Books like Cambridge Latin Course Book 1

So far, so good. This book was a refreshing change from Wheelock's. While I don't think it's a bad idea to supplement them with a more traditional textbook, I have to say I am enjoying this process much more than I thought I would. It's a very organic way to learn the language. The stories are cute, and just long enough that you don’t feel overwhelmed by each section. I confess I am using this book unaided by any of the supplemental materials (and I also do not have anyone checking my work, which could be dangerous. But I have a good feeling about it). I’m just writing out the translations for each section and doing the practice segments on my own. I think having a basic understanding of how Romance languages work has helped me. I understand the people who are concerned by the lack of verb drills and grammar exercises and all that stuff that a more traditional method would have you doing, but I'm just telling myself that this is more akin to the way a native speaker would learn a language. I feel like I turned a corner at the end of this first book – suddenly I’m translating the stories while only occasionally consulting the vocab list, and I think I’m really getting it. Now, I will admit that if someone asked me to translate English into Latin I might become very flummoxed. And I know that if you can translate English into Latin you are good to go and doing the reverse will be a piece of cake. All in good time, I say. After all, I am learning for the purpose of reading and translating ancient texts, so Latin to English is all I’m worrying about at this point. Perhaps I’ll report back after I’ve tried to tackle some Cicero. Hopefully it won’t be a disaster. Now if only the ancients could have limited their discourse to cooks and slave girls running around town cooking dinner, buying dresses, and dodging volcano ash, I’d be all set.