How to Begin Latin

If your child is ready for more depth and challenge than their current humanities classes provide, Latin offers a powerful foundation in logic, language, and culture. Even highly educated families often find Latin difficult to begin -- especially without a roadmap or personal experience with the language. This guide outlines the same path I use with students who want to study Latin seriously from day one, whether they’re homeschooling or supplementing an elite education.

Why study Latin? Click here.

Early Learners: Starting with Minimus

If your child is 12 years old or under, I recommend Minimus; Starting Out in Latin to begin. It teaches Latin through delightful little cartoons about a Roman family living along Hadrian's wall, and the teacher's manual tells you exactly what to say as the parent teacher. The book is a gentle way for both you and your child to gain comfort with foundational Latin vocabulary and grammar. To ensure students retain key material throughout the year, I pair Minimus' cartoons with structured grammar review, vocabulary quizzes, and exploration of Roman mythology, history, and culture. For Latin, mastery of the basics is far more essential than reaching a particular chapter. Take your time going through the material thoroughly and joyfully.

Middle & High School: Moving into Ecce Romani

If your child has already finished Minimus or is aged 13+, I teach with Ecce Romani, which is one of the textbook series' around which competitions choose their vocabulary words and order of testing grammar. While this time, there is not a script for the parents to follow, the textbook explains grammar concepts very well, and the combination of the textbook and the workbook provide a lot of practice opportunities for students to solidify concepts. When I was a child, I worked through the textbook ahead of my school's pacing, and the explanation sections are each clear and concise. Completing every exercise (of both the textbook and the supplemental workbook) provides a very thorough understanding of each of the core language concepts.

Supplemental Texts for Mythology, History, and Culture

As part of studying Latin, history, culture, and mythology are important to eventually be able to read Roman texts. D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths is an excellent introduction to mythology, and Hamilton's Mythology is the way to go deeper when your child is ready. While these books center around Greek mythology instead of Roman mythology, the Romans essentially adopted all the Greek deities with minor changes, and Ecce Romani will address several of the key distinctions. Upon reading each of these books, look up old Junior Classical League Mythology tests (starting at state or local levels, then work your way up to nationals), as well as Medusa Mythology Exam to determine the holes in your child's knowledge. Upon solidifying the mythology foundation (which will take more than a year to do properly), then it's time to pick more niche mythology books (pick any one written by a Roman or Greek, whether in the original language or in translation), and enjoy!

For Roman history, have your student draw out a huge timeline. Let it take an entire school year to finish. Pick a book for each of the following periods in Roman history:

1) Trojan War (While this was before Rome began, the Romans claim descent from Aeneas, prince of Troy. Therefore, it is still significant context.)

2) Early Italic tribes, especially the Etruscans and the Latins

3) Roman Kings

4) Early Roman Republic

5) Punic Wars

6) Gracchi brothers

7) Marius v Sulla

8) Julius Caesar

9) Augustus and the other Julio-Claudian Emperors

(Optional: Year of 4 Emperors)

10) Pompeii and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

11) Flavian emperors and the Colosseum

12) The Five Good Emperors

13) Collapse of the Empire

14) Byzantine Empire

It's way more interesting and thorough to learn through books instead of going straight to memorizing trivia facts, and your student will absorb the content better that way anyways. Then, you can switch over to more advanced study guides after having a clear big picture overview of Rome's history. Note that you can spend three weeks per book with a few weeks off for the holidays and still finish this entire list within a single school year. If your child is very young, spread out the list to cover two years, or pick simpler books.

For culture, https://www.fjcl.org/uploads/4/3/4/0/4340783/customs_study_guide.pdf has a great starting point for topics to make sure you aren't skipping anything. Hands on projects are a great way to ensure that students actually remember the trivia facts for the months and years to follow each unit. Take your time; there's no benefit to speed-running through topics only to forget immediately afterwards.

Here are some of my favorite projects:

1) Build a cross-section of a Roman road. It takes less than two hours, and results in a much more permanent memory of the different layers than doing a 15-minute reading.

2) Make a Roman oil lamp from scratch. Younger students especially are intrigued by life without electricity. Give them a chance to experience the entire process of the lamp, then look at real examples at museums near you.

3) Play pictionary with Roman gladiators. While this is goofy, it strongly incentivizes the students to internalize (and memorize) the most distinctive symbols for each gladiator type. This can become a fun family game in the evenings, and sometimes I even like to toss in other Roman trivia (e.g. types of togas, Roman jobs) into the same game to add variety.

If your child is in high school and enjoys Roman culture, Mary Beard's books are super popular, enjoyable reads.

In Conclusion

Whether you're looking to enrich your child’s prep school curriculum or build something even more rigorous from home, these materials provide a strong foundation. If you’d like my support in building a full curriculum or would like personalized lessons, feel free to reach out!