How do you schedule Latin for Children?

[AuntPol]

We are doing Primer A. Do you do it 30 minutes daily as the website says? Do you do it and another language at same time?

[Heather in WI]

Yep. We do approximately 30 minutes a day M-F. Although, Friday is test day, so that usually only takes 15-20 minutes.

 

We do Rosetta Stone French for fun in the summer, but not during the school year. During the school year we only do Latin.

[s.z.ichigo]

We're halfway through Primer A. It seems you get exactly what you put in. I find that the amount of retention with Latin is directly related to the amount of time we spend with it. Weeks when we slack off a bit produces a bunch of words that end up being trouble for a long time.

Apologies if this is more info that you were looking for. Our week (when we do everything we're supposed to) looks like this (we have a four day school week):

 

Day 1 (first subject each day): watch dvd chapter at least once. Usually the vocab section a few times and the grammar section more than once if it's a new or difficult concept. After that we run through the grammar page in the book once or twice, chanting it the way they do in the dvd.

We have a few subjects after Latin, then a break, then we start back up with a review of the flashcards. Each week I make a card for each vocab word, the chapter maxim, and any new grammar rules. The flashcard stack is now huge so I may start doing just half of them each day...but it helps immensely with memorization. She knows those week 1 and 2 words as if they were English.

 

Day 2: watch dvd once or twice. We chant through the vocab page again and I make sure she really understands the grammar. If she does, we only watch it once. If she doesn't, she watches it and I re-teach it in a way she might better understand. The teacher sometimes talks a little bit over her head, but she's barely eight. Then we do some or all of the worksheet.

Later in the day we might do flashcards or finish the worksheet page. We may also do a thing or two from the activity book.

 

Day 3: again, start off with the dvd, usually going through it only once. chant through the vocab page. Finish the worksheet if it isn't done, and/or hit the activity book again.

Later in the day we may do flashcards or just review the new stuff. This is a pretty easy/fun day as the vocabulary is usually familiar now and we start making up sentences with them.

 

Day 4: May or may not watch the dvd. Chant through the vocab page. Finish up anything that's left over from the activity book (unless it's a maze, neither of us really likes the mazes). Either now or later in the day we'll do the chapter test. If there's still time I might print out some of the extra practice sheets from the pdf (from their website). Usually I give her ones that focus on a previous chapter for review.

 

Wow...that seems like an awful lot. I do focus on Latin and other Language subjects more than other things. Before anyone accuses me of overdoing Latin I'll note that it's my daughter's favorite subject. (^^)

 

EDIT: oh yeah, we're just now starting the history translations book, so I'll be fitting that in there somewhere as well

[Mrs.W]

Mondays and Fridays were usually a little shorter for us, but generally 20-30 minutes is the norm. But that was after we dropped the Activity Book (we found the Activity Book was adding a lot of time, but not providing a lot of benefit for my dd). We were able to squeeze in a couple of days of RS French in as well.

[kckamy]

We spend 30 minutes 4x per week and occasionally we need to review on Friday. There are review lessons througout the book and this provides time to go back over vocabulary and grammar from previous lessons.

 

Our schedule looks pretty much like the one suggested on the web site:

http://www.classicalacademicpress.com/images/samples/LFC_possible_schedule.pdf

 

We stopped using the Activity book after a few lessons. To us it seemed like busy work that wasn't benefiting us in any way. Also, we did not use the History Reader.

 

This year, with Primer B we are going to use Cambridge Latin Course Level 1 student book for reading practice. You could probably start using this about half way through Primer A.

 

Amy

[elegantlion]

We did about 30 minutes Mon-Thurs. We would only watch the DVD on Monday and review the other days. We did spend more time during the review weeks. For A we did not use the activity book and only did part of the history reader.

 

For B this year I opted to buy the activity book and not the history reader.

 

We also use the Flash game at their website. I did also see that they are coming out with flashcards this month.

