Cleo's intro

[Cleo]

So, we're asked for an intro, in its own thread.. Here it is.

I'm 38 years old (already??) stay at home mom. I used to be a software engineer, working in 3D animation software, used in special effects firms like ILM, and other Hollywood studios. So I went from glamour to diapers! My other specialisation is robotics, but I never worked in the field and I also did a year in theoretical physics in university.

I've been home for 6 years now, and we chose to homeschool the kids. My son, the 6 yo, is very science oriented, yet he loves history, and languages, and is very musical. My husband keeps saying that it's hard to "raise Mozart". It's kinda true! Everything my son touches, he's good at it, except sports.

While I'm good in math and sciences, I also enjoy languages. I had good French teachers in high school. BTW, we're French speaking here. English is a second language for the whole family. I also got 5 years of Spanish, 1 year of German. I've always wanted to try my hands at Latin, but sciences were taking all my time.

Now my son is pushing me into it. He wants to read old books. (gosh, he can barely handle Harry Potter, and he wants it in Latin! Go figure!) He wants to be the one to decipher the writings from Indus (Mohenjo-Daro) . He also wants to design his own airplane. The joys of being young and have all his dreams ahead of him. I'm almost jealous.

Cleo
Montreal, Canada

[klewlis]

Welcome here!

It sounds like you have an intelligent and ambitious family, which is great to see.

Montreal is a beautiful city! I'd love to visit there again someday.

Good luck with your studies, and be sure to keep asking questions if you get stuck. For a 5 year old there are Latin versions of The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Paddington Bear, and Winnie the Pooh.

Then in a couple of years you could teach him greek. ;)

[Cleo]

For a 5 year old there are Latin versions of The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Paddington Bear, and Winnie the Pooh.

Really?
Pooh is a bit too baby-ish for him but the others sound great.

Where could I get those, do you know?

[klewlis]

I got Cattus Petasatus and Ursus Nomine Paddington both from Chapters. They happened to be on the shelf but I imagine you could order them as well. Here are the ISBN's:
0-7156-2926-3
086516472-x

[MDS]

Hi Cleo,

Welcome to Textkit! Glad you hear you have chosen to learn Latin along with your son, gives another one of those "bonding" opportunities for you both.

Montreal is indeed a beautiful city, I try to go whenever I can.

I got Cattus Petasatus and Ursus Nomine Paddington both from Chapters. They happened to be on the shelf but I imagine you could order them as well. Here are the ISBN's:
0-7156-2926-3
086516472-x

After previously working at Chapters for a couple years I'd recommend ordering those through their website (www.chapters.ca) but you could also use Texkits Amazon link.

If you do want to look for them in stores I highly recommend phoning ahead because as you might have guessed they aren't in high demand. There were rumours of Curious George books being put into Latin last time I heard as well.

Best of luck with the Latin and post whatever questions you may have!

[Moerus]

Ah vous parlez français, très bien, pas de problème. Ici on parle Nérlandais, mais puisque mon père est francophone, j'ai étais éducé bilinguement.

Ainsi donc, soyez la bienvenue sur textkit! Vous allez voir que le Latin est une très belle langue à apprendre! Et si vous êtes coincé quelque part, n'hésitez pas à poser des questions. Votre fils, je ne m'y plaindrais pas. Cela doit être bien joyeux d'avoir un petit garçon si studieux! Et oui, c'est vrai, ik y a déjà des livres en latin pour cet âge! Les BD d'Asterix et Obélix soit bien aussi pour la petite lecture avant d'aller dormir et ils existent aussi en latin. Mais, non seulement les asteriix, ik y en a beaucoup d'autres ...

Je vous que vous serez occuppée déjà pendant quelque temps, si vous voulez apprendre le latin au petit ...

Rien que de joie à vous l'entendre dire ...

Bon,

à la prochaine,

Moerus.

