Email Latindr3@comcast.net for a list of corrections for LiCT.

One that I enjoyed as an adult and had my older teens read is "Witness" by Whitaker Chambers. It is his autobiography and tells why he was a Communist, what happened to him that made him realize there IS a God, and how he became a Christian. Such a great, but long, book!

My children are grown now, but yes, I chose the subjects they needed to learn. They all were accepted and even given scholarships to great colleges (two, Naval Academy), and I believe it was because I knew what they needed to study. The good news is that later on, they will ask you for their Latin books as a review, and they will tell you they are glad you made them do it! "Do not grow weary in doing good!"

Besides Alpha Phonics, you might want to try McGuffey's Readers. We taught several of our children how to read using the Primer book. My daughter has taught her four year old to read well with it. At the top of each page it lists the sounds of the letters and new words to learn. You help your child sound those out and then you can teach. We did page 1 on day one.. pages 1 and 2 on day two... pages 1,2, and 3 on day three... pages 1, 2, 3, and 4, on day four. Pages 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on day five.... They feel encouraged that they can easily read the ones they have already done... By day six, we drop off page 1, so each day that we do reading (maybe 3 times a week), we have dropped off one page and added one, so the total number of pages is only 5 a day. About $8 a year. Only drawback are some dated words like Nag for horse. But it is not a problem for the early reader. My own children are grown.. military officers, astrophysicist, and homeschooling parents too. Just words from a grandma, retired homeschooler.

One of the mothers of grown children recently advised me that a child who is dyslexic or has trouble learning should definitely learn from a parts to whole method. She has 35 years' teaching experience and she told me that adults learn better with whole to part, but children learn best, generally, when they learn on a "need to know" basis, i.e., parts to whole. Just our opinion. From Mary, mother of 11 grown children.

Yes, absolutely let him use the charts. The only one they have trouble remembering is 8 X 7. Just drill him on that one frequently. (From a mother of grown children who majored in math in college...)

My own twin sons only listed Latin as their foreign language when they applied to the US Naval Academy in 1997. They were accepted and admitted to the academy. I think that most are accepting it now.

Actually there are two types of pronunciation.... the way you learned with music (church Latin) and the classical method (Germanic... like Wheelock's). If you are just concerned about pronouncing phrases, most of them are pronounced in the church Latin way. veni vidi vici...........VAY knee... VEE dee.........VEE chee. The classical would say: WAY knee... WEE dee... WEE kee. My Latin professor, Dr. DiPippo (yes, Italian), said that he could not imagine Caesar using the classical one when he returned in triumph.

My favorite, a historical novel, is A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell. She did 11 years of research, some in the Vatican library, before writing this. It gives you a love for Cicero, as a republican who wanted to preserve the Roman republic. You learn his personality and that of Caesar too. I have my advanced Latin classes read this before beginning to translate some of Cicero's work. I wrote questions to go with every 100 pages, to make sure they understand the important themes presented in each part of the book. Hope this helps! Mary@latintrivium.com.

Why not do half of each exercise? And do some orally. Or have her type. We who write textbooks have to do some "overkill" to help those who have trouble learning something, but if she understands, don't overwork her. Honestly, when I teach Latin, if they get it, we don't do the English to Latin exercises after awhile. Same with some other subjects. Listen to her and find out if she gets it. Have her explain it to YOU instead of doing all the textbook.

More and more colleges rely on the SAT more than the ACT. SAT determines the ability of the student to think and to figure out things, whereas ACT just tells what they have learned.

How about Tapestry of Grace? That seems like a well planned program for the trivium.

We did Computer Keyboarding first, along with Golf. Then, moved on to slightly harder subjects, Japanese Literature and English Composition (because I knew the teacher)... Next semester it was full blown... US History, Logic, and Latin. The boys started at age 15, but my daughter was only 14. She took her time and graduated from the two year college the day after she graduated from our homeschool co-op school. I do think the Keyboarding is a great beginning class... all the other classes were easier because they could type so fast... one went to 120 wpm. (I think he wrote the the the the over and over though!)

