Need a "new" Latin curriculum

[In The Great White North]

for my dc. Ds (16) started Henle I last year for 9th grade. He hates it, it's like pulling teeth and he retains little to none. After two years, he's at the end of Lesson 10, which about half of MODG 9th year plan. We have started doing Latin almost entirely orally, because then I know he's at least paying attention.

 

He's not interested in Romans and Gauls. I suspect he would like whole-to-parts better, but that's only because he's smart enough to get by (at least Latin to English, or Latin to Latin) without ever learning the parts.

 

I have Lingua Latina, Wheelock's, Our Latin Heritage, Jenney's and Latina Viva.

 

I've started looking at Latin Prep.

 

I'm not interested in just doing a roots program.

 

He has 2 younger sisters too [14 (no Latin) and 11 (1/2 of LCI - pulling teeth again)]. Could they all do Latin Prep together?

 

Does Latin Prep cover enough to bother at the high school stage? Will he find it babyish? Is there enough "British humor" to interest at 16?

 

Any other ideas? I'm looking for anything that will motivate him to dedicate a few brain cells to Latin.

[Moira in MA]

Does he hate Latin in general or Henle in specific?

 

You may want to consider some online options if Latin is a must for graduation in your home. The Potter School offers Latin I using Lingua Latina, Regina Coelin offers it for either Henle or Wheelocks.

 

HTH

[Plaid Dad]

Have you had him take a look at Lingua Latina? It might be just the thing he needs to get out of his rut at this stage. The stories are engaging, and the vocabulary is much more extensive than in Henle. I've found some students who don't retain grammar in abstract form ("charts and chants") do much better when they see it in context. Since you have the book on hand, I'd give it a try and see if it does the trick.

[Barb_]

If you want whole to parts, look at Oxford or Cambridge. My Henle hater has cruised through Oxford without a hitch.

 

Barb

[HSKLNG]

Latin in the Christian Trivium? Older students can do it by themselves.

 

Here is the link, go to the Sample pages, print and let them try it.

 

http://www.latintrivium.com/

 

HTH

[Susan in SoCal]

Lingua Latina might just be the trick for your son.

 

To address your second question, Yes - all your kids could do Latin Prep (tho maybe moving at different paces). It's not at all baby-ish. It's engaging. It's filled with British wit (read: sarcasm!). It moves along at a pretty quick clip. The explanations are good and thorough. The exercises (translations and readings) are interesting and varied. A couple things to keep in mind: the cases are presented in British order, and like Henle, the vocabulary is limited (compared to Wheelocks, which drowns you in vocabulary and grammar).

[Laura Corin]

Adding on to Susan's post: I haven't done it, but I think that LP would work well for high school. You could probably cover two books in a year, so year one would be LP 1 & 2, year two would be LP 3 and So You Really Want to Learn Latin 3. At that point you are well set for starting to read original texts.

 

That pace would definitely be too fast for the 11yo. You could either have the younger two or the older two work together, based on how it works for you. The books would be the same; just the pace would be different. For the older, you probably could skip the workbooks; they would be optional for the younger child(ren).

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[Julie in GA]

I use and really like it, but my ds is fairly motivated. The Lingua Latina or Oxford/Cambridge suggestions may be a better fit.