Oxford Latin Course

I use this book for may Elementary Latin 2 course. The professor teaches straight out of this workbook. I enjoy the cultural section of each chapter, as it gives a bit of history of Rome as it pertains to the latin vocabulary and concepts just learned in the section. The illustrations are terrible, but kind of funny because they are so bad. One has to assume that they are intentionally drawn badly.

I am a historian who uses Latin on a daily basis -- I learned it the old-fashioned way -- with Wheelock. My son is learning Latin at the sixth-grade level and has made great progress using this series -- which seems to me to be the age level they are best for. If I were teaching high school or college Latin this would NOT be my series of choice. But my son has just finished the first book (I'm buying the second one today for summer study) and has a pretty good knowledge of nouns, adjectives, all four conjugations in the present, future and imperfect tense, some present tense irregular verbs, and knows to be careful with prepositions. He's also got a pretty good understanding of Roman mythology, and domestic life thanks to this series.

We are using the Oxford series for homeschooling. My eight-year-old twins enjoy the stories and have easily learned to read and translate Latin with the series. They particularly like the focus on Horace as a child and the historical lessons that are attached. As a teacher I found it easy to use, but a background in language and a working knowledge of Latin helps if you are going to use it to teach younger students.

To use this course for independent study, one really needs the corresponding series of teachers guides (Oxford Latin Course: Teacher's Book (part one, two, etc.) for comments, explanations, keys to exercises.

I had never had any interest in learning Latin, although languages and grammar come easily to me and are enjoyable. I picked up the first part of the Oxford First Latin Course and flipped through it only because its design was so appealing. I found the curriculum so well organized and accessible that it seduced me into learning Latin, a hobby I'm continuing to pursue through the whole excellent series. It's so well designed that one can slide through it almost effortlessly. Wonderful.