Latin in Classical Conversations’ Challenge Program

We learned some basic Latin endings and a few vocabulary words in the Classical Conversations (CC) Foundations program, but now, in the Challenge (Ch.) levels, we get to really dive into the language in what CC calls the “Grammar strand.” CC uses Henle Latin and it can be a little counterintuitive. So, I have a lot to tell you about Latin but please don’t let that scare you. I think once you take the time to understand how Henle Latin is organized, you’ll be comfortable using it and it won’t seem so scary.

This page is part of our series on how we homeschool with Classical Conversations. 
Check out a full list of all the resources on our main CC page here.

I like to call this strand (subject) “Grammar-Latin.” It’s the best way I know to get our students used to the new vocabulary.

All this information started in my pages about each specific CC Challenge (Ch.) level (A, B, 1, 2, 3, & 4.), however, it grew too long and was VERY redundant. So, I’ve shortened what’s on each page and collected all the info here. An added benefit of having it all here is that you’ll be able to better see where it’s all headed!

RUMOR ALERT: I’ve heard CC is replacing Henle Latin with their own Latin curriculum, called Common Latin, for Challenge A for the 2027-28 year. The new curriculum will roll out with that cohort of students in future years.

Table of Contents for This Page

Why Learn Latin?

Let me count the reasons! Are you more into poetry or bulleted lists?

Not Dead, But Eternal

A language lost, yet ever near,
Its echoes whisper, strong and clear.
Through ancient halls of stone and scroll,
It shaped our speech, it forged our soul.

The root of words we speak today,
In Latin’s depth, their meanings stay.
To know it is to hold a key,
Unlocking past and history.

The poets, scholars, laws of old,
Their wisdom waits in text untold.
Not dead, but sleeping, rich, profound—
Its voice still hums beneath the ground.

It sharpens thought, refines the mind,
A discipline both rare and kind.
With Latin’s grace, you stand with those
Whose words still shape the world we know.

Here’s a bulleted list of reasons why it’s beneficial to study Latin:

  • Connects You to History and Culture: Latin opens the door to Roman literature, history, philosophy, and art.
  • Keeps a Classical Tradition Alive: Engaging with Latin is part of preserving cultural heritage and scholarly tradition.
  • Improves Understanding of Grammar: Latin’s structured grammar strengthens overall language skills, even in English.
  • Enhances Logical Thinking: Translating Latin requires focus, analysis, and attention to detail.
  • Makes You a Better Writer and Reader: Knowing Latin roots helps with word choice, comprehension, and precision.
  • Builds Strong Vocabulary Skills: Over 60% of English words have Latin roots, especially in science, law, and medicine.
  • Prepares for Specialized Careers: Useful in law, medicine, theology, biology, and classical studies.
  • Provides a Foundation for Learning Other Languages: Especially Romance languages like Spanish, French, and Italian.
  • Offers Intellectual Challenge: Studying Latin builds mental discipline and academic confidence.
  • Boosts Standardized Test Scores: Students of Latin often perform better on the SAT, especially in verbal sections.

Did I convince you? 😉 Seriously though, there are a lot of great reasons!

Henle Latin Books

For whatever reason, CC uses the Henle Latin books.

Henle Latin has been around for a long time. The copyright on the First year textbook is 1958! This means you’ll find some non-politically correct things in it (like the racial n- word). You’ll also find that it heavily focuses on Romans fighting the Gauls. This isn’t just because it was written in the 50’s. This is actually to prepare students to read original Latin texts in the later years. All the vocab they are learning are words that appear in these ancient texts.

Each student needs their own textbook and blue “Grammar” book. I like to have my own copy as well. (I’m determined to get over my fear of languages by learning Latin with my children and it’s nearly impossible for two of us to look at the tiny font at the same time.)

The books are, well, ugly. I’m a little surprised the publisher hasn’t reformatted it with a bigger font, more white space, and clear organization… but such is life. Be prepared to customize your Henle books!

I recommend you take both books to Office Depot and have them cut off the binding and spiral-bind them. Otherwise, it’s really hard to try to get them to stay open. We had a clear cover added to the front and back as well! If you decide not to spiral bind them, get a nice book weight (I love this one) to keep the pages open!

The Blue Grammar Book

The Grammar book is a list of all the Latin grammar rules, all in one place. Things to note:

  • You’ll use it in Challenge years A through 4, so take good care of it! So far we used it most in Ch 2.
  • People sometimes will tell you to look at a certain page and sometimes at a particular rule number, so watch out for that!
  • I suggest tabbing your book to match the table of contents. It makes it easier and faster to find what you’re looking for.

