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Classical Katharine

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  1. . . . one in which the spelling of a word changes to show its grammatical function. Usually the spelling change occurs in the word's ending, but not always. Heavily inflected languages (in which these form or spelling changes are extensive and affect nouns as well as verbs) include Latin, Greek, and Russian. English is not heavily inflected; its noun and pronoun system is almost without inflection and its verb system is somewhat inflected. In English, for example, you discern whether a noun is the subject or the direct object by word order, context, word meaning etc. It's still "girl" or "dog" or whatever, in either grammatical role. But in Latin, you discern the noun's grammatical role by the noun's ending, and word order is far more flexible as a result. So the Latin word "puella" (girl) can be used as the subject of a sentence, but when the same word is the direct object, it receives a different ending, and you see "puellam" in the sentence instead. English has the remnants of inflection in the pronouns "he" and "him," "she" and "her," etc.--where one form is correct for the subject of the sentence, and another for the direct or indirect object--but we're all so used to that that we don't notice what's going on!
  2. You can achieve some of the benefits of foreign language study even if you don't go all the way to fluency, but different benefits will be achieved at different times depending on what type of program you are using. If you begin language study with a program that teaches lots of paradigms and forms as a foundation for later translation mastery, and then you don't continue with the language--you never get to the translation that all those forms were a preparation for--you won't get much from it. This type of program isn't intended to be discontinued, and doesn't "flower" unless you keep at it. If the program covers derivatives too, you'll at least have awakened an interest in the relationship between languages and you will have equipped your children with some tools for decoding English words. If you think you might only do a few years of an inflected language, you'll get more out of a program that puts the forms to work in grammatically interesting ways sooner rather than later. That way if you drop the language you've at least encountered grammar and syntax in a deeper way, and that is something that will confer value even if you drop the language after a few years, or go on to a different language for variety. Studying any inflected language has the potential to help you with your English grammar, but programs differ as to whether they explain all the English grammar you need to know along the way, or instead assume some knowledge of English grammar from elsewhere. Often it helps to study English grammar along with Latin grammar. Looking forward to reading what others think!
  3. I can't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to start Latin Alive without finishing Primer C. I do have a suggestion on vocabulary and forms, though. I'm not a Latin Primer user, but I have taught Latin to children. I've found it's extremely helpful to give a vocabulary quiz no later than midway through teaching a chapter. That way the vocabulary is under the belt before the child works on translation--and a lot more benefit is achieved from translating if it isn't an exercise in flipping back to the vocabulary lists. I like to test vocabulary in both "directions"--into and out of Latin. And testing in writing is helpful if student work is going to be written. When I was taking languages (French, Latin, Russian) I always used to study my vocabulary by writing it out and saying it. That way I was saying, seeing, feeling, and hearing. After doing it that way I then could test myself just in writing and see that the knowledge had carried over. This way the learning is multi-sensory but the written recall is there, too. Similarly with paradigms--repetition in writing is extremely helpful if students are going to doing written work. Learning orally is helpful too, but a quick quiz in writing on a given paradigm is very helpful as well. I think it's hard for some students to recall and use the correct form in written work if they haven't mastered the core components (vocabulary and forms) in written form. If something still just doesn't seem to be sticking, sometimes the problem is that a given child would benefit from doing more sentences for each grammar concept. If it sounds fun to you to supply that--go for it!
  4. Strawberry Queen, I private messaged you with some information about GLA grammar lessons and eight-year-old beginners.
  5. Mo2, since you are thinking ahead, you got answers (including from me) that have as much to do with what to do in high school as with what to do now. I don't know if a question or thread can be cross-posted after the fact, but I think a lot of high school board users would probably enjoy reading this one.
  6. I agree that it's a predicate adjective in this context. The sentence would need to say what the children had been excited by in order for "excited" to be playing a different role. As one poster said, "excite" is transitive, so you often see it in sentences like this one: "bright lights and happy music excite children." But if you instead had a sentence that said "the nerve endings were excited by electrical impulses," or "the children were excited from their naps by a loud bang," then "were" would be a helping verb (in a passive construction). This type of passive verb construction is just the inversion of the transitive verb-direct object construction. (The direct object in "electrical impulses excite nerve endings" becomes the subject of a passive verb in "nerve endings are excited by electrical impulses.")
