Do What You’re Doing!
Do What You’re Doing! “Age Quod Agis” (i.e. be present, keep your focus) Here is a quote from Thomas à Kempis…three words of Latin to lift your hearts! I created this tiny Latin word study to post on our homeschool … Continued
Learn Like an Actor!
Familia Romana is an amazing book, plunging the reader into actually being able to read Latin, but it does have one problem: each chapter is so rich with words and concepts that it can be hard to fully digest before … Continued
“Soror Foeda, Soror Formosa”
“The Ugly Sister and the Beautiful Sister” Here I try a little storytelling in Latin, telling bits of the traditional tale of “Tatterhood.”
Latin Class Prompt Cards
Our Latin coaches asked for some “transition” phrases and other conversational Latin to use in class, so I made a set of prompt cards which we printed and put on binder rings. Printable Prompt Cards
Shakespeare’s Henry V (a Latin Reader)
This is the third in a series of illustrate-it-yourself Latin readers that I created for our homeschool community, Sursum Corda. The first was The Geography of Narnia; the second was The Dogs of Sursum Corda (featuring community input describing their … Continued
Annuntiatio: A Latin Tiered Reading
A “tiered reading” takes an excerpt of real literature, makes progressively easier versions of it, and lets students walk through from a gentle conversation introducing a few of the words, to a version in simple language, to a slightly more … Continued
Super-Hopers
I created this tiny Latin word study to post on our homeschool community’s dedicated social media platform. I like this word I found in the Latin translation of the Psalms! (“super” as a prefix means pretty much the same as … Continued
Storytelling in Latin with Social Media Collaboration
Here is a little story I made up…with some help from my friends! I posted several “polls” on our homeschool community’s dedicated social media platform, asking what characters to use, where they should be, and what they were seeking. Here … Continued
“O Mira Gratia” (Amazing Grace Sung in Latin)
Every two months, our Sursum Corda homeschool community learns a song, a scripture verse, and a proverb in Latin. The first song for the 2020 school year was this Latin translation of “Amazing Grace.” My sister, Lindsay Feldmeth Westra, graciously … Continued
“I Feel Like a Kid Again!” Learning Languages with Your Child
It is not easy to work on a foreign language with a child. When I work on literature or history, I have a sense of easiness. Even if I have never read the particular book or studied the subject at … Continued
The Geography of Narnia (a Latin Reader)
This is the first in a series of illustrate-it-yourself Latin readers that I created for our homeschool community, Sursum Corda. It uses mostly words from chapter one of our textbook (Familia Romana), along with familiar proper nouns. Apart from proper … Continued
Antiphona (Call-and-Responses) for Latin
There’s nothing like a 30-second snippet of literature that feels like an inside joke! The teacher calls out a phrase, and the students respond in these “antiphona.” Most of these we used in upper school Latin class last year, but … Continued
Latin Vision Board & A Whirlwind Tour of Latin Literature
This “vision board” collection of images was created for students to paste in the front of their Latin journals, to inspire them with thoughts of all the great works they will someday read. On the first day of classes, they … Continued
Colloquia (Skits for learning Latin)
In Renaissance times, students often memorized colloquia (dialogues, like skits) as a way to learn Latin. I have been reading the Colloquia of Erasmus and Corderius recently. Here I try my hand at a few modern versions: one between students … Continued
Grammar and Wonder
This article about the “wonder” in learning Latin first appeared on the website of the Sursum Corda homeschool community. What do you think of, when you hear the word “grammar”? As a child, I picked up the attitude from adults … Continued
“Phrases & Praises, Quarantine Edition”
A few months after our first Phrases & Praises sheet, designed to be posted on a family fridge or wall, I asked my students to come up with some new phrases that would be useful in the strange times we … Continued
“Beyond Bene”
My Latin students were posting on our dedicated social media platform, and responding to one another’s work…but one student complained that everyone was just saying “bene” (‘good,’ lit. ‘well’) all the time. So I created this handout of all kinds … Continued
Latin Grammar from 30,000 Feet
This very quick overview of Latin grammar was designed to orient a complete beginner–as if she were seeing the territory from an airplane! This video was part of the online Latin course for mothers/teachers in the Sursum Corda homeschool community.
Charlotte Mason on Latin
What did Charlotte Mason–beloved 19th-century educationalist–actually say about Latin? Here are a few interesting quotes in a handout I made to accompany my colleague Sami Brandon’s talk in the online Latin course for mothers/teachers in the Sursum Corda community.
The Road to Fluent Latin Reading
What is “fluency,” really, and how is it achieved? This video is the follow up to An Audacious Goal: WHY Study Latin. Both appeared in an online course I developed for mothers/teachers in the Sursum Corda homeschool community.
An Audacious Goal: WHY learn Latin?
Learn Latin in order to read living books—from a long and beautiful tradition—in their original language. This video was part of an online course I created for mothers/teachers at our Sursum Corda homeschool community. Here is a Reflection Worksheet, to … Continued
Phrases & Praises for Latin at Home
Printable sheets for families to put on the fridge and use at home! These first appeared (with pronunciation guides in Ecclesiastical or Classical Latin) for our Sursum Corda homeschool community on January 13, 2020.