[Episcopus]

Je ne m'y plaindrai point, mais j'aimerais bien savoir combien de temps vous souhaitez qu'il passe en apprenant le latin? C'est à dire, lira-t-il "Harry Potter" etc. bientot, dans deux années peut-etre? Cela serait incroyable Etes vous donc serieux avec vos études de latin, et que feriez vous si votre fils voulait, d'une raison ou d'une autre, s'arreter
d'y plus penser, sans tenir compte de la peine que vous aurez battue, pour continuer avec quelquechose plus d'interessant soit il jouer avec ses carabines ou jouer à la poupée?

N'importe, je veux bien que vous et votre fils appreniez bien le latin, c'est une langue qui verifie sa tete, qui se rend plus intelligent et fort en n'importe langue. Bonne chance

[Keesa]

Welcome, Cleo! I'm a homeschooled kid myself (recently graduated, actually, but hey! you never stop learning) with a passion for gathering knowledge. (Hence my language studies, which brought me here, to Textkit.)

I wish I'd had a chance to learn Latin at 6! Ah, well, such is life. I wish you and your son the best of luck on your Latin work!

[Cleo]

Je ne m'y plaindrai point, mais j'aimerais bien savoir combien de temps vous souhaitez qu'il passe en apprenant le latin?

Merci d'avoir pris le temps de répondre. Et en français, en plus!

Je considère le latin comme étant une "matière libre", c'est-à-dire qu'il n'y a pas de rythme à suivre, et pas d'obligation non plus, pas d'examen et de note de passage au bout. Un peu comme l'histoire et la géographie que nous faisons. Les seules matières imposées sont le français, l'anglais et les mathématiques et le violon. Notez que ceci est pour un enfant de première année, après tout.

Donc, on fera du latin tant qu'il en demandera, mais il n'y a pas d'obligation. Si l'envie lui en passe, on mettra les livres de côté pour un certain temps. Quitte à les reprendre plus tard.

Quant à moi, je suis bien décidée à m'y mettre, mais je ne m'impose pas de date limite, car je sais que je suis déjà fort occupée à suivre mes enfants dans leurs apprentissages. J'ai appris plus en histoire en l'enseignant à mes enfants, que ce que j'ai appris à l'école...

[mingshey]

Ouch, French again.

Welcome, Cleo!
I'm expecting a daughter this month. I don't know what my daught would like to be. But if she's going to be good at music, which I'm not versed at all at, I'd give her a toy piano and see if she can listen and pick the pitch from random selections of songs. If she's not that good, I'd rather let her do something other.

But as for languages, learning as pleasantly as possible, and as early as possible, could help her do it well. Latin and Greek is not regular courses in this country. But I'd like to show her how amusing and pleasant they are. Grammar books are available from textkit and from other sources. But those amusing colorful, 'sing and play' child things are not there! And I'll have to do a lot of internet shopping to get those child books.

[Cleo]

Congrats on your daughter, mingshey!!!!
Would it be your first child?
Daughters are great, and so are sons.

As for music, again it was my son's idea to start violin lessons. He was exposed to music when he attended daycare at the age of 4, and I suspect the music teacher told him to ask "mommy & daddy" for music lessons. Anyway he came back from daycare, wanting to do violin when NO ONE in the family plays any instrument. He pestered us for 6 months which, when you're 4 yo, is a very long time. So we gave up and found a music teacher for him. Turns out he's got talent. He's very musically inclined, has perfect pitch, and a above average musical memory. Who would have thought??? Both parents are tone deaf..sigh..

Anyway, at the cost we're paying for the music lessons, he has got to practice regularly. He does enjoy it, most of the time though.

[Emma_85]

Hi Cleo and welcome to Textkit!

I whish I had learned to play a musical instrument when I was young. In fact it's harder to learn when your parents are musical I think. Because then they'll annoy you too much with their knowledge. At least that is how I felt. My dad is a failed musician and he tried to teach me, but it just didn't work out him teaching me.