The Textbooks

First Year Latin Textbook- Used in Ch. A, B, & 1

The purple First Year book is your main curriculum for the first three years of Challenge. Henle Latin First Year focuses on mastering basic forms, simple vocabulary, and essential grammar. The book teaches students how to handle simple readings and translations. It covers topics like declensions, verb conjugations, and basic sentence structures such as ablative and infinitive constructions.

The book has 14 units and you’ll work through units 1-3 in Ch. A, units 1-8 in Ch. B, and units 1-14 in Ch. 1. Each unit has several lessons. Each lesson has one or more numbered sub-lessons. The new grammar and vocabulary are sprinkled throughout each lesson.

I suggest you color-code your textbook as follows to make it easier to see what you’re looking at (See photo). (The lack of modern formatting can be quite a hurdle to learning!) We used erasable colored pencils (since a highlighter would bleed through):

  • Purple: unit header, lesson header, or sub-lesson number
  • Green: new vocabulary
  • Blue: new grammar concepts or rules
Marking your Henle Latin Book

Second Year Latin Textbook – Used in Ch. 2 & 3

Finally, in Ch 2 we get a new book! This dark green textbook is broken into two halves. The first half introduces readings from Caesar’s Commentaries, beginning with simple sentences and gradually becoming more difficult. Some of the readings are in English and some are in Latin and must be translated. Students break up the work between themselves, translating Latin-to-English, and then discuss their translations. The 2nd half is 32 lessons, which mostly review first-year grammar lessons, but also teach some new details and a few exceptions to the rules. These lessons include new and review vocabulary and both English-to-Latin and Latin-to-English translation exercises.

The fact that there’s very little new Grammar after the Frist Year book means that most of the helpful supplementals (more info below) are only for Ch A, B, & 1. We really appreciate that Magistra Jones has a Second Year Companion. I’m not sure if anyone else does!

One of the differences between the First and Second Year Latin books is that in the Second Year Latin book, it just tells you to go look at specific rules in the blue Grammar book rather than explaining the concept! For this reason, you end up using your Grammar book every day!

Third Year Latin Textbook- Used in Ch. 3

In Ch. 3 we get a new book again. Similar to the Second Year Latin book, the first half of the Third Year Latin textbook is readings, but in this book, students find an introduction to the oratory of Cicero. Again, the second half is review exercises with vocab and both English-in-Latin and Latin-to-English translations.

Fourth Year Latin Textbook- Used in Ch. 4

In Ch. 4, the final year, we translate a lot of random famous passages in Latin during 1st semester. The guide gives them Internet suggestions for where to find each of these in Latin. If you like to keep your kids off-line, you’ll want to go print all those out for them

Then we use the Fourth Year Latin book during second semester. Now they are translating longer readings, based on Cicero and Virgil. There are also 12 review lessons with exercises. This final volume of the Henle Latin Series includes an analysis of The Aeneid, which the students are reading in English in the Exposition strand!

Latin Answer Keys

Henle’s white Answer Key books assume the teacher already knows some Latin, so they only include the answers to the “harder” questions. This was NOT enough for me. I wanted answers to absolutely everything! I found Kathy Shedphard’s Henle 1 Answer Key and I LOVE it! It covers the whole Henle 1 book, so it will be all you need through Challenge 1. You can download the PDF, or save the link to the file in Google Docs. (It’s 500 pages, so I never printed it!) From GoogleDocs, you can view it on your phone so you have one less book. Plus, you can add comments or questions and she ANSWERS YOU!!! Pure gold I tell you, pure gold!

When we got to Ch 2 in the fall of 2023, we bought her Second Year Answer Key too. It was still in its first draft, but has been very useful! As time goes by she keeps editing and it keeps getting better and better!

Optional Extras

Latin Vocabulary Flashcards

Students learn A LOT of new vocabulary words each year of Latin and you’ll need a plan for how they’ll do this. What methods of memorization worked well for your student in past years? What do they enjoy?

Some people prefer using Quizlet or Memrise. If you do this, be sure you’re looking at a “Henle Latin” list, so you’re learning the same words.

We enjoyed the printable vocabulary flashcard download from The Flashcard Lady on Etsy. Some people like to write their own and I think it’s a great learning activity, but no matter how much handwriting practice I give them, my kids’ writing still looks a bit like chicken scratch. Buying these color-coded printable cards was absolutely worth it to me! Full disclosure, it took time to print, laminate, and cut them out, but I was being very picky.

You can also purchase the same flashcards already made and she’ll ship them to you. In fact, her 2nd year vocab cards (used in Ch. 2) are only available as pre-printed. I bought those and have to admit that they are really nice!

