How many hours of instruction are included in the DVD set? Thanks!

Cambridge does not take the same approach. Getting Started with Latin is a parts-to-whole, grammar oriented approach, though probably not as strict as First Form. Cambridge is what some consider a whole-to-parts, reading-based approach. However, both approaches have very good things to recommend them, and in fact, by starting out with a grammar-based approach and then moving into a reading-based approach, you can get the best of both worlds. A grammar-based approach helps you understand all about the different Latin grammatical forms, but it isn't very helpful in helping you see how all the words work together in clauses and phrases and sentences to form meaning. The reading-based approach isn't as good at teaching you all the forms, but it does do a great job in helping you see how all the parts work together. I don't think you will be wasting time and energy. I think it's good to start with a basic grammar approach but as soon as you feel comfortable with it, using a reading based approach will help you understand how Latin works as a language. You don't want to be parsing sentences for the next four years or so, you want to be reading Latin. Parsing is helpful, but it shouldn't be the only reason to learn Latin.

According to the Cambridge Latin Course School Project website, home learners in the US are able to access the online activities for $10 per year.

What these books (Song School Latin, Minimus, Getting Started with Latin) all have in common is that they are basic introductory books meant to get the learner motivated in learning more. The difference is really developmental level. SSL is for grades K-3. Minimus is great for ages 7-10. Getting Started with Latin is a wonderful intro for 10+ and beyond. SSL is focused mostly on vocabulary, which makes sense for that age. Minimus works in basic grammar concepts (reinforcing the English parts of speech in preparation for learning Latin). GSWL is a nice, gentle introduction to the basic ideas of declension, conjugation, etc. None of them are intended to teach you all the technicalities of the Latin language, but to get you ready and motivated for more in depth study.

The teacher's manual indicates there are three general aims of the course: to introduce students to a real Roman family who lived near Hadrian's Wall in Europe; to provide students a "taste of the language" spoken by the Romans; to help students understand English grammar and to enrich their English vocabulary in the context of Latin. What students should come out of this course with, therefore, is some basic cultural knowledge, an enjoyable sampling of the language that motivates them to learn more, and with regard to grammar, they should be able to recognize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections and imperatives. It's an introductory course, so it really focuses on readying students to move into a full Latin course (like Cambridge, Ecce, etc.) by ensuring that they know basic English grammar concepts. If students aren't retaining the material, it's likely they are moving too quickly through the course and working with the material, rather than just skimming through it. You can't expect the book to do all the work of the teaching. You'll need to create flashcards, games, do some drills, perform the stories as plays, etc. When people are saying the material isn't retained, they also often confess that they only did the readings and didn't have the teacher's manual and so they probably missed out on a lot on the background material and suggested activities in the notes. But at the same time, it's really a preparation for moving into later coursework, so that the teacher doesn't have to spend time teaching students what a noun or a verb or an adjective is once they start working in a full Latin course later. Like Song School Latin, students aren't going to come out of Minimus with all the declensions and conjugations memorized because that's not the aim of the course.

Take a look at Cambridge. Whereas Minimus is really intended to teach the parts of speech (Latin and English) in the context of the Latin language, Cambridge is aimed at developing reading fluency in Latin, but still delivers much of its content in English. Lingua Latina is intended as a direct method program and all content is in Latin, so yes, it does require a certain commitment of time. (As with any program, you can certainly go at your own pace.) Cambridge is really in between Minimus and LL in terms of difficulty.

How about the Tar Heel Latin Readers? http://tarheelreader.org/tag/latin/ They are free. Many have been written by Latin teachers, but anyone can add a book. In order to ensure quality control for proper grammar, vocabulary, syntax, etc., you should check the Libelli Latin site at http://libellilatini.blogspot.com/ first, where a group of teachers and professors have formed a review process for recommending books and awarding a gold shield: http://libellilatini.blogspot.com/2009/05/about-review-process.html

Cambridge is extremely well done. It's hard to really evaluate it without taking a look at the scope and sequence at the same time that you're browsing the textbook. The scope and sequence booklet outline the grammatical and syntactical progression very well. Cambridge is one of the most popular Latin textbooks used in classrooms and it has a tremendous following of teachers who have created a lot of supplements and activities to go along with it. Lingua Latina is definitely an excellent book to use for yourself and you may eventually decide to use it with your children. You might decide you want "The College Companion" which is an excellent grammatical commentary.

