Latin: Wheelock's and Latin Primer

Latin has been our downfall.  I think the problem for our family is Latin gets pushed to the side.  After working on math, religion, science, history, writing, reading, grammar, spelling, music and art we are a bit tired and so Latin gets forgotten and undone.  Last year I picked new books for both of my older children and I think we have found something that works for our family.

My 4th grader does Latin Primer by Martha Wilson.  I believe this is a great starter Latin for the younger kids, but I am not a fan of the way the book is set up: the lessons are a bit disjointed.  The book is set up with list words grouped together at the beginning of the book and then lessons.  This makes it a bit frustrating for the self teaching student as they do not know what list words go with what lessons.  Also, the student book does not let the child know when a quiz or test should be taken as this is set up in the teacher's book.  Directions for both student and parent could be better, but I must add we are using the third edition and maybe the newer 4th edition has taken care of some of these issues.  Overall, though, I am happy with how Latin is presented and the level of difficulty for a student in the early elementary years.

My oldest has been using Wheelock's Latin and loves it.  It is quite technical and the level of difficulty is intense, but well worth the time put into it.  This Latin curriculum is not for those who want something that takes little time or effort as I believe a student should spend at least a half hour a day on the textbook and workbook and it still may take 2+ years to complete.  One thing I love, being frugal, is the free answer key. You must request permission from the publisher and I have supplied the link:  Request for Wheelock's Latin Answer Key.  Every 60 days you must re-load it onto your computer, but this is minor when you think how much money you save by not having to buy the instructor's manual.  One more thing, I would suggest to those considering using Wheelock's to wait until your child can diagram sentences.  This makes it much easier to understand Latin grammar.


We are only in week 10 of school, but I must say Latin is going much more smoothly for us since we began using Latin Primer and Wheelock's Latin.