Flash Card lady Latin cards

Whatever you use for flashcards, be sure they have the extra info printed on them:

  • When you’re memorizing nouns, you’ll want to also memorize the gender and declension. For example, when you memorize that ‘Terra’ means ‘Land,’ say “land: terra, terrae, 1st Feminine”
  • When you’re memorizing full verbs, starting in unit 3, you’ll want to also memorize if it’s transitive or intransitive and the conjugation. For example, when you memorize ‘praise’ say, “praise: laudo, 1st transitive.”
    • Mid-2nd-semester in Ch. A, as you learn irregular verbs, you’ll need to say all 4 principal parts. For example, when you memorize ‘assemble’ say, “assemble: convenio, convenire, conveni. conventum, 4th intransitive.”

Latin Vocabulary Pronunciation

We do quite a bit of work verbally. In addition to reviewing the flashcards out loud, we do a lot of the Latin-to-English translations verbally. In order to help us learn to pronounce the words correctly (at least according to one system of pronunciation) we also often listen to the Word List audio files from Magistra Jones.

Many people will tell you that learning the correct pronunciation isn’t important since Latin is spoken so rarely spoken, and they have a point… However, when you never work verbally, you’re cutting out a whole mode of learning. We already learned our conjugations and declensions verbally as songs in Foundations, so why stop now?

Latin Dictionary

CC recommends Cassell’s Latin Dictionary (It’s the orange hardback book). We use ours every once in a while, but the back of each textbook has a decent one too. It seems like the kids most often reach for Cassell’s when they want to say something in Latin that isn’t included in Henle’s “Rome fights Gaul” focus.

Latin Cheat Sheets / CC’s Latin Trivium Table

CC has a nice Latin Trivium Table, but I can’t wrap my mind around it. Somehow, it’s just not how I think. So, I made my own. I like making tables like this- it really helps me understand the material better! I’m also happy to share them here with you.

(The little symbols in the bottom left mean that you can share this with anyone as long as you are giving attribution, giving it freely, and not trying to make any money off it!).

Henle Latin Units 1-3 chart
Free Latin Cheat Sheet Download
Challenge A:

This cheat sheet shows the noun and adjective declensions, pronouns, and verb conjugations we learn in Challenge A. I’ve expanded this chart for Ch B, but I think it’s really helpful to start with something simple like this!

Latin Cheat Sheet for Henle Units 1-3 (CC Ch. A)

Challenge B and Beyond:

The Cheat sheet for Ch.e B is much bigger because we learn more! You can use it in Ch A, but I think it might be too overwhelming… I’m definitely starting my younger son with the simpler one in Ch A! A few notes:

  • I include rule numbers and/or page numbers in Helne’s blue Grammar book and/or lesson numbers in the purple book First Year book, when applicable.
  • I struggle with the Subjunctive mood of verbs (doesn’t everyone?), so I’ve included a segment on the subjective in the Noun/Pronoun file, since there was room there. This is the section of this chart that I’m least confident about! I’m not an expert and could easily have something wrong or missing in this section!
  • When you download this, you’ll notice it’s on several pages. I like to trim off the margins (so they are small enough to sandwich in between pages of my spiral notebook well) and tape them together so I can stand them up in front of me like the CC trivium tables. I alternate putting tape on the front and back so they accordion fold (they won’t want to fold in a way that tries to stretch the tape- I hope that all makes sense!).

Latin VERBS Cheat Sheet for Henle Units 1-8 (CC Ch. B)

Latin NOUNS and PRONOUN Cheat Sheet for Henle Units 1-8 (CC Ch. B)

Workbook / CC’s Latin Workspace A

CC sells a Latin “Workspace” workbook for each third of the First Year Latin book. Confusingly, they named them according to the NEW material covered in that Ch. level. So if you’re in Ch 1, you’ll need Latin Workspace A, B, & 1.

We used Workspace A the first semester of Ch. A and decided we didn’t like it. We ended up wanting to break up the exercises differently (it is organized by day) and we often ran out of space when filling in the boxes. Now we do all our work in a spiral notebook. We like the spiral notebooks that have a pocket so we have a place to store our cheat sheet (see above). You could also just use loose paper in a 3-ring binder.

