Revisiting First Form Latin from Memoria Press {Crew Review}

Way back on my 2nd year on the crew I reviewed First Form Latin from Memoria Press. I was so impressed that I purchased two additional student work books so my three "big" girls could study Latin together.

Boobear wanted to revisit Latin. She asked me if we could get a new student workbook so she could go through the program again. Her timing was perfect. Memoria Press generously included a new student workbook in my Crew Leader package. We already had the rest of the set and only needed the Student Book.

Memoria Press recommends First Form Latin for grades 4-9. I think this age range works well if the younger students have completed Prima Latina or Latina Christiana. I believe this to be an excellent introduction to Latin for students in 6th grade and older including adults.

The Complete Set of materials includes:

Student Text -- 9 x 7.5 inches. Each of the 34 lessons are are concisely presented on a two page spread. 120 pages. Includes 7 Appendices which cover things like Prayers, Latin Sayings, Grammar and more!
Student Workbook - Full Size! There are between 4 and 6 worksheets per lesson. It is recommended to do every workbook exercise. The Student book states "it's almost impossible to practice Latin too much." Student Workbook includes Grammar Questions Appendix with instructions for Rapid-Fire Review
Teacher Manual -- Full size! The Lesson plans have the student text inset. The TM also includes teaching guidelines. Like the Student Text the Teacher Manual includes several appendices.
Quizzes & Tests booklet -- Exactly what it says! Includes Quiz for every lesson and Unit Tests. These are perforated for ease of tearing sheets out. I love that feature!
Teacher Key --- This includes answers to the workbook sheets, quizzes and unit tests!
Pronunciation CD -- This includes all the vocabulary and grammar forms for each lesson. Very helpful when trying to do recitation!
Flashcards -- When I received mine originally they were in sheets. These are very helpful for drilling!
DVDs -- In this 3 DVD set, instructor Glen Moore walks you through each lesson. I believe that the DVD was the only reason we were successful the first time. Boobear did re-watch lessons to refresh her memory.

For how to use this more traditionally you can read my previous review of First Form Latin. Be sure to also check out the other reviews currently being linked to the Homeschool Review Crew Blog.

I asked BooBear to share her experience revisiting First Form Latin. Here is what she had to say:

When I was in high school, I did the First Form Latin program. I went through the course with my younger sisters at the same time and we would watch the lessons together and sometimes work on worksheets together or on our own. We would also drill vocabulary together. It was a wonderful bonding experience to study a foreign language together and helpful to have a study partner. When I went to college, I wanted to take more Latin as my foreign language in college, however, the way the courses were structured when I needed to take my language classes the 100 level Latin classes were not being offered. Instead I took German, but I found my Latin background extremely helpful. The way German’s conjugate verbs and their grammatical gender is similar to how Latin is. There were a lot of differences but understanding German grammar was much easier because I had studied Latin.

Now that I have graduated from college I have wanted to get back into Latin, however, I took Latin close to 6 years ago and I need to refresh my memory. So, I am reworking through First form Latin. I have been watching the lessons which are all short and easy to get through. Because I am working full time now, I have less time than I did in highschool to study Latin. The way first form is structured that makes it easy to work through a lesson when I can. One of the things that I really appreciate that has changed since the last time I took the course is the student workbook. It is so much nicer to have it be spiral bound. The flat binding was very irritating to work with because it didn’t lay flat and it felt like you had to beat the binding into submission in order to get it to work with you. The spiral binding is great to use at my desk in my bedroom. I can move between that and checking any grammar or vocabulary in the student text without worrying about the student workbook trying to close on me. It is also convenient to take outside and work on Latin in the sun. Or in the case of my often messy desk, I have limited space and being able to have it lay flat and not be as spread out. The upgrade to spiral binding is best thing about this.

Completed Workbook Page from Lesson 3 -First Form Latin

Completed Worksheet from Lesson 4 -First Form Latin

Unlike BooBear, Turtlegirl moved on to Second Form Latin while still in high school. She too found that studying other foreign languages were easier because of her Latin Studies. Last summer when she got home from college, Turtlegirl began working through Third Form Latin. I wrote about her experience using Third Form Latin. She plans to continue on to Fourth Form Latin.

Because there are so many benefits to studying Latin, I encourage other homeschooling families to study Latin. I recommend using the materials from Memoria Press.

In addition to offering Latin, Memoria Press also has a brand new Music Appreciation I course and brand new spelling programs: Traditional Spelling I and Traditional Spelling II. Watch my blog for how I am using Traditional Spelling I with Supergirl but in the meantime visit the Homeschool Review Crew to read reviews of the different Music, Latin, and Spelling programs from Memoria Press.