The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: Song School Latin- Why Learn Latin??
Unlock the secrets of the ancient world and enrich your homeschooling journey with our special guest, Katie Berry. Join us as Katie brings her unique insights into the fascinating realm of Latin education through the Song School Latin curriculum. Why has Latin stood the test of time, and how can this ancient language enhance modern education? Discover the profound impact of Latin on the Romance languages and its significance in decoding complex scientific terms. Learn how a classical approach to homeschooling can enhance your child's understanding of language and grammar, making subjects like English and science more approachable and meaningful.
Song School Latin
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Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey.
Speaker 1:Welcome, and joining us again today is Katie Berry. She's going to talk to us about Song School Latin. Katie, thank you again for being here. Yeah, it's always a pleasure. Okay, so I've heard people talk about learning Latin and they're always usually the really smart people. But when you think about it like, that was our original, isn't that how people originally communicated?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was obviously the Roman language and it's actually the basis of all of the romantic languages. All the romantic languages came from Latin.
Speaker 1:And so the Bible would have two, then right.
Speaker 2:I think the Bible was originally written in Hebrew.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, all right, and then it was went into Latin, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that there's Greek and Latin translations of the.
Speaker 1:Bible. Okay. So that's interesting too, because words change meaning over time. So it's like learning the original meaning can kind of you kind of string along this way to where we are today and like, oh, that's not really the way that word was intended to be used, but yet that's how we use it today. So, like I've noticed, when I you know I'm trying to like learn stuff about the Bible, it's you know, they have a word that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing. Today I guess I'd have to learn Hebrew to really dive into that. No, I'm just like maybe it was Latin first.
Speaker 2:I guess I'd have to learn Hebrew to really dive into that. Maybe it was Latin first, I don't know. Honestly, that makes me that I feel ashamed that I don't know that.
Speaker 1:But I know. I think you're right. Hebrew sounds right. When, like what year was Latin created? Even Do you know that I can ask chat?
Speaker 2:Hold on.
Speaker 1:I'll ask chat we're getting to be friends because he hasn't figured out that I'm, like you know, trying to plot against the government or anything. So the 6th century BCE, oh, okay, latin originated around the 6th century BCE, so that was a long time ago. Yeah, by the time the Roman Republic, latin was becoming more standardized around the 6th century BCE, so that was a long time ago, yeah. By the time, the Roman Republic, latin was becoming more standardized. All right, so what does this look like? What ages do you do Latin with?
Speaker 2:Well, let me just say that typically in home education you're going to mostly see the classical home educators teaching their kids Latin. It is very much a classical approach subject and those most people choose to teach their kids Latin for a couple reasons. One is because it is the basis of all the romantic languages. It also a lot of our science words have a Latin root. A lot of our science words have a Latin root. A lot of our English words have Latin roots and prefixes that come from Latin, and if you study Latin it helps you understand English grammar actually in a whole different way, and English grammar becomes much easier after you study Latin, which is kind of odd, but it's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you always hear people saying like oh, that's the Latin word for that's. Oh, yes, in Latin, that what you know, you really don't hear like them being like well, that's the French word for I mean sometimes. But no, it's like Latin is the origination of a lot of it. So, yeah, and how things just kind of change over time, all right, so how many hours a day, how many days a week, how many years do you do this?
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, so classical academia presses the company that puts out song school Latin and they have two, two levels. They have song school Latin one, song song school Latin two, um, and typically this is for the kindergarten through third grade age range and then they have Latin for children in more of the middle school ages and then I think it's Latin Alive for high school. So I think maybe Song School, maybe it's K-5. I'd have to go back and look. But Song School Latin typically had about 30, I think it had 30 lessons in each book and just however many days a week you want to do it, you could do that many.
