Latin for kindergarten? Minimus Latin?

[Satori]

Okay you guys have convinced me to teach Latin, I originally voted no on the recent poll.

 

My daughter will be 5 in November and she's taken a Spanish class for 0-5 year olds and loved it. Is kindergarten too early to start Latin? It seems most Latin programs say for 3rd graders...

 

We are looking at Minimus Latin. I would want a secular program. Would this be a good start?

 

I did briefly do a search on all this a few days ago, but the results were overwhelming and I didn't find the answers I needed. :)

[buddhabelly]

For Minimus, I would say second grade. The child should be reading and writing very well, IMHO.

 

I am not familiar with Song School Latin and others designed for youngers, so maybe other folks can chime in about those.

 

Julie

[Pamela H in Texas]

I haven't looked at Minimus Latin, but we're doing Song School Latin for K/1.

[kokotg]

We're doing Song School Latin for my 6 yo (with a 3 year old following along).

[nmoira]

It depends where you want to end up and when you want to get there. Say you did Minimus this year and maybe Secundus the next, would you want to do something more substantial in 2nd grade? Or Song School Latin in K, Minimus in 1st, maybe Secundus in 2nd... then Lively Latin or another such program in 3rd?

 

FWIW, DD the Elder loved Minimus, but didn't like Secundus. If I had to do it over (and I will with DD the Younger), I would go Minimus-->Lively Latin, doing Minimus the year before starting Lively Latin. I'd also want to wait until basic grammatical concepts have been covered. Writing isn't something I'd worry about; even in Lively Latin, much of the work can be done orally.

[Aurelia]

We are planning to do Song School Latin either this year or next. Minimus looks like a bit too much for someone still learning to read and write well.

[Shelly in IL]

It was fun and like a comic book with excellent learning added in. It is a gentle introduction and corresponds nicely with Roman history. Of course, I also have it for sale on the swap board right now!!:001_smile:

[Haiku]

I think it depends on what you hope to get from Latin at that young age. Song School Latin is written for that age, but when I looked at it at the homeschool conference in the spring, it was almost exclusively a song and rhyme memorization program. It looked cute and fun, but it is not an intro to grammar. If you are looking for a grammar program, I think you will be hard-pressed to find one for kids who are not reading and writing fluently.

 

Tara

[abbeyej]

I would continue with conversational Spanish until she's reading and writing fluently in English. I'm a huge fan of Latin and consider it very important, but I don't think you gain much by starting with a very young child. If they can't read and write well, you can't progress much. If they *can* progress, you quickly run out of materials that can really be used for their age...

 

Song School Latin is cute, but only teaches a handful of words. I'm not sure it's useful for much other than as a "placeholder" -- getting used to having Latin on the daily schedule -- and (assuming the child likes it) convincing the child that Latin is fun and not intimidating. Those aren't bed things at all, but they can certainly be accomplished later than kindergarten.

 

One could certainly do SSL and then Minimus the next year. I like Minimus well enough (though I think it's a far better program if the teacher has at least learned a little about *how* Latin works, prior to beginning -- even if she doesn't actually learn Latin first), but I'm not as fond of Minimus Secundus. Lively Latin seems like another good option to follow Minimus and transition to a more systematic study of the language.

 

I would encourage you to look into learning some Latin for yourself, rather than working on it with a kindergartner. It'll prove much more useful to *both* of you in the long run, if you have a wee bit of understanding under your belt before you begin (in, say, second or third grade) rather than spending time teaching her a handful of vocabulary words over those two to three years... She can learn those later in a few days' time, but as the years go on, you'll have less and less time to study Latin yourself and stay ahead of her.

[japhmi]

We used Prima Latina with our DD5 last year, and she did well. We did modify it to use less writing, and I made my own version of the workbook with more space/lined areas for the writing she did.

[Satori]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I'll hold off on Minimus for a few more years. :)

 

I do think it's important to get her exposed to hearing and saying a foreign language, so maybe we'll continue with conversational Spanish until she's more of the age to learn the grammar rules of Latin. Maybe get the Song School Latin to listen to a few times to get her used to hearing it...

 

In the meantime, I'll try to learn a bit of Latin myself. Hopefully with my Spanish major that will help a wee bit. My husband took a few years, so he'll be some help.

[Whereneverever]

I know Prima Latina starts at that age- but it is definitely NOT secular. Good luck!

[lauracolumbus]

We started SSL this summer--just listening to it in the car. I've been doing Minimus w/my older two for fun and dd5 listens in. She's a great reader, but I don't think she would be ready for Minimus til at least 1/2 way thru the year.

 

Laura

[Laura Corin]

Minimus is designed for older children - late elementary. At that age, I think that spending a lot of time on a living language is a better use of her language learning skills.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[kckamy]

I think it depends on what you hope to get from Latin at that young age. Song School Latin is written for that age, but when I looked at it at the homeschool conference in the spring, it was almost exclusively a song and rhyme memorization program. It looked cute and fun, but it is not an intro to grammar. If you are looking for a grammar program, I think you will be hard-pressed to find one for kids who are not reading and writing fluently.

 

Tara

 

I agree. Song School Latin was what my daughter started out using and it was a good choice for us. It doesn't get into any grammar but she did learn 110 words and she had a good grasp of how letters sound in Latin and this helped our transition into LfC go more smoothly. Most Latin programs are targeted for 3rd grade and up because of the grammar.

 

Amy

[Mommy22alyns]

Another vote for Song School Latin! It was super easy for Becca and Sylvia learned a lot just from the songs and extras I devised.

[latinteach]

Okay you guys have convinced me to teach Latin, I originally voted no on the recent poll.

 

My daughter will be 5 in November and she's taken a Spanish class for 0-5 year olds and loved it. Is kindergarten too early to start Latin? It seems most Latin programs say for 3rd graders...

 

We are looking at Minimus Latin. I would want a secular program. Would this be a good start?

 

I did briefly do a search on all this a few days ago, but the results were overwhelming and I didn't find the answers I needed. :)

 

There are also resources at the American Classical League for teaching Latin to young children.

 

http://www.aclclassics.org/tmrc/catalog.asp?category=22&c=

 

Also see ETC, Excellence Through Classics, which promotes elementary and middle school Latin.

 

http://www.etclassics.org/

 

Materials from ACL and ETC would be secular. If you write to them, they would no doubt give you good advice to help you pick from their materials. Most are inexpensive. These organizations are run by professional Latin teachers and professors.