Marina - how is Latin club coming on?

[RosaTransylvania]

I have 12 recruits and we start next month. I am so excited!

[Marina]

Fantastic! Please keep me posted as to how you get on Rosa.
I am doing my Minimus Training day in London in early Nov and have agreed with the school a January start
No idea about numbers yet but reckon no more than 12 too. What age groups are you covering (am planning 8-11, ie, yrs 4-6) and do you have a waiting list?
I'm really looking forward to it too. The Head told me beaming that they had a question about Latin at Open Day recently and she was able to say we had a club starting. And as I WOTH f/t it's so nice to be doing something really helpful for the school (nul points for cake-baking and second-hand uniform-selling).

[RosaTransylvania]

We opened the club to year 5 and 6 and I intended it to be 10 pupils but 12 applied and I didn't want to leave just two out. If it goes well I will include year 4 next year. One of the mums let me know that she has A-level Latin and is happy to help out so I have some potential back-up.

[bossykate]

how are you going to do it if you work f/t?

[samanthar]

oh great well done you!

[Marina]

flexitime bk
Couldn't do it otherwise, have tied it to the day I can do school pick-up anyway.
Rosa, we do have a teacher at the school with a Classics Degree and I am hoping ultimately that if it's really popular, we can run it together. She is currently on mat leave. I think a back-up is a good idea.
Did you do your training day yet btw? Any tips for what to expect and how to get the most out of the day?

[Marina]

Salutem plurimam tibi dico O fio

[Marina]

Calling Rosa again...

Went on the Training Day on Saturday and it was excellent!

A very diverse and friendly bunch of volunteers/teachers involved with the project shared their experiences with us all, and there was loads to discuss and take in. The other delegates were such an interesting group too (am wondering if any at all are Mners...)

Take plenty of cash for the little Minimus Et Cetera extras like post-its and badges

Hope your Bristol Day is as good

Barbara is absolutely inspirational

Are you planning by any chance to make it to the British Museum Minimus Day in April?

[RosaTransylvania]

Sounds great Marina. I was planning to go to the Bristol Minimus day in January but DH leapt in first with a stag weekend so I need to rearrange it. British Museum sounds interesting (excuse to go to London )
The children are champing at the bit to start. I have the grant through now and hopefully will get the rest of the money from the PTA next week so we should be up and running shortly. Where are you buying the books from?

[Marina]

We have been recommended to order from this lovely lot
They ship direct from stock, you can wait til the cows come home if you use most booksellers, who place their orders with CUP

I think details of the BM Day are in the next newsletter so make sure you're on their mailing list - it's due out imminently
We got some good ISBNs for other supporting material, I'll post those when I have a chance - a Channel Four book about Rome and maths, and a British Museum Activity Book.
Hope you do get a chance to go on the training day soon, it did make me feel less "alone" in venturing into this world!

[RosaTransylvania]

I just found the British Museum details. Sounds really good but more suitable to those within a reasonable striking distance of London. Maybe she will do something similar in Bath at some point for us south-westerners. I would love to organise a trip to London for the Minimus children, some of them have never been as far as Bristol even, but it would be very complicated to arrange.

[SSSandy2]

....can I just but in and ask, can you recommend a book/course for teaching Latin to a 7 year old? Do you think the Cambridge course would be appropriate for that age group?

Thanks!

[Hallgerda]

Minimus is your man, or rather, mouse, SSSandy2

[Marina]

I'd go with the Minimus course that we're discussing here SSSandy - it is specifically aimed at this age group upwards and unlike Cambridge (good though this is) Minimus is more suited to a club/home ed type role - although it can be and is used in classroom teaching
here is the Primary Latin Project's own website, and the books are all published by Cambridge University Press and available through Amazon etc

[SSSandy2]

Thanks, I had a look at the sites and I think I really need to have the books in my hand and flick through them. I like the CD Rom which comes with the Cambridge course though. Will investigate!

[Bink]

Does the Minimus network do any clubs outside of schools? - ds is so keen, but for entirely genuine reasons it wouldn't be feasible at his school.

I had a look on the website & it seemed not. But maybe those on the inside know more? Or should I just email Barbara?

[madness]

OK, I did Latin at a-level but on the continent and looonnnggg time ago. English is my third language. I think Latin was my most useful subject at school so keen to get dc into it. In fact, one of the main reasons to consider privat secondary education.

Sooo, is it too ambitious to consider this at dc school??? How much time to you spend? If I aim for next school year????

It is a small school with lots of other after school clubs so not sure there would be many interested...O, how scary actually.

[RosaLuxMundi]

All you can do is ask Madness - I was surprised at the level of interest at our school. They do training days so it should be entirely feasible for you to do this.

Bink - I don't know of any non-school-based clubs but email Barbara, she is very helpful.
You could always teach him at home yourself - the problem is to do Minimus you would need the teacher's book as well as a pupil book and that works out rather expensive for just one child. There are other courses out there that homeschoolers us, maybe not as much fun as Minimus though. So you really want to learn Latin, is one that I have heard good reports of.

[Bink]

Thanks Rosa - emailing Barbara sounds the right thing to do.

I think he would enjoy doing it with others - he gets enough of Mum explaining the difference between "ante" and "anti" as prefixes plus related etymological trivia. (Though it was me telling him the above which made him say "I really need to learn Latin." )

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

How's it going Marina? I had my first one today. Fifteen children turned up and they all seemed to enjoy it. They chose Roman names and we did the first few pages of the book and talked about Vindolanda a bit. The hour seemed to fly by.
I was thinking of doing a reading list for them of books they might like such as The Roman Mysteries, The Eagle of the Ninth etc.
Also a list of interesting websites. Do you want to swap tips?

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

I don't allow dancing of any kind. They must sit neatly in rows and raise their hands if they wish to speak.

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

Calling Marina!

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

Maaarrriiiinnnnaaaa!

[marina]

Salve Rosa! Quid novi?

Not sure how I missed this as I have been looking out for you

Am about to have third session today with 14 keen and bouncy Yrs 4-6 children.

We've got Latin names too, so my cohort include Henricus Coolus, Joshus and Rubia. Sometimes Gubernatrix Tricia sits in too

Would love to swap tips and ideas for reading material.

We are about to tackle adjectives so I am gearing up for a lot of name-calling and lavish use of sordidus this afternoon, as we are doing the story about the preparations for Marcellus' visit to the villa. Last week we all did Roman birthday cards and sang Felix Dies Tibi Sit to two of our number

Am guessing you have been pillaging the Minimus teachers' resources for some good ideas? There are some nice downloadables there.

I must CAT you and then we can swap reading lists etc

My next purchase to supplement Minimus will probably be this Learning Latin Through Mythology