  7. Know what you believe, but become familiar with what others think and why they think it--both contemporary and older thinkers. Teach your children that "he who trusts in his own heart is a fool"--everyone has biases, and everyone's thinking often veers away from what is true and rational, because we are finite and perverse. Teach them that this includes every one of us even if we have embraced a source of wisdom or revelation we believe to be reliable and true. It may well be reliable and true. The problem lies with us. I'm not suggesting that nothing is true and we can know nothing, just that we should teach children to carefully distinguish between things where we can be certain and things where we can't be. But the universality of biases does mean we should take ourselves with an especially large grain of salt. Why do certain views appeal to me, in particular? Not necessarily because of a fully rational or objective analysis. In some cases, it's because of my own weaknesses, limitations, or deviant desires. We should know that about ourselves, and children can start to learn it early. ("Why do you believe all children your age should be allowed to wear X? Because you want to wear X. Why do you want to wear X? Because your friend has X? Because your favorite store carries X? Does your friend having/the store carrying X really, actually, necessarily mean all children your age should have X? Should those facts really make you want X? Where do we go to understand what we should and shouldn't wear? What we should and shouldn't want?") I have to remind myself that self is a very capable lawyer, in children as well as in adults! At the same time teach them about what some call "common grace." Someone "of my religion" is not always right, because of remaining ignorance or sin, and someone from the other guy's religion, or no religion, is not always wrong, because of "common grace." (There should be a better term for this, but I'll use this one.) This affects positions and thinking as well as it does more obviously ethical issues. (Your children might be too young for the term, but you can always model the point of view.) Likewise, someone from my party is not always right. Etc. Teach your children what "simplistic" means. Help them understand that many problems are complex and many discussions are complex. We like to reduce things to very simple terms because that makes life simple for us, but it isn't always accurate. Begin with what's simple and true and certain when children are young, but move on to talking about harder problems that aren't so easily reduced or summarized. (Simple: You shall not murder. Harder: How much fluid should you give to someone dying of stomach cancer who is thirsty but who will vomit up what he drinks if he is given enough to slake his thirst, and whose stomach may be torn by vomiting? [Real life example, fresh on my mind.]) Once they're old enough, teach them what a "straw man" is, and that it isn't playing fair to set one up and then destroy it. Teach them to look for motives and agendas. (Advertising is an ever-ripe field, but motives and agenda affect curricula and scholarship too!) Eventually have them read competing views on a given topic. "He that comes first seems just, but his neighbor comes and searches him out" applies not just to judicial proceedings, but to discussions. We all have a tendency to find the first fellow plausible, but the second fellow may have noticed things about the first fellow's arguments that we did not. Also, "in a multitude of counselors there is safety." Once they are teenagers, have them read not just people you think you'll agree with, but people you know you won't agree with--only do it with them. And talk about it. (Primary sources are important, but young people are as likely to misinterpret them as anyone else is, so competing secondary sources can be useful, too.) I second all the posters who said talk, talk, talk. And listen, too, especially as your children get older. By listening you'll be better able to tailor wisdom to their needs. Read books and talk about them, watch movies and analyze them. (What effect did the work produce on me, and why? How did the author/producer do that?) And study logic with them--deductive and inductive. You asked a great question!
  8. Other grain flours like corn starch or white rice flour should work as well. You could mix a paste that looks like the wheat paste (same runniness) and do a test by gluing together some newspaper and letting it dry. If it dries hard, it should work for your project. (White rice flour can be obtained at a health food store in case your children are also allergic to corn. I don't think brown rice flour would be as good--it's gritty.)
  9. Hi, Beth. Thanks for that dotted line tip. I didn't know that one. It's quick and easy. I see you've got a font now you can use instead of doing this manually, but for others I'll add this: If a fine (not chunky) dotted line is needed, you can do this in Word using the tab leader feature, though it has a few quirks. Go to Format, choose Tab, type the number of inches which represents the text area of your page (say, 6 if your document margins are set to 1.25) in the box, then choose left alignment, and choose one of the dotted leader styles. Then in your document you just hit Tab once with your cursor at the start of a line and it will make a dotted line right across. Happy worksheet making!
  10. It's easy to make your own lined page in Word with sentences followed by blank lines, using a few shortcuts. You can then save the initial page and use it as a basis for later pages, without having to resort to templates. Here's how: To make your initial Word document, type a sentence laid out as desired, then where you want lines to appear, hold down the Ctrl key (on a PC) at the same time as the U key (that's the shortcut to turn on underlining), then let go of those and hold the Tab key. It will zoom across the page making a line for you as long as you hold down Tab. (Or just hit Tab repeatedly.) You can put space between underline lines using Enter, to make them far enough apart for child's handwriting. To turn off the underlining, hit Ctrl U again and you'll be back to normal text entry. I find this method quick and easy for creating worksheets. If you think you'll need the same pages in the future, you can make a reusable set: just save the first page with its name, then do a Save As, give the document a new name, and replace the sentences. Hope this helps!
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