Extra Latin Help

There are SOOOO many places to get help with Latin, especially for the earlier years (A, B, & 1)! Here’s the ones I know about:

  • Jam with Latin– Online courses with video instruction, workbooks, charts, quizzes, etc
  • Latin with Andy– YouTube Videos and a membership site with more videos, etc
  • Henle in a Hurry– Video lessons, vocab lists, answer keys, classes, videos, etc
  • Zoom Through Latin– Tutoring, courses, workshops, etc
  • Henle Latin Helps– workbooks (and planners that are for all of Challenge, not just Latin)
  • Kathy Shedphard’s– Answer keys (I use these), National Latin Exam study guides, quizzes, lesson plans, etc
  • Memoria Press– Books and videos to go with Henle Latin (they also have a Latin curriculum that is separate from Henle so look closely!)
  • Magistra Jones– Study Guides/Companions (I use these), audio files (I use these), summer boot camps, online classes, flashcards, tests, etc

I don’t usually prefer videos so I’ve never tested them. I wanted a book I could read and not a video. I was given a copy of Magistra Jones’ Latin Companion. I loved it so much that I just bought the next 2 books as the years went on! She explains each Henle lesson in a slightly different way than Henle, allowing me to really grasp the concept. I don’t make my kids read this (although I’d be thrilled if they did). Instead, I read it on my own before or after I sit down with them. However, it’s written in such a way that students could easily read it!

Here are which of Magistra Jones’ books to buy for each year of Challenge:

How We Study Latin

We plan on spending 1 hour on Latin each of our 4 school days. By the time an hour is up, my student’s brain is ready for a rest, even if we aren’t finished with the day’s assignments.

In Ch. A, B, & 1 I do Latin with each of my two kids. (So I get 2 hours of Latin each day, lucky me!) This is what allows me to grade without tests. We work each day and I give points for “daily work.” Both my boys have done great with this, so we keep doing it. This is the only subject that I’m so heavily involved in.

In Ch. 2, my son did about half his work independently. I, of course, didn’t understand what he was doing as well as if I’d done it myself, but I was still able to grade his work and discuss whatever differences there were between his translations and the answer key. I’m not sure what Ch 3 will hold…

At the beginning of the week, we look at the work assigned in the guide and break it into 4 days. In Ch A, I mostly did that work, but by late Ch B, the boys could do it themselves.

Each day, we sit down together to work on Latin this is what my student needs: Textbook, Blue Grammar Book, blank spiral notebook, and his Latin cheat sheet (like a Trivium Table). We work through the assignments and grade as we go. Most Latin-to-English translations, I let the boys do verbally, which makes them much faster.

Henle Latin books

How to Scale Back Grammar (Latin)

If you find that you’re falling behind in Latin, I suggest you switch to completing 1/2 the work by translating every other sentence. Some exercises don’t number each sentence. In those cases, we numbered them ourselves and translated every odd-numbered sentence. 2nd semester of Ch B was pretty intense and we had to scale in this way some weeks.

Getting even farther behind? Just cut back more by doing 1/3 (or 1/4) of the work: To get a nice variety (and know if there’s somewhere you should slow down and do more review), I suggest you translate every third (or fourth) sentence (NOT, translate every 3rd (or 4th) exercise), so if there are 13 sentences, you would assign sentences 1, 4, 7, 10, & 13.

Translating English-to-Latin is a lot harder than translating Latin-to-English, but you learn so much more too. So don’t skip the English-to-Latin translation exercises, just do fewer sentences if you need to.

Challenge 1

Week 1 of Latin is A LOT of review (6 lessons!) in a very short amount of time. We broke it up with Day 1: Lesson 1, Day 2: Lesson 2, Day 3: Lesson 3, Day 4: Lessons 4, 5, & 6 (they are much shorter). We just spent 1 hour reviewing and called it good!

Translating English-to-Latin is a lot harder than translating Latin-to-English, but you learn so much more too. So don’t skip the English-to-Latin translation exercises, just do fewer sentences if you need to.

What Goes in the Binder?

Nothing at first. Throughout the year, the kids end up with some loose papers and we add them here.

How to Grade Grammar (Latin)

Henle Latin doesn’t have any tests, so I usually just assign points for completing the daily work. Since I work alongside my students I’m ensuring they understand it all as we go. As they get older, I would like to transition away from this time-intensive way of working… I know there are a bunch of quizzes and tests people have made for Henle Latin, so I’ll probably start using those soon.

What Goes in the Long-Term File?

I try to pick out samples of their translating, but I always feel like the Latin folder is pretty unimpressive given how much work we put in… What do you all keep?

And now for some legal stuff

I try to use affiliate links whenever possible. So, if you use one of these links I may get a few pennies from it. However, the cost to you will be the same. I promise that I never choose what to suggest to you based on the benefit I might receive from it. You can learn more about our affiliate policy here.

Classical Conversations has asked me to tell you that “References to Classical Conversations do not constitute or imply endorsement by the company.” I’m guessing you knew that, but now we’re all on the same page.

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