Speaker 2:I got a whole package so mine came with, like um, a DVD too, and so like we would read the, I would read the lesson, then the next day we would practice the vocabulary and I we would sing the songs, because it's song school, there's songs that you sing with it, and every day we would do the songs and then one day a week we would do the video. So I kind of did like a little piece every day, um, and then at the time when I was using it, I had older daughters in public school and so we would listen to the songs in the car when I was driving them to school in the morning, my older two into school, um, and the songs stick with you. I still there's this one song that's quit us to imprendiment, which is what? Tell me what your name is, and I still sing that song sometimes, like quit us to imprendiment, like I just remember the songs because like the songs just stick in your head.
Speaker 1:So anyway, does anyone speak Latin as like their primary language in any kind no, it's a dead.
Speaker 2:It's a dead language.
Speaker 1:Wow, are there many dead languages.
Speaker 2:Um, I, I mean, there's like I don't know, I didn't know. Latin's a dead language. Nobody speaks it anymore. I don't know. They also have song school Greek, which I'm like Greek. I think people in Greece still speak Greek, so I don't know if that classifies as a dead language.
Speaker 1:I honestly don't know, yeah, that's so interesting. Okay, so you did it for just a little bit. They learn in song, so the kids kind of pick it up fairly easily. So is there a lot of writing with it or you're really just learning by music?
Speaker 2:there's a little workbook that they can do um, where I ask them to um like copy sentences or write words, or they'll. They'll say, like what's the latin word for brother? And they have to actually write the word, the latin word for brother. But it's very developmentally appropriate. There's not a lot of writing, so, but there is a workbook where they actually do a little bit of work in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, all right, and you already said the um age range that it goes from and how it fits into there. That's cool and I would imagine this is something cool to put on your resume as you're looking at colleges or jobs. You know, you know latin.
Speaker 2:I don't know yeah I may be, spanish is more yeah well, it's funny because, um, I've often heard that when you feel like you know enough about english grammar, then you go on and study latin, because you learn more about english grammar by learning latin. So it's almost very related to our english grammar, um which I find interesting. Um, but yeah, I, uh, my, so we use song school latin and then, as my son got older, we also use latin for children, which is the higher level, and that one, um, they stop learning through song, they learn through chants, so they do latin chants. Um, in the latin for children.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, is that like how they did it in their churches, or something?
Speaker 2:no, so that's actually a good point. When you're choosing latin, you can choose um. Gosh, I'm not going to remember the two names. You can choose ecclesiastical or I can't remember what the other name is.
Speaker 1:So basically you can choose, like church latin, or you can choose the other latin, um oh yes, because I know like my mother-in-law will go to the latin mass at church and she's roman catholic yeah, so they, you can choose it's not dead. The language isn't dead, it's still here in upstate new york. The priests are doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so um, but you can choose which track you want. Uh, if you want like the religious Latin, or if you want just the regular Latin.
Speaker 1:Oh cool, All right, that's kind of neat. Um, what else? Anything else before I let you go?
Speaker 2:This is a that has been interesting.
Speaker 1:Things I never thought that we needed to know, but would be interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like I said, um, for those of you that think why Latin? Um, like I said it's, it helps you understand English grammar better. It's the basis of all romantic languages. Um, you, like I said it's a lot of the romantic languages. Um well, it would. I think Spanish is a romantic language. Italian, french, romanian.
Speaker 1:I'd have to go back and look, but I think that Germans and Russians aren't super romantic. No, probably not them, okay.
Speaker 2:No, and I think English is a mix of romantic and more Anglo-Saxon. I think it's a mix, but anyway so. And then of course, latin. Like I said, it's in our a lot of scientific words and things like that. So I think if you want to learn latin, it's one of my song school. Latins was my favorites because, like I said, those songs really do stick with you. Like I personally haven't used song school latin in three years and I still remember the songs, so it definitely stays with you and your kids can learn a lot through song.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. Awesome Katie, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I will put a link to that in the show's description for anyone that wants to check that out. Perfect, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family, on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you.