Tos Review: Memoria Press- Frist Form Latin

 

 

 

 

I was very excited to get this review. My son has been really on board with Latin lately. He really enjoyed a pervious review, but we needed a bit more.

So Memoria Press First Form Latin  by Cheryl Lowe was what we wanted to try. When we got the box in the mail it was like Christmas! Look at all the contents! I was shocked, and eager to get started!

I immediately started flipping through the books, and was tempted to start right then.  

What I really liked about the program right off the bat, was I could teach it with no Latin Background. I was never lucky enough to take that in school, so it has been hard to help him with other programs, cause I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. There is no need to have previous knowledge with this one, while I’m sure it would still be a plus.

The contents include:

• A cd with all lesson work on it
  
• An Instructional Dvd
  
• A Teachers Manual (Workbook & Test Key)
  
• Teachers Manual
  
• Quizzes & Tests
  
• Student Text
  
• Student Workbook
  
• Flash Cards

We dove right in the following week, and he has enjoyed it. While he gets frustrated sometimes he has done very well. It is a bit more book work than we anticipated, and while he is not always on board with that.. We are making it work.

I don’t think that I could use it with my girls, they would never sit and listen enough for that. Monkey man is more of a sponge and can handle sitting and listening if it is not an everyday occurrence. As of right now, we are doing our lessons only twice a week.

The website states: After mastering First Form, the student will have a solid grasp on the six indicative active tenses of the first two verb conjugations, five noun declensions, first and second declension adjectives, and 185 vocabulary words.

First Form Latin is designed for students 5th grade and up. While Monkey man is technically in 4th, but is doing 5th & 6th grade work, this program works ok with him. However, I’m sure it would work with every 5th grader, it really depends on their personality.

 

First Form Latin can be order on Memoria Press site, and it is $55.00 for Teachers Manual and Workbooks, $115 if you want to add the DVD’s and Flashcards to it. They also stand behind their work, and offer a 60 day money back grantee.

You can also find First Form Latin on Twitter & Facebook.

Want to find out what more of the members of the TOS Crew had to say?

*I was given First Form Latin Curriculum from Memoria Press through the TOS Crew, in exchange for my honest opinion. My opinions are 100% mine and my monkeys.

 

Pirate for a day… ??

 

 

After months of Little Monkey waking up in the middle of the night complaining of horrible headaches at the age of four, we pushed to see an eye doctor. Of course where we were, and the only one we were familiar would not take children until they were 5.

Since I saw no other major issues, we said a few more months wouldn’t kill us. Was I wrong maybe? Guess, I will never really know now.

Little Monkey was diagnosed with a “Lazy Eye” which I had been familiar with, since I had one as a child too. What was strange to me, was we really never saw it until after REALLY looking for it. However, then it became very apparent. Her right eye, turned very badly. She was given glasses with a minor prescription.

After a month or two, we went back to see how it was doing. We were then told we would need to patch. So we patched everyday for 4 hrs a day for almost a year. Nothing seemed to be changing.

Around the year mark we had moved back to Maine and I had gotten another opinion. Thank goodness I decided to do this. I was then told, all the patching in the world wasn’t going to help, cause her glasses were no where strong enough. SERIOUSLY??? All that time fighting with her, telling her it was for her own good, and it did NOTHING! I was furious!

They made her glasses almost triple the strength, and said to keep patching her..  Not only did she have a “Lazy Eye” now, she was also far sighted in one eye to the point, he said it was like looking from here to Saturn for her. I questioned how I did not see this… things were starting to make since. She had been struggling to learn her letters, and now I knew why!

After seeing this doctor for 6+ months, he wanted us to see a pediatric specialist regarding the right eye, as it was still turning in…only getting worse. At times without glasses you couldn’t even see her pupil… when they were on, the eye was so close to her nose, she struggled to see things.

From there we were informed the eye will not improve without surgery… They need to move one of the muscles back further to make it so the eye can no longer go to the side as easy. Go here and it talks a bit about it.

Not only does she need the surgery, but I was told that she has no Depth Perception… She see’s the world flat. No wonder she runs into things and is so clumsy. My heart breaks for my precious baby. Will this surgery cure that… not likely there is like a 50% chance it might, but not likely.

Will this be the last surgery she needs?? Again not likely.. she will need a series of treatments, more patching, maybe another surgery, possibly drops. I hope that this makes a difference.

 

She is being very brave about it, and knows exactly what she is going to have done. I couldn’t be more proud of my Little Monkey!

 

We will post on Tuesday after Surgery to let you know how things went.  

 

My brave man….

 

was so good yesterday. He went in to have his Tonsils & Adenoids out, and another set of tubes put in his ears. This is the 4th set of tubes he has had put in, so really he is kinda a pro at this! This time though you could see the slight hesitation in him… he wasn’t sure what to expect from the removal of his tonsils, and adenoids.

I was proud of him for going in with a good attitude, and being so chipper, despite the fact he was scared, and starving!

The nurses were great again, they remembered us from Sage’s surgery back in September which you can read about HERE. Matter of fact as I write this, they just called to check on him. :)

Sage was an amazing trooper too… As she had to sit and be good for 6hrs, while we waited for him to go into surgery and come out and be released. They keep them for 4hrs after surgery to make sure they wake up ok, and start to eat, or drink.

Hunter woke up ok, but was in a lot of pain, so to clam him down they gave him some pain meds, that made him sleep again. Once those kicked in we were able to get him to eat a popicle. Plus when he got home he ate some Jello, pudding, and ice cream. So he is already doing better than Sage in that aspect.

