Monday, October 17, 2011

Visual Latin-- TOS Review


If you've been at all skeptical on reading reviews (here or elsewhere)- today is the day you may say, "NO MORE!"  All of the products I've reviewed thus far have been great, but this one takes the cake...mostly because I started out so skeptical myself.  When I received theVisual Latin DVD, I honestly didn't run to open it and begin this review immediately.  The word 'Latin' just seems a little daunting to me, or at least it did.

When I finally did open the DVD and begin to play the intro lessons, I was immediately blown away.  This curriculum is taught by a guy named Dwane Thomas.  Let me tell you that his way of teaching, explaining and overall personality not only impressed me but my kiddos as well.  After watching the 4 introductory lessons we all wanted to see more and jump right in to Lesson 1.  The Introductory Lessons include:
~Why Study Latin?
~Latin Then & Now
~How to Learn a Language
~Stuff You Should Know About Latin

When we got to Lesson 1, we discovered it was broken down into 3 sections:  grammar, sentences & reading (see pic above).  Each section is fairly short (5-8 minutes) and after each section is complete there is a worksheet available to reinforce what was just learned.  Here again, I saw the words "grammar & sentences" and I began to get anxious and I thought, "Oh boy, here it comes.  Here comes the hard stuff."  Nope. Everything was completely do-able and nobody freaked out (that should actually say that I didn't freak out!).  It must be a little something they call "the unique design that really works!"


Our 12 and 11 year olds (and even my 9 year old!) are totally excited to continue on with the lessons.  I can say that we are DEFINITELY looking towards future DVDs to continue our study in Latin (that means Mom too!).  **As a side note when I was going through the intro lessons, one thing that stood out to me was that if one learns Latin other languages will come easier because a lot of the root words have similarities.  I have some Spanish in my background and I was totally able to see how that is true.  I'm very excited to offer Latin to my family as a precursor to learning Spanish in the near future.**


Wanna give it a try?  Go here and try out 6 FREE lessons!  See if you agree with me...see if you're not immediately hooked on Latin!  Visual Latin is available on DVD or as a download so you can take it with you on any compatible device. There are many different lesson bundles available, check them all out here to see if any of them will work for your family.  The single/family DVDs in bundles of 10 lessons each are priced at $30. The downloads will give you a $5 price break on single/family lessons ($25 for each bundle).

To see what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Visual Latin, visit the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog to read more.

**Disclosure: My review and opinion written in this post is entirely my own. This product was provided to me for free in exchange for my review as a member of the 2011-2012 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Daunting is my reaction to Latin too, but reading some of these reviews are starting to make me think it might be do-able . . . hmmm . . .