9.22.2004

Latin (and French and Spanish)




Latin test this week for A (a test from our Latin Primer we have not done). A took his "homeschool" work to a friend's house yesterday while they both worked on their "school" work. Can you say, "proud"?!

French - we're now on year 7 - is going well, although with a one-year absence from French studies (after we moved from Miami and from A's French school there) he had to re-learn conjugations of the verbs "ĂȘtre" and "avoir."

We have not started the CNED studies yet.

Spanish...ah yes. The reluctant language for both myself and A. My mother's family speaks it and I didn't actually "try it on" until I was 16. In England. Go figure. This weekend in Weggis, Switzerland, I was seated at the "Quito" (as in Ecuador, where the bride grew up) wedding reception table. Maitresse had to strike up conversation in Spanish with Ecuadorians, Spaniards, and Swiss Spanish speakers to talk about, oh, renting a boat in the Amazon and how great Brazilians are, that non-numerical native tribe from Darby's article (yoo-hoo, Darby! your article made it to dinner conversation in Switzerland), future trips to Machu Picchu, and the Swiss road system. I finally escaped to sit with the comic Australians, but at least, I did not feel stupid. I was able to shoot the potty in Spanish at the Quito table.

So I've learned from my mistakes and A is taking Spanish now. His pronounciation is pretty good and claims his tests at school so far have been a bit too easy.

Tonight, it's constellations - learning that map that lies in the sky. Using pages six through eight in H.A. Rey's Find the Constellations, we will become expert in finding The Big Dipper. The Great Bear. The Herdsman. And the Lion.

1 comment:

la Maitresse said...

Thank you for helping me contribute to the "Quito" table conversation! : D

A started his French studies in a French school in Miami(overseen by the French Ministry of Education - it was total immersion) when he was very little. Alexander's maitresse (from that school) recommended the fnac to me for supplies. You can get some good academic supplies from www.fnac.com The prices are not too bad.

Since A is not in a lycee-type school anymore, we will be starting CNED studies at home. www.cned.fr (centre national d'enseignement a distance = national center for distance learning). They basically tell you everything you need to get for their curriculum (also overseen by the Ministry of Education in France) to help pass each French grade. I have Catherine tutor A in his French and she has agreed to do the CNED program with us. We had been, up to now,using CM2-level (roughly 5th grade level) books with Catherine, that I bought through the FNAC.

Although I have not used that program, Rosetta Stone seems to be a very good option. A is dying to learn German now, so I am looking at RS for that.
: )