What age for Cambridge Latin?

[Dmmetler]

A high school Latin teacher friend of mine sent me some of the materials she uses for her CL based class, and I'm wondering if CL might not be a better fit for DD now, since it's more reading based, with a plan to come back to LfC for the grammar when she's a little older-maybe even alternate the two. She's about halfway through LfC A right now, with Minimus added for fun.

 

Would CL be inappropriate for a language-loving 6 yr old who reads at a very high level?

[LizzyBee]

I wouldn't use Cambridge, Oxford, or Ecce Romani earlier than middle school.

 

Minimus is appropriate for younger children. http://www.amazon.com/Minimus-Pupils-Book-Starting-Latin/dp/0521659604

[forty-two]

I've read about CLC being used with 2nd graders successfully (at a slower pace - Unit 1 in g2-3, and Unit 2 in g4-5, iirc), and Veritas Press has CLC being used for reading practice with LfC, starting both in the latter half of 2nd or beginning of 3rd. I think a parent here with a very gifted 6yo used CLC with him successfully.

 

But Minimus is by the same people as CLC - I'd be more inclined to finish up Minimus before starting CLC with a kid that young, unless she really finds Minimus way too easy. CLC starts out really slow, but it jumps up quite a bit in difficulty - somewhere in Unit 2 or b/w Units 2 and 3 - you wouldn't want to get there too soon and stall out if you didn't have to.

 

Also, wrt to doing CLC and then following up with LfC, CLC is a full program - it goes a lot further than LfC, which is just an elementary program and would need to be followed up with a more complete program in any case. If you got very far in CLC, you'd be past a lot of LfC. I'd either do them simultaneously a la VP, or use another grammar program to follow up CLC (LP, I think, moves at a similar-ish speed, for similar age groups).

Edited November 20, 2010 by forty-two

[unity]

Yeah, 6 seems really young for CL. What's the rush? LfC is a good program, and fun, too. My ds begged to drop LfC because he thought it was just boringly easy, and now he's flying through CL. But he's 12! For your child, a LfC / Minimus combo sounds both fun and full. I think a language-loving 9 yo could handle CL, slowly, but 6 seems to be pushing it. Don't know quite how gifted your child is, though, so you'll have to search inside the books at Amazon to see how you think it would work in your situation.

[siloam]

Generally Cambridge is considered High School Latin, though the first text is sometimes broken into two years to be a middle school texts for 7th and 8th grades. Unless the child is extremely gifted I wouldn't go much younger. Minimus and Minimus Secondus are great! We also like Lively Latin One, for a more grammar approach without the heavy memorization of LFC.

 

Heather