Year in Review: Languages

K's 2 day school did not cover any languages this year. They were supposed to have Latin, but decided to begin Latin in 4th grade instead of 3rd this year. K was heartbroken when she heard! She had really been looking forward to Latin class.

Before the school started, we did some fun Latin with Minimus. This is a really fun kid-friendly program. It incorporates Ancient Roman culture into the language lessons and really brings the whole thing to life. I recently ordered the new Minimus minibooks to review and K has really enjoyed deciphering the stories. They are very cute little readers - K's favorite story involved the cat taking a nap in a catapult and then flying through the air and scaring the birds! We read this weeks ago, and still if I say "Vibrissa volat!" K cracks up :-)

K also learned some Latin here and there at school. For example, she learned the Lord's Prayer in Latin. And she has sung some Latin hymns with the choir.

K also attended a Japanese school once a week this year. It was fabulous for cultural learning, but a bit light on actual language study. They spent most of the year learning Hiragana, one of the 3 written alphabets in Japanese. They also learned some common phrases, colors, foods, family members, etc. K liked it all at first, but it got boring after a few months. I really think it was just the pacing. About once a month, there was a fantastic cultural activity, though, like mamemaki or mochitsuki. I think the class was worth it just for those days. K, however, is not interested in returning next year. The class pace is too slow, the cultural activities are the same each year, AND the classes often conflict with ice skating competitions and shows.

However, K does want to continue learning both Latin and Japanese next year. This year she took a Japanese class and I did a little Latin at home. Next year we will do the reverse. She will take a Latin class at school, and I will do Japanese at home, probably with Rosetta Stone. We are lucky to have access to a public library that offers all 30 languages of Rosetta Stone online for free! Rosetta Stone gets rave reviews, but I'm not really a big fan of using it with children, especially at the regular price. But for free, it will be fine! ;-)