Prima Latina

Prima Latina is the introductory Latin program from Memoria Press, written by Leigh Lowe and structured as the on-ramp to the publisher's Latina Christiana and Form Series. It is the most widely used "first Latin" in classical Christian homeschooling, and its tradeoffs reflect that reach.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical / grammar-translation / subject-specialist
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (ecclesiastical pronunciation, Latin prayers from the Western liturgical tradition)
Grades	1-4 (Memoria Press recommends grades 2-4 for most students)
Formats	Print workbook, teacher manual, pronunciation CD, optional instructional DVDs
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	3 (lower with the DVDs, higher without)
ESA-common	Varies (eligible on most marketplaces that permit Christian materials)
Accredited	No (single-subject program, not a school)
Established	Memoria Press founded 1994 by Cheryl and Brian Lowe; Prima Latina is part of the publisher's mature Latin sequence
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Genuine grammar instruction, not vocabulary-only; bridges cleanly to a real Latin sequence
Ease of teaching	4	Scripted teacher manual; DVDs eliminate the parent-doesn't-know-Latin problem
Content quality	4	Tight, internally consistent, age-appropriate; Latin prayers and derivatives are well chosen
Flexibility	3	Designed as a sequence with Latina Christiana to follow; standalone use is possible but underdelivers
Value for money	5	Complete program for under $90 with DVDs, half that without
Worldview scope	3	Ecclesiastical pronunciation and Christian prayers are integral; secular families adapt or substitute
Visual/design	3	Plain workbook design; functional rather than decorative
Support resources	4	DVDs, audio CD, well-written teacher manual, active community via Memoria Press's Highlands Latin School materials

Who the publisher is

Memoria Press was founded in 1994 by Cheryl Lowe and her son Brian, and it has become the dominant publisher of classical Christian Latin instruction for homeschoolers and classical schools alike. Cheryl Lowe wrote the Latina Christiana and Form Series Latin programs herself, taught Latin at Highlands Latin School (which she co-founded in 2000), and built the publisher around a clear conviction: that elementary Latin is achievable for ordinary children with ordinary teachers if the materials are sequenced correctly. Cheryl Lowe died in 2017; the publisher and its school continue under her family.

Prima Latina was written by Leigh Lowe, Cheryl's daughter-in-law and one of the original Highlands Latin School teachers. The program emerged from a practical question Cheryl Lowe heard repeatedly from parents: Latina Christiana, her flagship Latin I program, assumed students could already parse English grammar, subject, verb, direct object, and many third-graders couldn't yet. Prima Latina was designed to answer that gap, teaching English grammar terminology and beginning Latin in tandem, so that a student arriving at Latina Christiana would not have to learn what a verb conjugation was at the same moment they were learning to do one.

The program is theologically Christian in a way that lands closer to ecumenical than denominational. Prima Latina uses ecclesiastical pronunciation (the pronunciation of medieval Church Latin, still used in the Roman Catholic Church and most Anglican liturgical settings) rather than restored classical pronunciation. The vocabulary list draws on both general classroom Latin and Latin liturgical phrases, Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Pater Noster, the Doxology, which families across the Catholic, Anglican, and confessional Protestant traditions find recognizable. Reform-tradition evangelical families also use the program; secular and Jewish families typically substitute different prayers or skip them and report the underlying Latin instruction still carries.

The core pedagogy

Prima Latina runs twenty-five weekly lessons across a school year, with each lesson introducing roughly five new vocabulary words, a short grammar concept, a Latin saying or prayer fragment, and a "fun practice" page. The pedagogy is recognizably classical grammar-translation: students learn to read and parse Latin from the start, with explicit grammatical terminology, rather than acquiring Latin through immersion or natural-language input. Pronunciation is taught through the included audio CD and reinforced through the optional DVDs.

Scope and sequence is deliberately gentle. Where a fifth-grade Latin program might introduce all five noun declensions in a single year, Prima Latina spends a full year introducing the seven parts of English speech, three Latin verb tenses (present, imperfect, future), and a working vocabulary of approximately 125 words. The bet is that a seven- or eight-year-old who finishes the program is positioned to enter Latina Christiana the following year as a confident beginner rather than a confused intermediate.

Signature mechanics: (1) English-grammar-first sequencing, every Latin grammar concept is preceded by, or paired with, the English grammar concept it parallels. (2) Latin prayers and sayings, students memorize short pieces of Latin liturgy and proverb (the Sanctus, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Pax tecum) alongside vocabulary, so the language is encountered as text from the start, not just as flashcards. (3) DVD instruction by Leigh Lowe, the optional instructional DVDs feature the program's author teaching each lesson directly, which functionally solves the most common homeschool obstacle to Latin: a parent who never studied it. (4) Five-week review structure, every fifth lesson is a review with a test, producing a steady cadence of consolidation.

A day in the life

A second-grader using Prima Latina with the DVD typically spends fifteen to twenty minutes on the program three to four days a week. On a new-lesson day, the child watches the DVD lesson (about ten minutes of Leigh Lowe presenting vocabulary, a Latin saying, and the week's grammar concept), then completes the corresponding workbook page (vocabulary tracing, derivative matching, one or two short translation sentences). The parent's role is to play the audio CD at the start of the week for pronunciation reinforcement, listen to the child recite vocabulary at the end of the week, and administer the test after every fifth lesson.

