a very fun (and long) list of Latin quotes and phrases. I'll have to memorize some of these, such as:

Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium.

(Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence. ~Seneca)

Or possibly some of the more light-hearted translations:

Luke sum ipse patrem te.

( Luke, I am your father.)

OR

Aspice, officio fungeris sine spe honoris amplioris.

( Face it, you're stuck in a dead end job.)

See, Latin is fun.

Salvete!

Latin: I've spent the last two years eager to begin Prima Latina, but holding myself back, knowing that the next step (Latina Christiana) would be difficult to tackle if I started too early with Levi. I could hold out no longer, and Levi and I are thrilled to be learning Latin. (Prima Latina is recommended by The Well-Trained Mind for Latin study in the elementary years.)

Some of you are asking, 'Why Latin?' Here is your answer. 'Why study Latin in second grade?' Here is your answer. 'Don't young children find it difficult and boring?' Here is your answer. See how easy that was? {Grin}

Prima Latina makes learning Latin simple and engaging, even for the parent with no Latin experience (me). Though we've only completed three weeks, Levi, Luke, and I find it fascinating. Each weekly lesson contains a practical Latin phrase (One out of many, stand up, Where are you going?, hello/goodbye), a Latin lesson, five vocabulary words, English derivatives, and one line of a Latin prayer. The Student Book contains exercises for practice and review to complete during the week.

Prima Latina contains 25 lessons and 5 review lessons, combined to create a 30-week program. In the end, the student will have learned 125 Latin vocabulary words, numbers 1 through 10, basic constellations, 25 practical Latin phrases, four Latin prayers, seven parts of speech, and simple introductions to tenses, derivatives, conjugations and declensions. Not bad for second grade.

My sister was completely intimidated by the thought of teaching Latin when she was planning her homeschooling materials three years ago. It turned out that Latin was one of her and her children's favorite subjects that year, and they have continued on into Latina Christiana.

While we are on the subject of languages, I'll mention that I would really like to add in some Spanish practice this year. We may review previous lessons (from La Clase Divertida), listen to CDs or watch Spanish DVDs. What I would like to do, though, is have Levi begin using Rosetta Stone. I haven't settled on a course of action at present, and we may not have time to fit it in just yet.

(Any language updates will be posted with the Latin and Spanish label.)