Monday, December 2, 2013

Weekly Resource - Caesar's English

This is a resource that I have considered many times but have not bought.  Now that it has been updated to include more pictures and history I think it looks fantastic.  The only reason I hesitate to get it is that I intend to teach my children Latin, not just Latin for the sake of vocabulary.

Caesar's English is from Royal Fireworks Press and is part of their overall English program.  It is an impressive combination of resources that many people truly enjoy.  There is a good chance that at some point we will use their four level sentence analysis workbooks.  Back to the point.  This new edition tries to tie together Latin based vocabulary with English and Spanish connections.  Living in Texas, it is always helpful to tie in Spanish.  It focuses on root words, prefixes and suffixes so that your students are getting the most bang for their buck.  From their online overview it looks simple enough to implement.  It introduces 5 new words a week.  If I got it, I might actually use a word a day approach during morning time.

From the beginning, this series uses composition to equip students to write research papers and essays.  I guess most do teach this in the end but it is the very explicit goal of this program because it is the type of paper most commonly written in college.   I am not sure I like this approach as much as others, like the progym, but if you want a great essayist this is one way to go about that.

This series is meant for the upper elementary school student and it introduces vocabulary in a way that will prepare your students to better analyze words and read classical literature with more understanding.   If you are not committed to studying Latin but want a taste of it for the sake of vocabulary this is probably a great fit for you.

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