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Is Latina Christiana "better"?


mindygz
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Not harder, obviously it is, but I don't really like how we just learn isolated words and, except for the Practical Latin phrase & the prayers, we haven't learned how to put any phrases together. We are only at lesson 13 or so, so maybe I'm just impatient. Looking through the book, it doesn't seem like we get into much of that. Is Latin Christiana more complete in that way?

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I don't think it is better or more complete. It is just a different way of approaching Latin study...spending a lot of time learning grammar and vocabulary prior to translating. I struggled a lot to choose what we would use this year. I finally decided to go with LC because I wanted something with a dvd option, and since dd is only in 3rd grade I felt spending a lot of time in grammar and vocab would be fine. I am happy with my decision, but I do wish that there was more translation--even simple sentence translation exercises--because I've seen in our other language studies that those translation exercises really stimulate the brain to process and internalize the pieces they are memorizing. The dvd lessons have just started (we are around lesson 10) providing some guidance in translating simple sentences. If you haven't used Ludere Latine I would encourage you to purchase it. It does have puzzles and games that provide more of an opportunity to put these pieces into practice.

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We have used LC all the way through to Henle (which my older boys are doing now). I also wished there were some sentences for translating, so once they started learning how to make simple sentences, then every morning I would write a sentence or 2 in Latin for them to translate to English, and a sentence or 2 in English for them to translate into Latin. I wrote them in a notebook, so now I have them for the next kids too, LOL. I do think it helped them process the knowledge, as well as review their vocab. On a Sunday I would just make up a bunch of sentences and then use them throughout the week.

 

I agree that LC is not neccessarily a "better" program, but it is a very thorough program, and I am very happy with the level of knowledge my older boys acquired through it.

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We have used LC all the way through to Henle (which my older boys are doing now). I also wished there were some sentences for translating, so once they started learning how to make simple sentences, then every morning I would write a sentence or 2 in Latin for them to translate to English, and a sentence or 2 in English for them to translate into Latin. I wrote them in a notebook, so now I have them for the next kids too, LOL. I do think it helped them process the knowledge, as well as review their vocab. On a Sunday I would just make up a bunch of sentences and then use them throughout the week.

 

This is a great idea!

 

I agree that LC is not neccessarily a "better" program, but it is a very thorough program, and I am very happy with the level of knowledge my older boys acquired through it.

 

:iagree: (except for the older boys part. :) I also greatly appreciate the lessons on dvd. I know a lot of people dislike the dvds, but I'm very pleased with how they have helped dd.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the input. I realized that I didn't mention that we are in Prima Latina now, though maybe that was obvious.

 

I like the idea about doing sentence translations, too. We just aren't far enough to make any sentences yet. Oh well. I am probably more into it (the learning of Latin) than my dd8 right now, anyways, so the emphasis on vocabulary might be just right for her.

 

Glad to hear that you have been pleased with LC.

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I loved LC all the way until LCII. In LCII I find that there are too many vocabulary words to practice and not enough translation exercises. Because of this my dd is not picking up the skills she needs to translate nearly as fast as she could have. We plan to zip through the rest of LCII and move on to Henle; from what I can see it's the opposite, less vocab. & much more translation.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that because of LCII's approach, I feel like we've wasted time this year that could have been better spent. I'm not sure about First Form which is now supposed to take the place of LCII. Perhaps they've improved it ...?

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