Our Unique Approach that Really Works

At face value, Visual Latin is just a series of short videos and worksheets that fit together to teach your children Latin.

Yet a lot of thinking went into the apparently simple design.  This design is what really brings Latin to life for your children.  And everything pivots off the teacher: Dwane Thomas.

As Dwane likes to say, he was raised on the Rubicon by a pack of wild Latin teachers. Dwane loves to tell jokes. Kids love his off-beat humor – and so do a lot of adults.

“Let me just say that my children have not laughed while studying a foreign language because the person was actually funny….until now!”

Add that to Dwane’s ability to address your children directly and your kids have their own personal Latin tutor right in your home.  They will smile, chuckle and even laugh at him as he teaches, whether it’s making a pun or making a mistake.

That’s right – we let the camera roll so every now and then Dwane slips up and corrects himself. It happens in a real class, right?  And kids make mistakes themselves, right?  This is something kids can relate to that builds great rapport. Furthermore, it relaxes them.

After all, we believe the key to learning is to be relaxed and to enjoy it.

“I like watching Visual Latin because Dwane does little funny jokes to make it entertaining.  I also like it when he writes more sentences because the screen will say funny stuff like, “Fear not, he’s writing more sentences.”  It has taught me so much more Latin then I already knew.” (A 7-yr-old)

Which brings us to our third point: Dwane loves his material.  It’s a love that comes through the camera and is imparted to your children as they watch, whether they realize it or not.  A love for language learning just rubs off on them with each lesson.

If you’re ready to try out Visual Latin, download your 6 Free Lessons now!

And what makes up a lesson?  Three unique pieces of video, each one a different step in understanding and comprehension.

First comes Grammar. Here Dwane teaches one or two basic grammatical concepts in a clear, concise way. He does it by giving lots of examples that show up in front of him, so your children not only hear it but see it in neat, animated ways.  Visual plus auditory makes learning the concepts much easier.

“The lessons are very basic and easy to understand…students can learn by hearing Latin and seeing Latin.”

Follow this with a short PDF and you add another mode of learning: reading about the grammar.  Your child is getting the grammar from three directions.

Second comes Sentences. Dwane now works out the grammatical concept in practical ways.  By seeing Latin sentences broken apart in the same way again and again, the grammar becomes real.  Again, a short PDF worksheet gives kids the opportunity themselves to do what Dwane is doing.

Then for the really fun stuff: Reading.

The third part of every lesson is a section of translation.  Dwane reads the Latin, then your children repeat the sentences themselves, hearing, seeing, and saying the words. Finally on the PDF worksheet they are given the same text to translate themselves. At first it’s just like doing a puzzle, but they quickly begin seeing how Latin really works.  Why?

Because they’re actually doing it.  Every lesson they’re reading Latin.  This shows them that they can do it, that it really is within their grasp.  Why is this so important for your child?

Learning is contextual: they see how the grammar, vocabulary, and usage all work together. Language is learned best through immersion and Visual Latin is all about immersing kids in Latin.

“When I watched the first few lessons I was worried about the amount of vocabulary that was introduced in such a short period, but after working through a few lessons it wasn’t really an issue at all with my boys.  They understood the key focus of the lesson and were not burdened by the introduction of lots of new vocabulary – that was included to create sentences and texts to highlight the grammar concept being taught.”

But that’s not all. Dwane uses abridged selections from the Latin Vulgate Bible, so the children are already familiar with the stories. This gives them a known narrative structure in which to plug the new language.

They naturally use this internal comprehension to help speed up the translation process and give structure to their understanding.

Above all, it really works. And it works well.

(Don’t forget to download your 6 Free Lessons…)

What about memorization?  We think language is better learned by usage rather than by lots of memorization.  And we think kids prefer it.  You can always have your kids memorize words, but if they are using them, they’ll learn them better.

There’s even more: Visual Latin is exceptionally portable.  We’ve created versions for your iPad or iPod that enables a student to learn wherever he or she is: at a store, in the car, you name it.  This portability lets you take your learning with you in your hectic days as a homeschool mother.

“So far we have been watching them on my computer as a group, but my iPod is synced and ready to go. It will be a great way to review the lessons on the go ~ because homeschoolers do that. They school in the car.”

Visual Latin has been designed for the homeschool mother: simple, effective, affordable, and fun.  Go ahead and watch an entire lesson right now to see just exactly how it works.

Or download the six free introductory lessons so you can try it out with your own kids!  Salvete!