If you're using Henle Latin in your homeschool or Classical Conversations Challenge program, you may have discovered what we did: Henle is thorough, but it can also feel overwhelming! JAM with Latin has become one of my favorite resources for making Henle Latin more manageable through video instruction, streamlined printable exercises, vocabulary practice, and built-in assessment. In this JAM with Latin review, I'll share how we've used the program alongside Henle Latin.
It's been a minute since I posted a curriculum review, mostly because our family has been quite satisfied with our current Classical Conversations Challenge program. However, as the materials became more complex and time-consuming, I found myself looking for resources to assist in the heavy lifting of planning and grading, especially in our math and language learning.
Why We Needed Help with Henle Latin
When my oldest was in "eighth grade" (by modern vernacular), I became his CC Challenge B tutor. I love learning languages, and as an English teacher, I adore talking about grammar, but we had struggled with the overall formatting of the Henle I book in Challenge A. Now that I was going to lead Latin in class, I wanted some support both as a tutor and at home.
The Henle text itself is dense. Visually, the grammar explanations mixed with vocab and exercises left me confused about how much to complete each day. I'm the kind of learner who would immerse myself for hours in a grammar/language book, but my then-thirteen-year-old did not have that stamina (I imagine this is common for teens!).
I heard about JAM with Latin through the tutoring support groups and loved how Alexis offered support for both parent/tutor and student in her program. In 2023, I purchased the Challenge B Director/Student course, and completed most of the tutor "crash course" during the summer.
My Initial Take: A Streamlined Approach
I immediately loved the streamlined approach Alexis took with this supportive program. Alexis designed the program for her dyslexic student to minimize the overwhelm both on the page and in the day-to-day work.
- The videos are engaging and easy to follow.
- The lessons are simple and clear, and the printable exercises give students concrete guidance to practice the lesson concepts.
- The JAM with Latin vocabulary method is one I highly recommend to all my CC students.
- Parent prep is rather minimal, which was exactly what I needed!
- Plus, JAM with Latin includes many "extras" if you're wanting more support or extended practice.
JAM with Latin is a program that parents can actually sustain week after week in their homeschool. I'll break down each of these pieces below. This review will be based solely on my experience with the Level B and C Director/Student program, but I believe the other levels are formatted in the same way.
JAM with Latin Video Lessons
Alexis creates several short, topical videos for each chapter, generally ten minutes or less. I love this because sometimes we don't have time for a lengthy lesson video, or we need to review just one concept. Her grammar explanations follow the Henle book and offer additional tidbits or memory cues for students. Her graphics and images help the learner stay engaged (sometimes they're really funny!) and act as memory cues for vocab and concepts.
Students may find it hard to connect to the language by just reading the Henle text. The video format engages all the senses as they hear Alexis talk through each concept and vocabulary work. She puts the vocab up on the screen and explains each one methodically, making Latin feel so much less intimidating!
Historically, our family has used minimal online programming for our homeschool, preferring textbooks over screens. We tend to prefer analog tools like our Classical Morning Menu and textbooks over screens. However, being taught by a real person can make a confusing or complex subject come alive! We have found this to be true for Latin (and math! More on that another time!).
Alexis' explanations of grammar concepts dramatically reduce the overwhelm one can feel when looking at pages of grammar rules in the Henle books. (From an English teacher perspective, I find the Henle grammar extremely thorough logically organized. However, the text is dense and compact on the page, and students need to shift back and forth from the Purple Henle 1 to the blue Henle Grammar book. Visually, that can create overwhelm!).
Students can work independently with the videos, but I enjoy watching most of them with my student. (Parents, you will not regret learning alongside your student, nor learning Latin, since Latin forms the basis of about half of our English language!).
The Vocabulary Card Method
One of my favorite features of this program is actually one of the simplest: the vocabulary card system. (You can check it out here on the JAM with Latin YouTube channel). Gold Star for Alexis on this vocabulary method. I honestly can't imagine a better approach after using it for the last three years!
Hand-writing vocabulary cards is the preferred "classical method" of memorizing vocab. However, we still found it difficult to keep everything straight until we used the JAM with Latin method. Alexis developed a color-coded approach, where every part of speech has its own color, and nouns have different colors for the three genders.
Being able to see at a glance which words are nouns/verbs/adverbs made parsing sentences for translation more manageable. We lay out the vocabulary of a sentence to see at a glance where the verb is, and how the nouns and adjectives are organized in relationship to each other.
This method stands out because we weren't just memorizing vocabulary, but could use the cards visually to interact with the sentences we translated.
Printable Latin Exercises and Henle Practice
Now, in addition to being more of an "analog" family when it comes to learning, we're also not much of a worksheet homeschool. However! Translating Latin requires a lot of parsing (breaking each word down into its parts: 3rd person, singular, masculine, 1st declension, etc). Parsing can quickly get overwhelming if you don't have a strong sense of spatial and visual organization. I found my kids got confused trying to remember all the things they should be noticing about each word.
The JAM with Latin printable worksheets gave me at least three ways to reduce this overwhelm:
- Alexis has created restful pages by selecting a portion of the exercises from the book. If you've ever cracked a Henle book, you may note that some exercises include 20-30 sentences! Alexis chooses about 8-10 of these for a student to practice. (Note, I have not seen Latin Readings in the worksheets. I recommend students at least use the answer key to read the Latin and the English, because they contain history of the Romans, which is interesting and helpful for higher-level Henle).
