When I decided to return to Latin studies I searched for study materials. In the process I purchased many different items. This is by far the best. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

When I first looked at this text, I was amazed that I could actually read and understand the first page of the first lesson. There were no tables of noun endings to interfere with learning. (They come later.)

There are some short comings. First there are no instructions telling you how to use the program. And, I recommend some supplemental materials below.

This is my opinion how this book should be used: It is entirely in Latin. There is no English. This was done on purpose. You should avoid using a dictionary. This is not a decoding exercise. The system leads you to think in Latin. Using a dictionary will lead you to translate into English. And, that will interfere with the process. You should actively avoid translation. Only use a dictionary as a last resort after you have tried for several days to understand something.

You learn by processing the Latin directly. I found that repetition was essential. The first time I read a Chapter, parts of it would make no sense. There are helpful pictures to assist with meaning. And the context tells you most of what you need to know. But your brain just needs time and repetition to make the neural connections. This won't happen with a once through approach.

I read the lessons over and over. What I found was that by the end of the week everything made perfect sense. I had trouble even remembering that there was a time when it didn't make sense.

How often to repeat? I am an impatient person. Plus I was (and am) excited to be learning Latin. So I read the Chapters over sometimes several times a day. And, usually every day until I had it.

Paul Pimsleur studied repetition for language learning. You can adapt his conclusions to this system. He concluded that retention is best if material is repeated on the schedule of 5 seconds, 25 seconds, 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 5 hours, 1 day, 5 days, 25 days, 4 months and 2 years. Going through the lesson once is going to take longer than half an hour. So you could start his schedule by repeating at 1 hour, and continuing the schedule on from there. Personally I'm too impatient to wait 5 days. Plus I really enjoy rereading the text. Opinions may vary on that issue.

This may just be me. But I found it necessary to read the Chapters out loud. I had trouble processing them just by reading silently. This brings up a problem. There is no information on how to pronounce the Latin in this book. But the author did record his own reading of the text. So you can purchase his recordings to help with your pronunciation.

This brings me to the question of which materials to buy. They are offered in different versions. I personally purchased the hardcover text, the computer program, the CD recordings of the author reading the text and the little conversation book, Colloqvia Personarvm.

Text: The text comes in hardcover and paperback. I recommend the hardcover. I have used the text intensively. I cannot imagine that a paperback would stand up to such usage. But the hardcover is very high quality. It will take years of usage.

Lingua Latina: (PC/CD-ROM) Pars I: Familia Romana-Interactive CD Rom This program badly needs to be updated. But aside from that, it is rich with material. It has all of the text including the grammar and exercises. The exercises are interactive. I found this invaluable. When you make a mistake, it tells you immediately. After 3 tries it gives you the correct answer. I don't think that the exercises would be much good without this feature unless, of course, you have a teacher to do this for you.

And, it has a recording of the author reading all of the text in Latin.

In my opinion this program is essential.

Lingua Latina: Latine Audio (Audio CD ONLY) Chapters 1-10 only from "Familia Romana" (Pt. 1) This CD may be "out of print". It contains the first 10 Chapters read by the author. You get more from the computer program. On the other hand, you can put this on your MP3 player. If there is a way to do that with the computer program, I haven't found it.

Lingua Latina: Colloquia Personarum This small book has 24 conversations keyed to the first 24 Chapters of the text, which has 35 Chapters. I found it a delight to turn to these conversations after I had learned the lessons and find that I could read them.

Lingua Latina: A College Companion based on Hans Orberg's Latine Disco, with Vocabulary and Grammar This volume is keyed to the text. So if you are like me and have no love of grammar, this is helpful. It takes you by the hand and leads you through the points being made by each Chapter. There are things I would never have understood without it. I could read without this book. But understanding the grammar? No.

It also has a pronunciation guide in the introductory material which I found helpful.

I'm teaching my 10 and 8 year-olds Latin at home, and have tried several approaches, including Rosetta Stone, Minimus, traditional Latin books, etc. I am not a Latin teacher - I had two years of Latin in High School, 30 years ago. I am not a professional - I'm just a regular guy.

Lingua Latina works best for me, by far, with the following warning:

My kids found the concepts of shifting word order, declensions, and conjugations, too much to be overcome with the immersion style of learning. They struggled mightily with Rosetta Stone and Minumus, but they just were not getting the organized framework that they needed to take off. Had I started with Lingua Latina, they would have had the same problems.

What worked for them, was an intro book, "Getting Started with Latin", by William Linney. We worked through it slowly for 6 months, 15 minutes a day. They learned the basic grammatical concepts of Latin. THEN we started Lingua Latina, and they are thriving, and loving it.

Your mileage will vary, especially if you have a strong Latin background. I recommend Lingua as the SECOND book that you buy, with "Getting Started with Latin" as the first.

I would also buy the Lingua Latina College Companion book as well, so you don't waste time trying to figure out what some of the more cryptic margin notes mean.

Finally, buy the Exercitia workbook. I think that it is an essential piece of the puzzle.

Summary - if you are serious about teaching your kid Latin, and don't have the best background, get the following: "Getting Started with Latin" (Linney), Lingua Latina Familia Romana, Lingua Latina College Companion, Lingua Latina Exercitia Latina I, and the CD recording of the 1st ten Lingua Latina lessons. This combination will give you the structure and material that you need.