Which language to start with and when?

It just depends. Does your religion use a particular language in liturgy? For ex: Eccl. Latin, Greek, or Hebrew?

Do you have a goal that your children read the New Testament in Greek?

Do you want them to have the benefit of knowing Spanish for future value in the marketplace?

How about sign language?

If no to any of these, then I’d say start them on classical Latin. Latin for Children can be done at your children’s ages, but maybe Song School Latin would be better, then L4C A.

(Also, Song School Greek and Spanish) http://classicalacademicpress.com/early-elementary/

1. When you get into L4C around 5th gr., then it helps them with their grammar/English skills.

2. It helps with their critical thinking skills.

3. It’s the basis for all the Romance languages, so if you or they want to pick up Spanish later, it’ll be easier.

If you start now with Latin, then you’ll still have time to start one or two others before graduation (including sign language)

HTH,

Rachel

I don’t think choosing Spanish now would make it harder for another language later. However, I just think that having Latin as a foundation makes more sense. Latin is the foundation for the Romance Languages; Spanish and French are “babies” of Latin, not the other way around.

Also, Latin is the language of science, law, logic, and historical Christian theology. So, that will probably affect at least one of your children for their future, but at least make studying those subjects a little easier at home. It will definitely help if you teach them logic in the middle/high school years.

Keep it mostly oral, hence the Sing Song Latin and the little workbks are simple. It uses a conversational approach, not a grammatical one, so I don’t think it would interfere with your struggling reader. It may help. I really can’t say one way or the other. You’ll have to watch for that yourself.

Singing the songs daily and the card games daily will keep reinforcing what they’ve learned, but not using the workbk daily (I think it’s weekly). I don’t think the DVD is necessary.

http://cathyduffyreviews.com/foreign-language/songschool-latin.htm

At this point, just make the singing and vocab recognition in Latin an adventure, if that makes sense. It’s a year long course, then into SSL 2, then L4C A if you like the way it’s coming along.

I’d say, with as young as they are, they could potentially learn two more languages by graduation if you/they want to (like Spanish and French, or Italian, whatever). Even Greek will be easier after learning Latin, from what I’ve been told.

Hopefully, too, you can learn with them and so give them someone with which to converse (though their little brains will learn faster than yours).

Rachel

Well, I’m not sure what Charlotte Mason would say, but I’ll share my experience.

My oldest daughter (now married, 21) got very interested in Latin when she was middle school age, so we did a couple of years of Latin at home and then she took two years of Latin online for high school credit. She loved it and excelled Her Latin teacher was of the opinion that ancient languages are best begun when a child has some higher-level thinking skills, generally around high school age. She felt that “living languages” could be pursured earlier, but that ancient languages involve a level of thinking and reason and require a serious time commitment that is most appropriate for teens or adults.

My middle daughter (16, graduating this summer) did a smattering of Prima Latina, two and a half years of Elementary Greek, then a year of high school Greek online. She had always been interested in ASL and we finally found a co-op that offered it on the high school level. She took two years there, then two semesters at the community college and would like to take more if possible. It has become her passion, and in the fall she’ll be spending two months in Uganda volunteering at a school for deaf children.

We live in an area where many languages are spoken, with almost 50% Spanish speakers, and I am an avid listener to world music and watcher of foreign movies, so my girls have heard lots of languages through these venues for their whole lives. I think the best thing we did was to allow the girls to pursue the languages that interested them most. The practical thing would have been to “force” them to learn Spanish (see 50% figure above) but neither girl was interested in pursuing it academically. So we didn’t. I plan to take the same approach with my almost-6yo.

I have not read much on what Charlotte Mason said about language study, but I would imagine she’d favor a full-immersion approach when possible.

So, I haven’t offered any answers to your questions, really, just wanted to share my experiences.

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