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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Our Decision About Latin

The "plan" was to start Prima Latina in 2nd grade. We're going to wait, probably until 4th grade so that Camille can learn English grammar first. We also want to cover as much ground as possible with French and we'd like to focus on that for a couple of years. I definitely want to my children to study Latin but after much thought, prayer and bugging other homeschoolers, I believe it would be in our best interest to wait a couple of more years.

Danny will be in kindergarten when Camille is in 4th, so may even wait until 5th grade so that they can do Latin together- so Prima Latina is getting shelved. (Urgh. I hate to say that!) This will be first time I've bought something we're not going to use when I intended to use it. Here's an overview of our thoughts.

Camille: 5th - Latina Christiana I, 6th- Latina Christiana II (or another Latin product), 7th & 8th- Henle I
I'm only interested in completing one year of high school Latin and having them take the Latin Exam.

Danny: 1st- Prima Latina, 2nd- Latina Christiana I, 3rd-4th- Latina Christiana, 5th-6th- Henle I
If he needs it the studies will go slower for him but it would be nice to see if they can work together.

Spanish will be during high school years if they wish to take it. French will be K-12 for Danny and 2nd-12 for Camille.

Okay, that is officially out of my head and I can move on to other things. I get that way, once something is in my head- it's there until I make a decision and have a general plan. What is that!!!?

 

6 comments:

Julie M. Smith said...

Maybe your experience will be different, but I was so looking forward to this year because I could combine my K and 3rd for some things. However, it very quickly became apparent that this was a horrible idea--my 3rd grader picks things up much more quickly, and my K was left feeling terrible. So I had to rethink quick. Maybe your situation would be different, but it is something to think about--combining them in Prima may not work.

Mama said...

I'm glad you decided to wait on the Latin. I've been pondering this very thing myself, so I was happy to see your post at TWTM board.
I'm waiting too, since I think in my mind doing Latin sounded good, but not practical for a young 2nd grader. I'd like my dd to get confident with reading/grammar/writing first, rather than confuse her with something as hard at Latin! I'm looking into Spanish and French, as well.

Anonymous said...

Just curious why you are going from LC I directly to Henle, skipping LC II. It is my understanding, the Latinal Christiana program was written specifically as prep for the more difficult Henle. Curious minds want to know!

Barb said...

Hi Jessica,

I'm a Latin drop-out so I can understand your delay. We tried several times to get it rolling in our home but after much thought and prayer decided against a formal study of Latin.

There is only so much time in our day and we wanted to pursue Spanish as our second language since it is more practical in our lives.

We do still study Latin/Greek roots. We have worked through English from the Roots Up, Rummy Roots games, and are now working through Vocabulary from Classical Roots. This seems to be enough for us.

I hope you are more successful with Latin than we have been.

Barb
Harmony Art Mom

Barbara said...

J, having just done Prima Latina with a 5th grader who was not as well prepped in grammar as your plans will make your daughter, AND with the French experience she'll have by then, I need to say:

Don't bother with PL with a 5th grader! We blew through it in 6 weeks at a lesson every other day, and he was b o r e d before we finished. PL is not meant for a child that old. You can go directly to LC1 and not miss a thing.

Also, LC1 in second grade is way too early to start hitting grammar unless... unless you go really slowly.

My strong-reader 1st grader sat in on our whirlwind PL tour in the fall, reviewed it himself with the CD last month, and we started Minimus today.

My plan for 1st into 2nd grade is to do Minimus and then Secundus alongside LC1, and maybe even add Lively Latin... to stretch this level of Latin out and let it sink in, while he matures to readiness for LC2 or Cambridge or whatever we do next.

in the meantime my 5th grader is enjoying Latin Book One; Henle would have been another good choice but I wanted more reading.

Sorry to throw my own wrench in the works. My 1st grader wouldn't be doing Latin yet except that my 5th grader was :)

By the way, I'm reading The Story of French and it's getting me all revved up to read French again; I loved it lo these many years ago. Too funny!

Hope said...

Hi--I'm new here! I just ran across your blog this evening and it is interesting. My son goes to a Lutheran school and he is in first grade. I started teaching him Prima Latina after school this year and he is very capable at it. The only problem we have is that he is in school all day long and it's hard to fit the Latin in after school hours and when he has other school homework. He's also taking Suzuki violin lessons, so we have to squeeze in time for practice. So it's been slow for us, but I've never had a problem with him not understanding the lesson or not being able to memorize the vocabulary. We'll step up the pace during the summer months.
I sure envy those who can homeschool. I wanted to homeschool but when my son turned about 2 years old, I knew it wasn't to be. He is very rambunctious and doesn't like to take instruction from me at all. (stubborn) And I just don't have the energy or organizational skills to do a good job at homeshooling. But it would be nice. Sometimes I think about it seriously, and I just can't see myself being disciplined enough to make my kids do their daily lessons and to stay home with them all the time. They're very noisy and I actually enjoy it when they're at school. How do you do it? Are your kids quiet or something? I'm just wondering.
Well, I've been rambling a bit, so I'll trail off now...

Kathrine