Lost with Latin

Amor vincit omnia ~Virgil
(Love conquers all things.)

I did not take Latin in school. I wanted to do so, but my aunt warned me that the teacher tended to belittle her students and I had some major low self-esteem issues at that time. My second choice would have been French just because I like the sound of the language, but the French teacher was also my English teacher and her classes were boring. The only language option left was Spanish. I had learned some Spanish on my own from a book when I was eight years old and so I had a head start and the teacher was encouraging and fun, so I enjoyed her class.

When I researched homeschool approaches, I knew that the classical method was what I wanted for my daughter. I felt she would have a better education if she learned Latin and Greek, with French as her modern foreign language. She would like to learn Spanish as well.

I suppose, since I have the all answer books, I do not have learn everything the Princess is learning, but I have been feeling more and more lost with Latin, so I decided that I would do the lessons also. The Princess and I take turns at quizzing each other with the flash cards. She grades my papers and I grade hers, except that she had a head start on Level 4 and I am about twenty pages behind her, so I am working to catch up, although catching up to the same page is not the problem...learning it seems to be.

I was doing fine with first conjugation present active indicative (verbs), but started to lose it with first and second declensions singular and plural (nouns). I mean, really, who made up this language? Why is it that curae can mean "the cares" in nominative case (subject) or "of the care" or "to (or for) the care"? How incredibly confusing! Then there is the disappearing cum meaning "with," as in cum cura meaning "with care," but gladio (notice the lack of using cum) meaning "with the sword." I am not sure which words need cum added and which ones do not. I am hoping at some point there is some rule on this that makes it clear...hoping. I really want to love Latin, to conquer it.

I am doing Greek lessons too, but we are on the same pages in it. She has had years of practice writing the letters and that is my downside, but I do well with the Greek, so far.

Well, I am determined to give Latin another look over before bedtime so vale.

~ My Lord, please open my mind to mastering Latin so I can be more helpful to my daughter. ~