This summer, I hosted a Latin workshop for young kids in my hometown. I started learning Latin the summer of COVID and had to self-teach myself because there were no Latin classes or teachers nearby. Only one institution, a private Christian school, offers Latin.
I wanted to give kids in my community the chance to explore knowledge in the form of learning Latin. There are so many benefits to learning Latin that are often overlooked at first glance. Learning Latin means you learn a new language that is the backbone of so many other languages which makes easier to pick up many other languages including Spanish.
The kids were amazing! We had two groups, one with middle schoolers and the other with elementary schoolers. We had 12 kids total. The younger kids loved learning about the history of Rome, especially making their own gladiator swords, shields, and helmets. For the older kids, we had Jeopardy tournaments at the end of each day to review all the concepts we had learned.
This was such a rewarding and amazing experience and I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to get kids excited about learning new things!
-Taryn Boonpongmanee ’24
(some parents were not comfortable with their children’s picture being taken so they are not all pictured in the images above)
