Has anyone used Matin Latin by Canon Press?

[HSMom2One]

Their website says it for the faint of heart, and so I wondered about it since I do not know Latin myself and am learning with dd this year as we do Prima Latina. She really loves PL and is doing well with it. I was just considering if Matin Latin would be a good step after PL, or should we go right to Latin For Children? We'll be done with PL over the summer and ready for something else in the fall.

Blessings,
Lucinda

[Sue in St Pete]

I considered LfC, but it looked "ambitious" to me. And, I figured, having no Latin experience myself, that I didn't need ambitious. Here's my review:

We started Matin Latin 1 when ds was 10. We completed Matin Latin 1 & 2 in 2 years. We homeschool year round.

I liked the looks of Latin for Children, but I read a review that called it "ambitious". It looked great, but ambitious to me. And since I have NO Latin background, and Matin Latin is supposed to be good for those of us with no Latin background, I went with it.

I've been happy with it. Matin Latin 1 covers nouns (subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, possessive), verbs (present, future, imperfect), sum (the verb “to be”), adjectives, predicate adjectives, prepositions and prepositional phrases. Only 1st declension nouns (feminine) are introduced. Each topic is presented first in English, then in Latin. So, present tense verbs are presented first in English, then in Latin. It has an answer key. It has quite a bit of translating from Latin to English. We worked 2x per week up to an hour a day for 8-9 month to complete it.

Matin Latin 2 covers 2nd & 3rd declension nouns, more verb tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future perfect), 2nd & 3rd conjugation verb, adverbs, conjunctions, and more. The last few months, we worked 3x per week, and I found that I needed to study more beforehand. We completed Matin Latin 2 in 1 ¼ years. The best advice a woman gave me about ML 2 was to allow it to take more than a year. Ds has now moved on to Oxford Latin with a Latin tutor. Yippee! Matin Latin was a great foundation!

In Matin Latin 1 & 2, there are several stories from the Old Testament: Joshua & Jericho, Daniel & the lion, Adam & Eve, Noah, Tower of Babel, Abraham & Isaac, Jacob & Esau. There is the Roman myth of Androcles and the lion, Ceres and Persephone, and the Roman god Bacchus. There are stories about Roman life and a girl named Julia who lives with her father by the seashore. There are no prayers to be memorized and chanted daily. The only specifically Christian content is Jesus Loves Me on a “just for fun” page along with the song America.

Hope this is helpful!

P.S. We used Minimus Latin before Matin Latin. It was a fun, light intro.

[HSMom2One]

Thanks Sue, I loved your input. This makes me much more interested in looking at Matin Latin. All your tips are great!

Has anyone else had the same success as Sue?

[OnTheBrink]

Yes. After NOT liking Latina Christiana, we tried Matin Latin and found it very easy to implement and I really liked how it related English grammar to Latin grammar. We stopped Latin after doing the second book; life just got in the way and Latin had to go.

I recommend ML to anyone who asks. :)