Here I share some things I learned while teaching myself Latin.  I got through the first ten chapters of the core text, which was enough to teach my children for a few years.  It was fun!  And I look forward to returning to my study.  I hope these tips are helpful to someone.

Core textbook:

Wheelock's Latin, , by Frederic M. Wheelock and edited by Richard A. LaFleur

    "The classic Latin text, with grammatical explanations and readings; based on ancient authors, self-study exercises with answer key"

(available almost anywhere); this is a college level text, meant to last two semesters and be followed by Latin readings.

Supplementary Resources:

Online Study Guide to Wheelock's Latin by Dale Grote (free!  Just print out.  Terrific explanations.  An up-to-date version of this study guide is available for purchase at this link -- a great investment!)

English Grammar for Students of Latin, 2nd edition, by Norma Goldman and Ladislas Szymanski (a quick little refresher with good explanations but terrible exercises; available at booksellers)

38 Latin Stories Designed to Accompany Wheelock's Latin by Anne H. Groton and James M. May (real stories to translate, one per Wheelock chapter starting with chapter 3; Greek myths and Roman authors; available from booksellers or from the publisher, Bolchazy-Carducci)

Workbook for Wheelock's Latin, 4th Edition, by Paul T. Comeau, revised by Richard A. LaFleur (extensive practice in the form of drills, work on English words derived from Latin, translation both from English and from Latin, and comprehension questions on the Latin readings; I highly recommend this book)

The New College Latin & English Dictionary by John C. Traupman (nice compact dictionary which goes both from English and from Latin; around six bucks -- can't beat that)

spiral notebook, lots of index cards, binders

How I Did It:

Distributed, timed, frequent practice makes perfect -- so I tried to do a little bit each day.   I couldn't find huge chunks of time, anyway, because of homeschooling.  So I would go through my vocabulary cards during my son's independent work, and do exercises and translations early in the morning or during football games (GO  PACKERS).  I studied one chapter every two weeks.

I started by brushing up on my English grammar.  I was not able to finish by the time my on-line study group began with Wheelock's, so I continued to do a section per week of the grammar review book I mentioned above until I finished it.

Now, for each chapter, I began by studying the Grote explanation for that chapter.   When I understood what Grote had written, I went on to read the Wheelock chapter.   Then I took notes from the entire chapter into my spiral notebook.

Next, I made myself flashcards for the chapter's vocabulary -- Latin on one side, with the macrons, principal parts/conjugation for verbs and the declension for nouns and adjectives.   I put the English on the other side, with part(s) of speech, gender for nouns, and case for prepositions.

What you should know about flashcards is, you can't just go through them.  If your goal is mastery, it won't be enough to just flip through the cards, even if you get them all correct.  For most people, the key to achieving true mastery of vocabulary is SPEED (fluency is accuracy with speed).   My goal was to be able to translate the cards as fast as I can flip them.  I achieved this with just a few minutes of work per day.  As a result I rarely have to look up vocabulary words now when teaching my children -- not their meanings, not their macrons, not the cases they take, and not their genders, either.  I know this knowledge will help me later when I return to Latin study.  I mastered the chapter's vocabulary, then continued to drill it as well as review past chapter vocabularies to remain fluent.

As I mastered the vocabulary, I also practiced the paradigms for the chapter.   Paradigms are charts of conjugations and declensions that you memorize by oral repetition.  I said mine out loud as many times as needed, and wrote them out as well.   Once every two weeks I wrote out every paradigm I'd learned to make sure I knew them accurately.  I also looked for speed here -- translation goes like molasses if you have to actually think about those endings.  My goal was to be able to look at a word and instantly know the number, case, and gender for nouns and adjectives, or the person, number, voice, mood, and tense for the verbs.

Next, I did the self-tutorial exercises found in the back of Wheelock.   These and the workbook exercises are valuable practice, but they also give very good examples of how words can be used that may not be explicitly stated in the text.

Finally, I was ready to do the assignment for the chapter, which included one of the 38 Stories.  I studied with an on-line group.  Interestingly, most members of the group were homeschooling mothers who want to teach their children Latin.  Anyway, we all sent our translations to somebody on the list, who collated and posted them.  We could compare our answers with those of others, and ask questions of those list members who had advanced in their study of the language.

Before I submitted my assignment, however, I did the workbook exercises, as I mentioned.   At that point I felt I'd attained mastery of the material, and I re-did the assignment and finally submitted it for collation.

It sounds like a ton of work when I write it out like this, but spread over two weeks the load wasn't bad at all.  Here's the schedule I tried to follow:

Then What?

As part of my self-education, I hope to return to my Wheelock study at some point.  After that, I will continue to do translations, and to make use of some of the fun looking Latin books I've started collecting -- like How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin, and How to Insult, Abuse, and Insinuate in Classical Latin.