 

He is out of school for a week or so. We have all his work though, so we will have it done, and ready for his return. I’m very proud of how brave he is being… Even in pain, he does pretty good!

Get better soon buddy!!!

Post Surgery Update:

 

Well as many of you that follow me on twitter or facebook know… Sage ended up in the hospital after she had surgery. To clarify she didn’t have the surgery at a hospital, down here they do it in little clinic’s with just the doctors, nurses on staff. The place was amazing and so good to her. She was a real brave trooper in the beginning.

They gave her a coloring book and crayons to keep her entertained til it was time to go in. She was nervous but didn’t cry when they took her to the Operating room without me.

They weren’t able to get me back in the room before she woke up, so she freaked out a bit when she didn’t see me. It took me a bit to calm her down, but we got her settled, and she started to wake up and be nicer. She was very emotional upon waking up which made keeping her calm a bit harder.  After we got a popsicle in her and some juice, we thought things were going good. Then she fell asleep and her O2 stats kept dropping to between 70-84 which is lower than they like, and made for concern. I was also very concerned cause you could see her stop breathing. So we had to give her oxygen a couple times.

Check out the Elephant Mask they gave her… Its her new best friend! She even hooked it all up herself and put it on, they were amazed with how smart she was! She was a good trooper thru all of this. However, with the concern meant that we couldn’t go home, so they had to take her to a hospital for overnight supervision. We had trouble finding one that would take her… but found one a half hour from where we lived. She got to take a ride in the ambulance to get there. Daddy at that point had arrived with nana, and got to ride with her. Then I followed so when we got released we would have a way home. It was a very long day/night. She settled into the hospital ok, despite wanting to go home. She managed to keep the stats up most of the night, so we think the swelling was what made them drop.

Friday morning, she even ate 3/4 of a pancake for me! We got her up and out of the bed, and out playing in the play area at the hospital. She played on the computer and did some puzzles, then she joined them for some finger painting.

She enjoyed it… til she was tired, and we headed back to the room for a nap. When the doctor came in to see us, and then we were able to go home. She was very excited to go home. She wanted nothing more!

We were both very happy to come home. She did better last night, but still woke up several times from coughing and having a sore throat. She doesn’t like the pain meds, so we only take them when absolutely necessary. She has a very big tolerance for pain, and I’m very proud of her! She is holding in there… we are pushing fluids so we don’t end up back in the hospital. So, its rest, sleep, and movies for her! Thanks again to all of you that had us in your prayers, and thoughts!

Sage’s Surgery:

As your reading this… we are already at the Hospital to be admitted for Sage’s Surgery. I really am dreading this day, just cause of the classic mom jitters…and cause I’m going alone this time, no one to keep me distracted.

She is going in to have her Tonsils (which no biggie, I lived and I had mine out) and her Adenoids. Yes, they are taking both. Sage has had an issue of very loud snoring for a long time. They thought at first it was allergies, but it wasn’t, and then it continued to her starting to stop breathing in her sleep…and coughing and gasping for air. Which was bad enough, but then this past year, she started waking up from it, and then in turn waking me up, so neither of us get much sleep.

After speaking to a specialist we decided it was best to take both out, cause they are HUGE and this way these problems will most likely be cured. I’m not big on sending my kid into surgery, but I also don’t like having to worry about her breathing while asleep.

Its a quick surgery, but then we have to stay around until she eats or drinks. They told me she may not eat for a week, due to pain, just push the fluids. I’m hoping she heals quickly and does ok. I will update after we get home.

I have a few books to keep me sane while waiting for her, and then when we have to wait to be discharged!

Surgery

My day started at 5:30am.... Hunter and I got up and got ready to head out the door. We were off to Waterville to the Thayer Hospital........ As many of you know Hunter has problems with his ears. Today we had to go have the tubes removed from his ears. The tube in the right ear, was being rejected... and it decided to go back into the ear, instead of going out of his ear, like it should be. His doctor said this was the frist case of this he had seen in 15 yrs. Of course leave it to my son!!! We decided to remove the left one at the same time, just to be on the safe side. We arrived at the hospital at alittle after 7am... as I like to be early. (or atleast try to be most days) They called us in to get him preped for surgery... He got in his Johnny, and climbed up on the bed. The nurse came in to take his vitals, brought him the usual coloring book, and stickers. Hunter says.... Can I please have my doll now? She looked alittle confused, so I had to tell her he meant the dolls they give them after surgery.. Hunter is an old pro at this, so he wanted to see which one he was getting this time. We already have birdie, leafy, and this one he named red boy! Although, at frist it was rhino pottamous... :) (gotta love his imagination) Then we sat there and chatted for a few minutes. Hunter looked at me square in the eyes and said. "Mom I think that i am the bravest boy in the whole world... I don't need you to come in with me today" I almost started to cry... What he meant for any of you that don't know... is that a parent is allowed to go in the operating room with them, while they are put to sleep. He didn't need me to go in this time. It put my mind to ease that i had truely started to raise a remarkable boy, who is indeed a big brave boy.. (even with his emotional moments) I was so proud of him at that very moment. He was really good except he started to get cranky cause they took very long about getting us in for some reason. They finally took him in for surgery at 9:45, two hours later, mind you he still hadn't eaten breakfast so he was dying to eat! Surgery only takes 10 mins... He was back with me at 10:30 after being in recovery for about a half hour. He came back with a big smile, and an orange popsicle. Happy to be able to eat something. Then he got dressed and we headed home. I would like to say we won't have to go back to do this again, but I'm afraid that this will probably not be likely, as he is so prone to ear infections. But I am hoping for the best this time. So, please keep him in your prayers, as I hate to see my little man in so much pain.