[Ali in OR]

Yikes, I guess we're Latin slackers. We do both Latin and Spanish (Spanish for Children). We did LFC A last year, probably 15-20 minutes per day. I think we'll need to devote a little more time this year. I would like to do a little more translation work. I thought the exercises in the very last review chapter were very good and wish there had been more parsing and translation like that all along. We also did not have the activity book. I bought it for B, but it will just be a supplement and we'll drop it if dd doesn't like it or if it doesn't add much. I haven't even looked at LFC B materials yet though they are here in the house, so other than a vague feeling that we need to do a little more, not sure what our daily schedule will be. Dd has an excellent memory which allows me to be a little lazy--she learned all of the A vocab no problem with the following routine:

 

Monday: read a Libellus story and translate. (usually starting a Spanish for Children chapter on Monday and I stagger to start a Latin chapter on Tuesday--less DVD watching that way)

Tuesday: watch DVD kids chanting & Dr. Perrin's grammar lesson (and hopefully a How the West was Unus episode)

Wednesday: watch DVD kids chanting, read through grammar lesson in book

Thursday: watch DVD kids chant or just chant on our own, do worksheet

Friday: chant on our own, do quiz

 

If they are really coming out with flashcards, I will buy those. I tried doing our own but fell way behind. We played the chant CD in the car last week just to review which I found very helpful. I want to use the CD more. Dr. Perrin's pronunciation is better than the kids', who can be inconsistant, mispronounce a few things, and be a little lazy with the vowel sounds.

 

Overall we're loving Latin and loving LFC. Enjoy your year!

[kckamy]

One more thing...Flashcards are a must and makes reviewing so much easier. When I purchased Latin for Children A you could print flashcards at no charge off of their web-site. It seems that this is no longer available which is a shame. Thankfully I printed off all three sets at that time.

 

Amy

[Jenn in Mo]

We watch the five minute video to start the lesson every day (watching the same lesson each day for a week) and then my boys do one section of the workbook page each day. This can take 15-30 minutes. I also write out their chant for the week on a white board hanging in the bathroom by the sink and they slobber over themselves as they chant while brushing their teeth each day.

[Ali in OR]

I had to check out the flash cards. Looks like only level A will be available and I think $27 is going to be prohibitively expensive for us. We'll make our own for level B each week and try to stay caught up. Maybe at some point I'll finish up our level A cards.

[Jenn in Mo]

No Way! Those used to be free! That's stinky.

[s.z.ichigo]

I'm surprised how many people don't use the activity book or the history. The history seems like very important (and challenging) practice translating. While the activity book does add a fair amount of time to Latin, my daughter (8 y/o) loves it. She loves the humor in it, and it's good to see her cracking up while she's working. Some of it is a lot of work for little payoff (the big mazes) but for the most part it's a good way to get in extra practice. Every time she's exposed to the vocabulary and made to translate is another opportunity for the words to work their way into her brain.

[BabyBre]

I found this thread in a search about scheduling LFC, and now I'm convinced I could use some help. Bear with me.

 

We're afterschoolers and have about 15 minutes, 3 days a week to devote to Latin. (I wish I had more time for Latin but, as you can see in my signature below, there are a lot of other subjects we're trying to fit into about 2 hours a day.) We plan on taking 4 years to complete the 3 LFC levels, so we'll need to get through 75% of LFC A this year (or through Chapter 24). This means that we'll need to complete 75% of a chapter each week. In addition to this lesson time, we'll periodically play the Flash Dash computer game.

 

Any suggestions on the most effective and efficient aspects of the program and/or how to conduct those precious 15 minutes each day? TIA.

[Jenn in Mo]

I honestly think you can complete the full chapter in a week on 15 minutes per day, 3 days per week. Mine watch the dvd daily, which takes about 10 minutes. They spread the reading through the week, which takes about 2-3 minutes per day. They never, ever remember to chant throughout the week, but I sometimes remember to put their vocab/chants on a white board by the sink where they brush their teeth. If you have them watch on day 1, read on day 2, and watch again on day 3...all the while chanting while brushing teeth, I think they'll get through just fine. I LOVE the games on the website, this makes Latin practice so much fun!

[brennab]

In the front of the Primer A workbook (maybe the first or second page in), there's a fantastic schedule. We swear by it; I wish every subject had something like this! ;)