shukriyya Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 A search yields some info on VL but not a lot. I'm interested in this for my rising sixth grader tween ds who's not done any latin before. He has studied french with RS augmented by my own french so he has some familiarity with studying a second language. His grammar is relatively good but not rock-solid. I'm looking at several programs...GSWL, VL and LL 1. I know that GSWL gets a lot of recs here and that's still a possibility. I'm imagining we'd get through it before the school year was up? What about just jumping right into VL, would that be feasible for a student of his age and lack of latin background? I do have some concerns over the mention of mistakes that seem constant with VL but perhaps those have been fixed? At any rate any advice or experience y'all have to share would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penny_P Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 We used VL with my 6th grader for the first 7 months of last year. The instructor on the video was engaging. The lessons progressed incrementally. Both my son and I really enjoyed the program. HOWEVER, my son had difficulty retaining what was learned, and there is very little practice for each lesson. He has dyslexic issues, so I'm sure that contributed to his difficulties. My plan is to start over with GSWL for next year and then to start VL over again.... maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thanks, Penny. I'm thinking of sticking with my original plan to start with GSWL and then reassessing once we've completed that. I looked at LL but it seems to add a lot of things in that will be covered by some of our other programs. Any other VL users who have experience to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 I use it as a supplement to our MP Latin program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professormom Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 We use VL and we like it. Started last year in 6th. I haven't seen the errors, I wonder if that hasn't been fixed? The instructor is engaging and the kids like him. My goal for Latin though is not to have them do it forever. My goal with Latin study is grammar reinforcement, language structure and word origins, as well as to give them an idea of how to study languages. After middle school, unless they have a penchant for ancient languages, they will use these skills for modern language study. Your goals may be different though. I don't think it is a super rigorous language program, and the pp is correct when she says there isn't a great deal of reinforcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 We used it as a supplement the first year my son was learning Latin. He very much liked the translations and the workbook feel of the practice. It was more "fun" than our other program. The translations are Biblical if that is an issue in any way. My son actually found that helpful, since he knew the stories and it gave him a basis to work from. Our other book used classical stories, which I liked more, but often were a bit confusing to my son. It is definitely not dogmatic or preachy other than Yay! Jesus! and Boo! Devil! But some people don't do the whole religious curriculum thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chanley Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 We are currently working through VL2...my daughter does not get the basics of the endings as well as she should. In hindsight, I really wish I would have just signed her up for Lukeion. She does know some grammar and that is proving to be helpful in her science course and when we find little blurbs of Latin here and there she can usually decipher the meaning. It is not a strong Latin course if you want your child to really benefit from the usefulness of Latin in regards to helping with English. And there is no way that it would prepare a student for an AP level Latin course. That said, I LOVE the instructor. He is goofy, engaging and when I ask him questions on his facebook page, he responds very quickly. My daughter does not balk at it and somewhat enjoys the program. We have discovered any errors in VL1 and he has always been quick to fix them for us. But that has meant that I have had to download the files again. The quizzes/tests are far too easy IMO. We have Wheelock's and she could not get through the first chapter easily after a year of VL1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 We are currently working through VL2...my daughter does not get the basics of the endings as well as she should. In hindsight, I really wish I would have just signed her up for Lukeion. She does know some grammar and that is proving to be helpful in her science course and when we find little blurbs of Latin here and there she can usually decipher the meaning. It is not a strong Latin course if you want your child to really benefit from the usefulness of Latin in regards to helping with English. And there is no way that it would prepare a student for an AP level Latin course. That said, I LOVE the instructor. He is goofy, engaging and when I ask him questions on his facebook page, he responds very quickly. My daughter does not balk at it and somewhat enjoys the program. We have discovered any errors in VL1 and he has always been quick to fix them for us. But that has meant that I have had to download the files again. The quizzes/tests are far too easy IMO. We have Wheelock's and she could not get through the first chapter easily after a year of VL1. I find I have to disagree somewhat with the bolded. My DD started Latin last year with MP's LC1. She did great with it. I moved her on to FFL this year. She is struggling with all the work involved since she is also studying virology, philosophy, and apologetics. Since I already had VL1 and was using it as a sometimes supplement, I decided to take a closer look at it and maybe switch DD to this lighter program in order to reduce her workload. I must say, after studying the worksheets, quizzes and other free supplemental offerings for VL, I came to realize it is a full Latin program and quite thorough. Part of the reason some may think it's light is because it is such an incremental program compared to something like FFL which moves very quickly through concepts. VL takes a completely different approach but arrives at the same depth in a different way. I wish I could explain it more clearly than that. Let me try to provide an example: With FFL, you learn the a complete conjugation or declension in one lesson, plus review the last conjugation/declension learned, plus new vocabulary while reviewing the old, plus a saying and possibly a song. You have 5 worksheets to complete to reinforce the lesson and a test at the end. The next week you move on to the next conjugation/declension. There are no translation exercises other than phrases or short sentences. On the other hand, with VL, you have three short videos to watch each week with one worksheet for each video. On the fourth day you have a quiz on the week’s work. The first video and worksheet deal with grammar, the second deals with putting sentences together in Latin according to what you learned with the English grammar in Lesson 1 and how the mechanics of that grammar may be different in Latin. It also asks the student to translate Latin sentences. The third lesson has a paragraph in Latin that the student has to translate into English. The sentences are structured according to the grammar taught in the first two lessons. Weekly vocabulary is used in all the lessons for that week. For instance, in Week 1, VL introduces the irregular verb “to beâ€. The first lesson deals with the conjugation of the verb in English, then presents the verb in Latin, as well as explaining how the pronouns are added to the Latin in the conjugation of the verb. Additionally, it shows students how to make a negative sentence in Latin with the verb “to beâ€. The lesson concludes with Latin sentences in which the student must circle the being verbs and then translate the sentence correctly. The second lesson builds upon the first by asking students to write the correct form (conjugation) of the “to be†verb in the Latin sentences provided. The lesson then progresses to demonstrating to the student how to form questions in Latin using the “to be/being†verb. Students are then asked to change basic Latin sentences from statements to questions and translate. All the sentences use the “to be/being†verb. The third and final lesson is strictly for reading comprehension/translation. The passage uses the main concept taught in the previous lessons, as well as the vocabulary. The video lesson has the instructor read the Latin passage with the student following along and repeating each sentence of the passage. At the end of the passage, the students are to use the worksheet to translate the passage into English. The fourth day of class is reserved for the quiz on the week’s lesson. In addition to their own program, VL offers free teaching guides that will match up VL lessons with Henle Latin and/or Lingua Latina. Their free resources list also offers Latin primers so students can gain extra reading comprehension practice. You can even download their worksheets and quizzes for all 60 VL lessons to preview them. You can view all their free resources here: http://store.compasscinema.com/categories.php?category=Visual-Latin/Guides%2C-Worksheets-%26-Audio I’m just now discovering what a thorough program VL really is. Not only that, but my DD loves the program and the instructor. She was beginning to dread Latin class each day. Since we've switched, she now looks forward to it because it's short, sweet, she retains the information better with the bit-sized lessons, and, most importantly, she has fun while doing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highfamily Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Something else to consider...when I looked at VL, I found that all the translation was Latin to English. English to Latin is much more challenging. It all depends on what your goals are for Latin study. Jana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessed3x Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 We started with GSWL, then moved into VL1. My son really likes the instructor and looks forward to the latin lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2OandE Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 My daughter and I are both doing it. I love it. It's sticking for both of us. We did make flash cards of the words we learn for the lesson as well as any additional he mentions and play games with them. It's really fun. I'm not planning on using anything else until high school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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