Benefits of Latin?

[shand21]

I'm new to homeschooling and looking around at the different methods/approaches. So far, I'm liking what I'm seeing about the classical approach. While I fully intend on having my kids learn a second language later on, I was wondering what the benefits of teaching Latin would be and, if it's something I wanted to take on, when would be the best time to start introducing it. Thanks for any help/insights you can give me! 

[cintinative]

https://classicalacademicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/why_latin.pdf

 

This is a decent discussion

[cintinative]

Here is another article: https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/why-study-latin-and-greek/

[jgrabuskie]

I thought this was the best reason for Latin. I was on the fence literally no love or hate to teach Latin. After reading this website's reasons for Latin I will begin in 4th grade.

 

http://www.heritagestudycenter.org/why-do-we-teach-latin.html 

[shand21]

I thought this was the best reason for Latin. I was on the fence literally no love or hate to teach Latin. After reading this website's reasons for Latin I will begin in 4th grade.

 

http://www.heritagestudycenter.org/why-do-we-teach-latin.html 

 

While all of the articles were helpful, this was definitely insightful. I'm gonna keep looking into it, but I'm pretty sure that Latin will be a part of our curriculum. Hopefully it'll help our kids get over the hurdles we faced in school.

[Guest]

Third or fourth grade is probably going to be easiest for your DC. That's when my oldest homeschooler started and it was amazing to see how her brain was just hard wired to learn. Her three years younger brother and I had to struggle to keep up with her. Eventually I had to separate the two kids for the sake of the younger's feelings.

 

My other kids have started younger, but that's just because it's fun and part of our family culture, sort of like how it would be mean to refuse to teach your young child how to play chess if that's what all the rest of the family did every time they got together and their speech was constantly peppered with allusions to chess.

 

dd27 says her Latin background helped her a lot with college placement exams and saved her quite a bit of money. It's the only weird homeschooly thing she has explicitly thanked me for yet. I'm sure there will be others as she heads into her 30s and beyond, but being thanked by a 20something isn't common and is definitely a valid benefit of Latin. ;)

Edited December 12, 2016 by Guest

[Guest]

Just chiming in as someone who took Latin in high school. (Many, many years ago as a public school kid.) I have never regretted taking it over another language. The benefits have been immeasurable. Vocabulary obviously, was probably the first and most obvious. But I also ended up in the medical profession and it was helpful there with terminology. I picked up French and Spanish without really trying for which I credit having the background in Latin. My oldest is taking it and I plan on having the other kids take it as well. Definitely a worth while expenditure of your time!

[Bluegoat]

Ultimaly the best reason to learn Latin is to read Latin texts.  There are other benefits, but IMO they are secondary and can often be accessed in other ways if that is preferred.  But you can only read Latin texts if you learn Latin.

 

I think it helps to think about what resources you will be able to bring to language study and how far you think you  will be able to get with your student.  If you have the chance to teach another language to fluency but that would be hard with Latin, I would pick fluency every time, whatever the particular advantages of Latin are.

 

I think that for most kids, it is best to introduce Latin around the time they begin learning more complex or abstract grammar.  So, maybe somewhere from grade four to seven.  That way it can be approached grammatically, which is a strength of Latin, and you can make some good progress that way.  (Though, if you are a Christian family that uses Latin liturgically you might do a little memory work in terms of music and prayer in earlier years.)

 

I would tend to introduce a modern language for younger kids, and make Latin a second language to study.

 

In my own family, we did Latin in the early years, as well as some French, however I switched more fully to French in grade 5 as my dd will likely be in a French immersion program in grade 7 and she needs to be at a similar level to the other kids.  I wouldn't start Latin that early again.