JudoMom Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I love Latin Prep. My older 2 boys love Latin Prep. I think Latin Prep is a fabulous program. But I just don't have the time to check my boys' work to make sure they are really understanding it. And I hate for them to labor over something like this, only to have me check their work (most often several days later) and find out they misunderstood something. I've tried to be more efficient in checking their work, but between schooling them and our outside activities, I often only have time to grade once a week at piano lessons. Anyway, I think I've almost decided to abandon it and move to Latin Alive, most likely with the DVDs. Tell me how you like Latin Alive. How long does your child spend on Latin each day? Do you find it easy to check their work and catch their mistakes? Does your child like it? How similar is it to Latin for Children? My boys had a bad experience with LfC due to their incompetent teacher (me), and don't really like it because of that. Do you think this would be the right move? I'd like to find a program and stick with it for their middle school years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 (edited) Latin is such a tough decision , I'll try to fill in how we handle LA. We did LFC and had fun with it, but while LFC felt "fun", Latin Alive feels meaty. CAP now has tests for book 1 available and those would be a great check to make sure they're understanding. Each chapter is set up in a similar way. There is an introduction of a state seal, the vocabulary, and then there are a number of exercise to complete, anywhere from 3-7 just from a quick flip through. There are a certain number of sections per chapter. For instance section 31 begins chapter 11. There are also chapter readings that increase in length and difficulty. Then each unit has a longer reading section. The DVDs are set up so that Karen Moore teaches through the majority of the chapter introductions and exercises. There are questions after the reading that would let you know if they understood. I have not seen the tests from CAP(they were just released), but we've been utilizing some free resources on the yahoo group to help with retention. I can't say if it would be the best program for you as I'm working with my son. Hopefully someone will chime in that has had their child work independently to give you a better perspective. Here's a link to the yahoo group as well. Edited February 20, 2011 by elegantlion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Tell me how you like Latin Alive. How long does your child spend on Latin each day? Do you find it easy to check their work and catch their mistakes? Does your child like it? How similar is it to Latin for Children? My 7th grader is using LA this year, and I don't really check her work very often. She watches the DVD lesson twice during the week, and works on the material in the text. She enjoys the DVD lessons, and finds them interesting and entertaining, as opposed to the Latina Christiana DVDs, which made us want to poke our eyes out years ago when we tried them. On the days she doesn't watch the DVD, she spends maybe 20-30 minutes reviewing and doing the exercises in the chapter. She's pretty much on her own with it. She's not a very independent worker usually (she has ADD and needs to be sat on most of the time in order to get anything done), but she does well with Latin Alive. In high school, she'll probably pick up Henle, so I'm not too stressed about her retaining everything from LA. I've never used Latin for Children, so I can't compare the two! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Thank you both. Anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooblink Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 :bigear: Thank you! I didn't want to be the one to start *another* Latin thread, but nobody ever talks about Latin Alive!!! Anyway, I'm probably going to buy this for my 7th grader to start in a month or two, and was hoping to hear more experiences. Lots of people seem to like LFC. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie in Oh Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 rather independently. It is hard! the first 6 chapters were review, but since then, the chapter readings/ translations have seriously upped their difficulty. DD hates the DVD lessons. They are long and she finds them boring. THere seems to be alot of emphasis on pronunciation and diction for speaking it correctly which she finds unimportant, but she is doing fine and learning. It is her 4th year of Latin, so she knows it is hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooblink Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 rather independently. It is hard! the first 6 chapters were review, but since then, the chapter readings/ translations have seriously upped their difficulty. DD hates the DVD lessons. They are long and she finds them boring. THere seems to be alot of emphasis on pronunciation and diction for speaking it correctly which she finds unimportant, but she is doing fine and learning. It is her 4th year of Latin, so she knows it is hard. So, do you think a very bright 7th grader could hang, even though we've only done part of Latina Christiana 1? Or, do you think LFC would be a better place to start? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 rather independently. It is hard! the first 6 chapters were review, but since then, the chapter readings/ translations have seriously upped their difficulty. DD hates the DVD lessons. They are long and she finds them boring. THere seems to be alot of emphasis on pronunciation and diction for speaking it correctly which she finds unimportant, but she is doing fine and learning. It is her 4th year of Latin, so she knows it is hard. Does it take a lot of time for you to check her work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 So, do you think a very bright 7th grader could hang, even though we've only done part of Latina Christiana 1? Or, do you think LFC would be a better place to start? I think a bright 7th grader would be fine with Latin Alive. My 7th grader had studied Latin several years ago (Minimus, Minimus Secundus, first half of Lively Latin Book I), but hadn't touched it since. She retained very little from her earlier years of Latin. She's done just fine with Latin Alive, and hasn't struggled with it at all, but she's a very language oriented kid. As far as checking her work goes, it doesn't take me very long to do. I only check it about once a week to ensure it's being done properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissa123 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 (edited) My 7th grader is doing well with Latin Alive. After the first few chapters it does move fast, so being diligent about practicing the new conjugations, declensions, and vocab is really important. (This practice is not part of the exercises in the Student Book, but there are conj/decl sheets available in the TG for you to copy and use. We practice declining and conjugating daily.) I'm doing the program along with my daughter, but she could handle it on her own. She likes the DVD lessons, and she rarely has a problem completing the exercises. We check her work right after she completes it (using the teacher guide.) It works well this way - if anything is incorrect, she can immediately figure out what she did wrong. Also, the yahoo group is great. Karen Moore (the author of LA) will respond very quickly to any questions that you may have. HTH, Melissa Edited February 23, 2011 by melissa123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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