Use the second one with "pro qua stat" and "iustitiaque."

The entire first volume of Henle gives you way more than you would probably be able to cover in one year. Many people will break off at some point from the first year book and work through the review sections at the beginning of the second year Henle book or work part of the way through the first year Henle book as a grammar foundation before moving along to an inductive program.

The case ending order shouldn't really be a deal breaker. For one thing, you certainly have the option of having your student learn the cases in whatever order you wish. Ultimately, if you are using a grammar-based program with the intent of forms memorization, your student should be learning the cases and their functions so well that it really doesn't matter to him or her what order the forms are in. The student needs to be able to look at a Latin reading and not need to resort back to the listing of cases in order to determine the function of a particular word in a phrase, clause or sentence. If your student has worked through all of Latin Prep and learned it well, then the order of the cases shouldn't make any difference whatsoever to them. If they eventually transfer into a regular Latin class, where the teacher has them write out the cases, they should be able to easily adjust if they've learned the forms well enough. Ideally, the teacher should also be able to adjust, since the case listings are just a tool for memorization. There may be other reasons that you decided against Latin Prep, but case order shouldn't be the major consideration.

Grammar is taught in Cambridge. Did you also take a look at the "Scope and Sequence" which outlines how the grammar is delineated for the course, which should give you a very good idea of what needs to be emphasized. Of course you would want to reinforce the grammatical and syntactical concepts being taught. There are a number of supplemental materials that you can pick and choose from that can help you do this which you can get from the North American Cambridge Classics Project: http://www.cambridgelatin.com. They are teacher-created and there's a huge array, you couldn't possibly use them all. The scope and sequence is downloadable from that site as well. The nice thing about Cambridge is that it allows you to elucidate as much or as little as you need on the grammatical and syntactical technicalities of the language. Minimus is introductory to Cambridge. (It's not required as an introduction, but it is definitely much more basic, as it is intended for ages 7-11, whereas Cambridge would generally be recommended for ages 11 to high school/college/etc.) The teacher's manual for Minimus is expensive, but it's also intended to be used by a classroom teacher and includes reproducible pages. It does include the glossary, although you could of course also use an inexpensive Latin dictionary if you wished or an online dictionary. (The New College Latin Dictionary, 3rd edition, Revised is in paperback for about five dollars at just about any bookstore.) If you don't write in the teacher's manual, it's generally got good resale value. Minimus is probably the best fit if you're using Lively Latin as compared to Cambridge Latin, but Cambridge would be a good follow-on from LL too.

It's not absolutely necessary, but it is very helpful and it really does help because it gives you the context for each chapter, and helps you know what to focus in on. It is an expensive manual, but many teacher's manuals are. It does have reproducible activities in it. (Don't write in it and it should retain some decent resale value.) The sections you'll be wanting to read and reinforce with your child are the "Grasp the Grammar" sections in the manual which give you ideas on how to explain the grammar concepts introduced in the chapters and give you some ideas on activities to extend their learning.

The weakness of the "parts to whole" approach is that too many people get stuck in memorizing all the little individual parts (the forms) but don't ever figure out how all those little parts work together (the syntax). Most "parts to whole" programs are very good at teaching the discrete pieces but not so good at showing how they all fit together to create sentences and paragraphs and convey meaning. Meanwhile, the weakness of the "whole to parts" approach is that knowing all the individual parts systematically does help develop accuracy. So when you are working with a "whole to parts" textbook, it's important, I think, to incorporate some "parts to whole" activities. That way, you get the best of both worlds. It's harder to create the "whole to parts" activities (the sentences, the stories, the context) than it is to weave in the "parts to whole" activities. You really need to integrate both approaches.

Minimus is actually a very good program, but it takes a much different approach than SSL. The reason she seems to be retaining more from SSL is because SSL's strength is in vocabulary building and enhancement. On the other hand, the aim of Minimus is to teach English grammar concepts in the context of the Latin language. It's really helpful to have the teacher's manual and to read it carefully so that you see this progression. Each chapter focuses on a different grammar concept: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc. Minimus presents these concepts at a more advanced level than SSL, so it may seem progress is slower, but it's also at a deeper level. (Note that the stories in SSL are diglot weaves: Latin vocabulary mixed in with English language text, whereas Minimus presents complete Latin texts for reading.)