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Latin timetables (for those aiming for the ability to read Latin literature)...


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My mother had Latin in school, and I asked her how much she took and what she was able to do when. She said in her school one started French in 7th grade and Latin in 8th and did each for about 4 years. At the end of the 4th year of Latin, she could read Latin pretty happily. They read Ceasar, Virgil, and Cisero (probably mangled some of the spellings - sorry). They read French literature starting in 9th and 10th. So, those of you wanting to be able to actually read Latin, apparently it isn't a very hard goal to reach. : ) I'm relieved. I've been assuming that after we finish Ecce Romani 3 we'll be able to read Latin (with some practice and a dictionary, of course). Maybe I wasn't wrong. I just haven't seen a lot of examples of people doing that here. Or maybe I missed them or something.

-Nan

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For comparison: I started French at age 11 and by age 16 was reading Le Grand Meaulnes and Candide in the original. I began Latin at 12 and was reading Virgil at 15 or 16.

 

Calvin started earlier with Latin, but we are taking it slowly. I expect that he'll be starting to read original texts at around age 13 or 14. We haven't started French yet.

 

Laura

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Your mom's experience sounds like my son's experiences with Latin. He began Latin I (Wheelock's) in 7th grade, and by the second semester of yr. 3, he was reading "real" Latin, and it's been straight Latin translation since then. He's finishing up yr. 5 (Catullus/Horace). He did Vergil last year, and will take Medeival Latin next year.

 

What a great education your mom must have had!

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I had to chuckle at your subject line; it made me think of math timestables ... i.e., one times one is one through twelve times twelve is one hundred forty-four but all in Latin!

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Me too. I was wondering if you were planning on teaching math in Latin. (with Roman numerals? A little Algebra, anyone? Let's see, VIIx...

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Other than that, it is going fine. Throughout Ecce 1, other than memorizing the tables I could get away with not doing any work other than what we did together. In other words, I didn't have to do the excersizes I assigned the children or any extra memorizing or reading. When we hit Ecce 2, I had to do a bit more work on my own. I can tell that with Ecce 3, I'm going to have to be more careful to keep up. We're finishing up Ecce 2. We'd be going faster if I already knew Latin (takes me awhile to figure things out sometimes) or if we had better memories or if we didn't keep stopping for summer or for my older one to travel. Every time we stop for a few months, it takes us a month or two to get up to speed again. Sigh. We're really enjoying the story and all the extras. Both children are still interested in learning it, I think because of the richness of the textbook. They consider it their hardest subject. The younger one relied on what "sounded right" until about halfway through 2 and learns the vocab without having to memorize it. He only recently reached the point where he decided that it is handy to be able to actually apply the grammar. I think this is because he learned French immersion-style earlier. He made multiple grammar errors, but I didn't fuss, and now I'm glad I didn't, since he's come round on his own. The older one is good at applying the grammar, if he can remember the tables, but struggles with remembering the vocab. Good thing we're doing a reading based program. There is no way he could manage something that didn't rely on the reading for review and for introducing new material. I've had both of them read some of Cambridge (just read) for extra practice, when we've had time. I wish we had a tutor, but I would wish that no matter what text we were using, I'm sure, and I wish I were better at memorizing, but at least we are managing. The grammar explanations haven't been anything I couldn't figure out fairly easily, and the way the excersizes are set up is really helpful. So - we're muddling along slowly and liking it, despite the hard work, because Ecce Romani makes the Romans seem real and interesting. And that is probably way more than you wanted to know GRIN.

-Nan

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