[Scorpion sting...(warning creepy content)]

A great resource for these things is your local Poison Control Center. They usually handle venomous bites/stings in addition to household poisons. A trained professional will be able to tell dh if he needs to go to the ER, or to just be a real Texan, and "Cowboy up". :-)

[Why do you teach Latin?]

I have realized that I need to decide why I am teaching Latin. Is it to learn grammar and vocabulary or to actually be able to really speak and understand Latin. I am leaning towards the first reason since it is a "dead" language (although we are Catholic so it is used at mass sometimes). I would love to hear why YOU teach Latin!

 

First off, Latin is NOT a dead language. :-)

 

Second, I must commend you on picking goals before starting a program. So often, we start up some curriculum or project, without really understanding what the end goals are. Obviously, this makes it really hard to assess how we are doing towards those goals.

 

Now, there are a lot of valid reasons for learning Latin. First, it has been shown that students who student Latin have much higher SAT scores than those who do not. (post hoc ergo propter hoc, and all that) However, this is not a good reason to study Latin unto itself. If you just want improved standardized test scores, it is more time-effective to just focus on test prep. (Not nearly so interesting, but nonetheless more effective)

 

Also, Latin scholars tend to have "better" (or more) vocabulary than those who do not study Latin. However, if you just want to improve your vocabulary, memorizing word lists is probably the best way to do that. (Again, not nearly as fun as learning Latin, IMHO). Moreover, many people (including those who make standardized tests) confuse large vocabularies with better intelligence or better writing ability. Believe you me, there is nothing so tedious as a dull writer with a flair for throwing around obtuse words.

 

Studying Latin will improve your knowledge of grammar in the abstract, and specifically English grammar. But if that is your only goal, again, it is just better to study English grammar directly.

 

What Latin alone will do is let you read the words of the ancients directly, and understand them in ways that reading in translation won't. The Roman republic was hugely influential on the founders of the United States, and it is difficult to fully understand the founders without understanding the Romans. Almost every English writer of significance before, say, 1900 was well versed in Latin, and enormously influenced by republican through medieval Latin literature.

 

Perhaps even more importantly, someone who studies classical civilizations realizes that there are things the ancients considers moral and unchangeable, like slavery, were neither. Other facets of society, such as love of family are unchangeable to this day. I hope that my kids can understand this and reflect upon modern life in the same way.

[Left Handed --- Consider switching to right for writing?]

Four of the last five Presidents of the United States have been left-handed, so, it would appear growing up left-handed can't be too debilitating..

 

True anecdote: I was attending a science fair with my six year old daughter. She was taking notes about something, and out of the blue, a woman behind me remarked that my child had remarkably clear handwriting, and guessed that she was in second grade. I said that she was in kindergarten, and she replied that she was a public school teacher, and never had seen anyone her age with such good handwriting. I didn't have the heart to point out that my child was left-handed.

[Alternatives to using the Library?]

. However when I looked up a lot of the books to see if our library carries them I was sadly disappointed to find out they have barely any of them. Has anyone else here had the same problem with your library?

 

There have been many great replies already, I would add that you try recommending new titles for your library to buy. While the library probably won't buy bunches of new books solely on your recommendation, I've had good luck with my public library buying a handful books that I've recommended. There's even an on-line form on my library's website just for this. I figure that this helps not just me, but some other families down the road, too.