CLE LA/Latin Alive Question

[SnMomof7]

This may be an odd subject combination ;).

 

DD1 in 7th is on course to finish CLE LA 700 this school year. Part of me would like to see her stay the course and finish the 800s, just for the sake of....completion? Closure? Realistically, she already knows far more grammar than most children ever will.

 

She would really like to move on to Latin and has selected Latin Alive.

 

For 8th...could we....(gasp)...not teach grammar and do Latin instead? I don't want her existing knowledge to atrophy, but perhaps the Latin grammar would keep it fresh? I'm planning to use WWS1 for composition for 8th and ATB lit with some PP guides (which will replace CLE Reading) for reading. I've already told her we're just finishing up her spelling book then we are done with that. In 9th we are moving into the MFW high school progression.

 

So, hit me with your thoughts? Does this sound like enough? Will I forever regret not doing the CLE 800s? Or should I just move on and do the happy dance that we've made it this far? ;)

[Storygirl]

I can't really answer whether Latin sufficiently replaces what is taught in CLE 800, because we stopped studying Latin awhile back, but I can tell you what we've decided to do with CLE grammar and MFW.

 

DD13 is straddling the line between eighth and ninth grades. By age she should be in eighth, but she started K at age 4, so she could be a ninth grader. We decided to start most of our high school materials this year in order to give her the option to graduate in four years if it seems right at that time to graduate early. She is a hardworking student who struggles with math and writing and would be average, not accelerated, in skill level if she were in a brick and mortar school. Just to give you a frame of reference ;) .

 

DD has completed CLE LA levels 500 through 700. So what to do about this year, I asked myself? I wanted the majority of her materials to be appropriate for high school credit, so I wasn't sure about doing 800. I ended up purchasing CLE English 1, which is grammar. (If you look at the high school English program, you will see that not all four years focus on grammar, but English 1 does.) DD has completed the first few lessons, and says that so far it is similar in difficulty to level 700 and is really a review of what was taught at the lower levels. Each day's work starts with a mini lesson, just like in the lower levels, so I figure that it will be reteaching anything that she missed by skipping the 800 level.

 

She's going to take two years to go through English 1 and is only doing it twice a week. I thought that would be sufficient for keeping up her grammar skills but not taking too much time away from the other things we are studying for high school. Because DD is weaker in writing, I didn't want to drop the grammar altogether, as some do for high school, because think she personally still needs to practice the foundational skills that grammar lessons provide.

 

She is enjoying MFW so far (she's starting week 4). Personally, I think it is a little light on English. For example, last week she was reading and doing a Bible study in the book of Job, and they had that listed as an English assignment. I consider that to be Bible, not English, especially since none of the questions she had to answer focused on Job as a piece of literature. The writing lessons occasionally address grammar issues as part of revision, but there is not a focused emphasis on grammar skills in AHL.

 

The writing assignments have required a lot of time but would go more quickly for a natural or skilled writer. The lesson plans alternate focusing on either writing or literature each week, but not both. Because DD is not advanced in language arts skills, there is a lot that I still want to teach her that MFW does not cover, so I am supplementing the English.

 

During the weeks that they have writing assignments, we will be reading some literature that I select, including a few classics and some high quality children's/young adult literature that she has never read that I don't want her to miss. We're also going through Figuratively Speaking, because I have owned it for awhile but haven't used it yet, and discussing it in terms of the books we are reading.

 

During the weeks that MFW focuses on literature, I will have DD do some additional writing, using materials we have on hand.

 

I'm choosing to supplement, because I just can't help myself. I was an English major :p . I always end up tweaking things in any program, but I really think that DD will benefit from an extra focus on writing and literature, over and above what MFW offers. That's just me, though. I'm not saying that it is necessary for others to supplement.

 

So back to your question -- I think you could skip CLE 800 and be fine, as long as your student's grammar skills are solid and not likely to be forgotten if not practiced.

 

I'm not sure how much grammar comes into play for the SAT and ACT. It's been too long since I've taken them to remember, and I haven't started looking into them yet, since DD is my oldest. But DD is not a great test taker and tends to forget things she doesn't practice, so I've decided to have her keep trucking along on grammar at a reduced pace for at least the first few years of high school to prevent her from losing all that she has learned from CLE LA. She has put so much time and hard work into it -- I don't want her to forget.

[Storygirl]

Oh, I should mention that MFW sometimes (not every day) has "Reading" listed on the schedule. For that, the student is supposed to read a book of their choosing for 30 minutes. So when I have DD read the extra books that I am choosing, it doesn't necessarily add to the time that MFW expects students to spend on their work each day. (They suggest that it will take on average three hours to complete their scheduled work, which includes history, Bible, and English.) I'm just guiding her in her reading selections instead of giving her free reign.

 

 

[SnMomof7]

Ah. I hear you, completely. DD1 thrives on CLE's spiral, and I don't want her to forget either. An option I considered is doing a once a week review of some sort throughout high school if the Latin isn't enough to keep things fresh. Analytical Grammat has resources for this following their program. She has done CLE LA 400 and up. We ended up skipping part of the 600s (606 and up) last year because it was a bit nutso for us, but she just finished 702 and is doing fine. Next year I really want her to focus more in whole literature and composition and I don't want to overwhelm her with LA...hmmmm.

[chiguirre]

For 8th...could we....(gasp)...not teach grammar and do Latin instead? I don't want her existing knowledge to atrophy, but perhaps the Latin grammar would keep it fresh? I'm planning to use WWS1 for composition for 8th and ATB lit with some PP guides (which will replace CLE Reading) for reading. I've already told her we're just finishing up her spelling book then we are done with that. In 9th we are moving into the MFW high school progression.

 

 

IMHO, Latin will keep her grammar fresh and probably deepen her ability to spot how a word is being used in a sentence. For example, T did Lesson 2 in Latin Alive 2 this week and had to be able to identify the words in the accusative and explain why (direct object, predicate accusative acting as an appositive or acc. indicating place to which). This is still review so I think LA1 will be fine to keep Latin fresh. Jenney's Latin which we used last year certainly did.

[FriedClams]

We did exactly that...with mixed results. DDs Stanford results suffered in grammar areas. I'm not sure doing a year's worth of grammar would have been worth that 15%... Likewise, the year of Latin really did nothing for her grammar, despite doing great in it. And, we won't continue with Latin as a foreign language. She's moved on to German and we're finding the time doing phonemes was the most productive. In hindsight (knowing Latin would not be her language for high school), I think I'd do a lighter grammar and phonemes but skip Latin.