Our twin sons graduated at 17, and then, to escape mom's rules (that's a joke, sort of), they joined the Marines. They were little.. only weighing about 135 lb. each. But they seemed strong and mature. They did okay, but David did keep writing to tell me to pray for him as his comedy was not appreciated by the DI's. Doug sailed through. By the time they were 19, they decided to try out for the Naval Academy, and we were surprised to learn that Prior Enlisted Marines have an excellent chance of getting in. The net result is that they learned so much more than I could have taught them. They are both officers now, age 31, and are the joy of my life. So, I say, if they are boys, and want to "jump off the high diving board", then you have to let them go with blessings. Again, though, "it all depends."

I am trying to figure out what TO charge this summer for a 3 morning a week Latin class.... A school is paying me $200 a week for four girls, but I don't think I can honestly charge a homeschool mom $50 a week to add her one daughter. Do any of you Latin teachers have an idea of a good price?

I like his course... he teaches the students to THINK, rather than just to repeat information. He likes them to unlock their creativity, and express their thoughts with originality.

Our four youngest homeschooled kids used Saxon all the way through. They did not like it as much as I did, but the end result is that the boys got scholarships to USNA (Annapolis), and the 2 girls majored in astrophysics and chemistry. I wrote to Saxon once the boys got their appointments (this was 1996) and the president sent me a personal thank you letter as well as a full set of high school math books. I feel that they DID receive a great math education. Just my personal story.;)

Lisa, I didn't get it. Would you try emailing me at mharrin11@aol.com? Thank you.

Our homeschooled sons went to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, probably among the first to go, and they really enjoyed the structure and the great life there. I wrote an article which was published in Homeschooling Today magazine, about getting your son into an academy. If you'd like to read it, you can find it on our website at http://www.latintrivium.com... On the home page, scroll down to "Published Article by Mary Harrington" and you may enjoy reading of their experiences. Today, one is a Marine officer in San Diego, and the other one is a Navy pilot in New York. The military has been good for them, although I did worry when they were deployed to Iraq.

I teach Latin online myself, and I send out the assignments in Word. They can either just write the answers in a new document, or write them after the sentences they are to translate. Then I highlight the mistakes in yellow, and write the correct answer in red. If I want to make a comment, to add more information, I put that in blue so they know it is not wrong. Most teachers are flexible.

Our kids used Saxon all the way through and scored very high grades on their SAT tests. I personally liked it because I had forgotten all of my own high school math and learned it again with them, even to the point of later on being a high school math teacher. The kids did not like the repetition but I loved the course, and the results were just what we had hoped for.

Our sons went to the Naval Academy right down the street from St. Johns. They said the midshipmen laughed at the students at St. Johns because they spent all their time reading the Great Books and did not learn anything of value in seeking a career after college. My son, always the joker so I am not sure if this is gossip or true, said that they did not receive grades: they just passed their classes. Of course, the contrast was tremendous. One time my son got an 89.8% and his teacher at the Academy would not bump him up to a 90% for an A. Which was fine with us. Besides the possible exaggeration from my son, you might want to check things out to see if they do give real grades, and if they offer anything of value in career building.

A friend of mine had a great suggestion. She (and then I) read aloud to our son for about 30 minutes a day from a good book. We did this until he was thoroughly "into" the book, and then we were "too busy" to read one day. We gradually weaned our children from us having to read it all to him. We did this with about 4 books, and by that time, he had become interested in good books. OR, and I had no objection to this. Assign it and have him do a summary of the plot and character study of the main characters. Under penalty.

The Naval Academy at Annapolis accepted my sons' 3 years of Latin as their only foreign language.

My homeschooled daughter got her Bachelor's degree in physics, minoring in astronomy. She got a job working for a private company who deals with noise abatement study. Her job actually is quite a bit of computer programming.