- JAM with Latin includes charts for all the declensions, conjugations, etc, so students have a full-sheet reference for every model declension/conjugation.
- The worksheet has fill in the blank charts both for practicing the model nouns/verbs, and for parsing sentences. Now my students had a concrete visual of what to record for each parsed sentence! No more scrambled notes under each word, or parsing that kept sliding off the page because they had trouble lining up their information. (Kids with spatial awareness difficulty will find these worksheets incredibly handy!).
The worksheets are also visually clean, and they are labeled with "Week 1, Day 1" to track with the Classical Conversations Guide, so students have four days of practice spelled out for them. While I usually avoid worksheet approaches to learning, since languages are best learned from repetition, these worksheets fit the bill to allow for thoughtful practice, not just regurgitation.
We end each day knowing our Latin work was worth our time, because we can get right to the study and practice without the stress of "What am I supposed to be doing today!?"
JAM with Latin Quizzes & Assessment
JAM with Latin Quizzes are housed right in the DigitalChalk portal, under each lesson's resources. I'll confess, when my oldest was in Challenge B, we skipped right over these quizzes. But now I have my youngest complete most of the Quizzes. We often do them together!
Quizzes are not just for obtaining numeric grades; they give you as a parent an assessment of what has actually been learned, and what concepts to re-learn. The quizzes offer multiple choice or true/false questions, which give the student a different experience from the worksheet practice.
Here's what I love about this method. When completing worksheets, it is easy for a student to work with vocab words in isolation, or mindlessly copy a chart. However, when they get to the quiz, the multiple choice options force them to consider and make a judgment call. They have to use their memorization in a different way than straight recall.
The quizzes have been a valuable assessment tool for helping me know if my student really learned the concept or merely went through the motion of copying and translating. Some students (ahem, mine) are quite good at intuitively guessing translation answers. Many of the quiz questions, however, ask for discernment between similar answer choices, so the student has to consider Latin rules rather make reasonable guesses.
I also enjoy thinking about my own answer as my child takes the quiz, because it helps me assess and refresh my Latin understanding.
Bonus Latin Resources and Review -More than just the Core
If JAM with Latin only offered videos, charts, vocab methods, and worksheet practice, this would still be an excellent core program. But, Alexis has provided so much more in the bonus materials!
Some lessons include extra explanation videos. Every lesson comes with a link to Quizlet vocab practice flashcards online. These are great for on-the-go!
Occasionally, you'll find links to YouTube videos other people have made to explain concepts or vocab. One great example is the video on how Yashua became Jesus in our language.
We don't always get to every video, quiz, or download, but I love having multiple ways to approach the same material if my students are stuck.
JAM with Latin is simple at the core, but expandable when needed!
Parent Support from Alexis, the Creator of JAM
Not only has Alexis designed, created, and continually improves the JAM with Latin program for Latin students in and out of Classical Conversations, she's also a valuable instructor.
She makes the videos engaging with her upbeat instruction. She understands students with learning difficulties because she has experienced this in her own homeschool.
Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the program is how available she is to parents and students. She hosts live Zoom sessions, and welcomes email questions. Her willingness to offer time and energy beyond the course materials shows her personal investment and genuine interest in supporting parents.
To be fair, JAM with Latin is easy enough to use that you may never need to email her or hop on a Zoom. However, I wanted to mention Alexis encourages communication and is responsive when you reach out. It is so rare to have this kind of access to the actual creator of the curriculum!
Can my Students Use JAM with Latin Independently?
Finally, here's some notes about the parent prep is involved, because I'm sure you're not looking for "one more thing to do."
Initially, my student and I took time to become familiar with the Digital Chalk platform. We noted the various icons for each resource under the lesson drop down (video, quiz, external site, etc).
I helped him set up the vocabulary card system correctly from the start. I recommend purchasing the colored notecards and storage suggested by Alexis. Then, we worked together to create the vocab cards for the first few lessons, until he was comfortable with the method.
Finally, I downloaded all the printable charts (there is an option to purchase them pre-printed from Amazon). Each week, I print out the worksheets my student needs and put them in his binder.
I encourage parents: you do not need to know Latin to lead your student well at home. JAM with Latin supports students seventh grade and up, when students are growing more independent as learners. So it's your call how hands-on you want to be. You can choose to let them work independently through the JAM with Latin program (after set up) and serve as a facilitator/checker. Or, you can learn alongside them to the extent you have capacity.
Who is JAM with Latin Best for?
Here's who I think JAM with Latin is perfect for:
- Families who are currently overwhelmed with Latin
- Families wanting a structured approach
- Families who appreciate video instruction
- Families who want built-in assessment
- Students who benefit from visual review
- Parents who don't feel confident teaching Latin themselves
- Parents who appreciate supplemental resources without having to "hunt" for them
- Parents who are also tutoring a CC Challenge program
You can learn more about JAM with Latin and the available course options here (click underlined text).
My Final JAM with Latin Review
After using the program for three years, my JAM with Latin review is overwhelmingly positive. I'm so grateful for this program that has filled in the gap for me on what could've become a distressingly overwhelming strand! For me the strength of using JAM with Latin is that it gives me one less thing to "manage." The clear path, useful practice, and thoughtful assessment make it a worthwhile program for families learning Latin.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary JAM with Latin Course C in exchange for this review. I did pay for the first JAM with Latin course we used. I only promote products and services I have used personally and can recommend with confidence!