A family using the program without the DVD shifts that ten-minute teaching slot to the parent, who reads the teacher manual aloud (which is scripted and assumes no Latin background) and leads the same vocabulary and pronunciation practice. The total time commitment is similar; what changes is whether the parent or a video does the presenting. A third-grade student typically completes the entire program in a school year working at this cadence.

What they do exceptionally well

The on-ramp problem is solved. Most introductory Latin programs either assume the student already knows English grammar (and lose third-graders) or skip the grammar entirely and teach Latin as vocabulary memorization (and produce students who can recite words but cannot parse a sentence). Prima Latina's English-grammar-first sequencing avoids both failure modes. A child finishing the program knows what a direct object is, what a present-tense verb is, and how Latin marks both, which is precisely what Latina Christiana the following year assumes.

Author-taught DVDs. The single most common reason homeschool families abandon Latin is that the parent doesn't know it and the materials don't compensate. Prima Latina's DVDs feature Leigh Lowe, the program's author and a working Latin teacher at Highlands Latin School, presenting each lesson herself. The production is plain (a teacher at a whiteboard, not a Hollywood set) but the instruction is precise. For roughly fifty dollars, a family with no Latin background gets a competent teacher.

Price for what it delivers. A complete Prima Latina set with student book, teacher manual, pronunciation CD, and instructional DVDs runs in the $80-90 range at major retailers as of April 2026. Without the DVDs, the program runs roughly $35-45. For a full year of structured Latin instruction with audio support, this is among the lowest-cost serious options on the market.

What they do poorly

Locked into the Memoria Press sequence. Prima Latina is designed to feed Latina Christiana, which feeds the Form Series, which feeds Henle. A family that wants Prima Latina as a one-year Latin sampler before pivoting to a different publisher (Cambridge, Oxford Latin Course, Wheelock) will find that the grammar terminology, vocabulary lists, and pronunciation choices don't transfer cleanly. The program rewards staying in the Memoria Press lane.

Pronunciation choice is not neutral. Ecclesiastical pronunciation is the right call for families using Latin in liturgical contexts and for most classical Christian schools. It is the wrong call for families pointing at a secular university Latin program, which will almost universally use restored classical pronunciation. The two systems differ in enough places (the c in Caesar, the v in vivo, the ae in Caesar again) that a student trained in one and tested on the other will mispronounce on tape.

Workbook pacing assumes a stable home. The twenty-five-lesson structure with weekly cadence works beautifully when a family hits four lessons per month, every month. It works less well when illness, travel, or sibling demands compress two months of instruction into one or stretch one month into three. The program does not have built-in catch-up days or flex weeks; families improvise.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Prima Latina if: you intend to teach Latin through the Memoria Press sequence (Latina Christiana, Form Series, Henle); you want ecclesiastical pronunciation; you want author-taught DVDs that compensate for no parental Latin; your child is in second through fourth grade; you are budget-conscious and want a complete program under $100.

• Skip Prima Latina if: your child is an early reader and ready for Latina Christiana directly; you want restored classical pronunciation for a secular-university trajectory; you prefer immersion-based Latin (Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata) or living-language methods; you want a non-Christian-flavored Latin program (the prayers are integral); you intend to switch publishers after one year.

Cost honest assessment

A Prima Latina complete set, student book, teacher manual, pronunciation CD, instructional DVDs, runs approximately $80-90 at Christianbook.com as of April 2026. Without the DVDs, the same set runs $35-45. Memoria Press also sells a copybook companion ($12-14) and an optional flashcard set ($10-12), neither of which is required to complete the program.

Compared to Latin alternatives at this grade level: Song School Latin from Classical Academic Press runs roughly $80-95 for a similar bundle (gentler, song-based, classical pronunciation); Lively Latin Big Book 1 runs $80-100 (broader, more visual, more independent); a beginning-level Cambridge Latin Course textbook (used) runs $30-50 but assumes middle-school readiness. Prima Latina sits squarely in the budget tier and outperforms its price.

A realistic family budget for a single second- or third-grader using Prima Latina with DVDs is $85-100 for the year, the lowest-cost serious Latin program in the classical homeschool market.

ESA eligibility notes

Memoria Press products, including Prima Latina, are approved on the major state ESA marketplaces where Christian and classical curricula are permitted, including Arizona's ClassWallet, Florida's MyScholarShop, West Virginia's Hope Scholarship, Iowa's Student First Scholarship, and Utah Fits All. Because Prima Latina includes Christian liturgical content (Latin prayers from the Western tradition), states that restrict religious instructional materials may flag it; families in those states should verify in their specific marketplace before ordering. Memoria Press accepts ESA orders directly through its website's vendor channel.

Alternatives

• Song School Latin (Classical Academic Press), a family would pick Song School Latin over Prima Latina because Song School is gentler, more song-based, and uses restored classical pronunciation for families pointing at secular Latin study.
• Latin for Children, Primer A (Classical Academic Press), a family would pick Latin for Children over Prima Latina because LFC moves faster, uses chant-based memory, and lands the student in middle-school Latin a year earlier.
• Lively Latin Big Book 1, a family would pick Lively Latin over Prima Latina because Lively Latin integrates Roman history and culture alongside grammar and is designed for student-led work with less parent presentation.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Memoria Press's published product listings for Prima Latina (workbook, teacher manual, pronunciation CD, instructional DVDs), the publisher's About page on founder Cheryl Lowe and the Lowe family, and Leigh Lowe's bio at the Classical Latin School Association. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's published review of the Memoria Press Latin sequence, current Christianbook.com retail pricing, and the Highlands Latin School curriculum scope. Prices and program details verified April 2026.