Lively Latin vs Prima Latina

[Valerie in Chicago]

Can you stand another Latin post? If so, I'd be most grateful for any insights. It's late, I'm planning for next year, and I'm overthinking the life right out of things!

 

If you're at all familiar with both/either of these programs, do you have an opinion about which is preferrable?

 

Keep in mind that I know NOTHING about Latin. I've never taken one single minute of any class. I'd be teaching this next September to a just-turned-eight child (her bday is early September). She's brightr enough, but like I said -- I know squat!

 

I've surveyed a few friends who went to the "cream-of-the-crop" Catholic high schools in the city where I grew up, and they say they got the Classical pronunciation in class. Is the pronunciation choice an important one?

 

Sorry. Digressing.

 

Anyway, making myself mildly crazy and I go in circles. Thanks for any help!:001_smile:

[Samiam]

We used PL for one full year, and owned LL, used it for about a month, and then ditched.

 

PL is very basic Latin intro, with mostly just vocab work. There is no talk of declensions, forms, conjugations. It is VERY easy to do. Read lesson, do worksheet, drill vocab, listen to audio. Done.

 

LL, well, to me, was a convulated mess. There is the history portion, which while I found very interesting, was in the end just busy work. You make a binder with various tabs and then sometimes are stuck trying to figure out where this worksheet goes to which tab. The lessons are not clear cut, like Day one, day two, etc. Although it is much more "lively" than PL, as the activities are more interactive.

 

Personally LL was just too much work on MY part, to work for my children. Since Latin is not a "core" subject, at least in elementary, for my family, but just something I wanted them to do, I needed something that is going to be easy to actually get done. PL and now First Form Latin, was just that.

[janainaz]

I know nothing about Lively Latin, but I used Prima Latina, Latina Christiana, First Form, and we're on Second Form Latin currently.

 

All I can say is that I knew NOTHING about Latin and I don't speak any other foreign languages. I was kind of terrified about the whole idea of teaching a subject that I knew absolutely nothing about. Prima Latina is very very gentle, it's slow and easy. If you can commit 30 minutes a day, or 2-3 hours a week to it, you'll be fine. In all reality, Prima Latina you probably only need about 15 minutes a day.

 

It's gentle - if I can do it, anyone can do it!

 

 

First Form picks up the pace - you HAVE to spend at LEAST 30 minutes a day reviewing and DO THE WORK WITH YOUR KIDS. I sit with ds and do the workbook on paper, as he writes in the book. I keep up much better that way. But he's doing fine - it's a great Latin curriculum.

Edited May 13, 2011 by janainaz

[NittanyJen]

We have been using both-- DS10 uses Lively Latin and DS7 uses Prima Latina. PL definitely has religious overtones, but it isn't the entire curriculum. It is much more suited to the abilities of a younger child's grammar and abilities than Lively Latin. LL has been a great fit for my 10YO, with more grammar, more information on English derivatives, gently introducing the declensions ( kind of Latin's way of organizing genders and conjugations). I just go to the website and print out a chapter at a time, and each day, I hand my son one exercise unit-- the lesson, exercise, history, and word power. If the history is too much, just don't print those pages :). He loves going online for the online lessons and to play hangman and battleship.

 

With Prima Latina, I just gave DS7 a scientific lab timer set to 20 minutes per day. He will study the vocabulary or do workbook exercises and go back and study the vocabulary again until he feels good about it.

 

Both boys are doing really well on the tests, and are experimenting with the language around the house, so I figure I pegged them about right to their programs-- at least for these two kids.

[janainaz]

In regard to pronunciation - here is what the Memoria Press web site offers on that:

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/whichpron.htm

[Stacyandtherugrats]

I have never used PL but I have been using LL for 3+ years and absolutely love it. I knew nothing about Latin when I started but the way the lessons are set up, I didn't need to. It teaches everything about the language and also includes Roman history and English derivatives. You can skip the history if you don't want to include it but my children love learning about the Romans.

 

eta: We chose the classical pronunciation as opposed to the ecclastical. With LL, you can do either. She has audio of all the vocabulary words in both pronunciations - which is a big plus.

[Jen500]

We started with PL and quickly dropped it because it was soooooo dry and boring.

We switched to LL and it was a favorite subject. I used the pdf version, and printed the next weeks pages out once a week. We did about 2 pages/day, or 15-20 minutes.

[Denise Allen]

We have used Memoria Press (Prima Latina, Latina Christiana, Henle) for years and LOVE them! They don't move too quickly- simple to understand. My kids, now 12 & 13) still love learning latin after starting in 3rd grade.

[AmericanMom]

I used both PL and LL. My oldest did PL, Minimus I & II, LL, First Form and is now finishing Second Form. PL was very gentle, yes, but overall I thought it was a waste of time. My kids loved LL and I thought it was very easy to use, even though I didn't know much Latin at the time.

 

Part of it depends on the age of the child. PL would be okay for a younger child than LL.

 

Part of it depends on your personality. PL is more "school-y" if that is your thing. LL, while it covers much more Latin, is more geared towards home/individualized education.

 

Part of it depends on your goals. Do you want mostly just exposure (PL) or more grammar study (LL)?

[SnMomof7]

We are using PL. That is all that we've used (I am about to start FF myself). So, is it a bit boring? Yup. But is it easy to teach and do? Yup. Is it easy to review? Yup. Do we like the DVDs? Yup. We make flashcards to review, and even my five-year-old is trying to sneakily get in on the memory work. I love that it has memory work built in because I can have a hard time figuring that out sometimes. It is very classical in methodology. It is very gentle and vocabulary focused. It's a great starter course for building some confidence. We plan on doing the whole S&S with MP. Even though I thought I wanted a classical pronunciation (I have two years of high school Latin in a classical style), MP won me over with their easy to use materials. First Form looks....awesome. I can't wait to get started (waiting for the workbook I ordered for DH to arrive - he agreed to be my Latin buddy!)

[RootAnn]

If you're at all familiar with both/either of these programs, do you have an opinion about which is preferrable?

 

 

I don't think you'll have a problem teaching/going through either PL or LL. Both are geared for the non-Latin-teaching-types and you should do either one right along side your kid(s).

 

I owned PL for a couple of years before I got around to sticking it into the schedule. We just finished it about a month ago. My #2 kid is just a tad older than your oldest, but I had her do the workbook stuff orally, she dictated her test answers orally, and some of the grammar stuff was new to her.

 

If you can, I'd suggest doing PL next year (or not doing latin next year *gasp*) and doing LL the year after. Your younger will be old enough to absorb some of the vocab & "funness" of LL by then.

 

Pronunciation isn't that big of a deal, IMO. We're Catholic, so we'll stick with the "church Latin" (Ecclesiastical). One of our friends uses classical. (Minimus, which we are using as a fun bridge between PL and LC I, uses classical. The kids don't really care.) It is not a hill to die on. If you do PL & then switch to a classical pronunciation-program, you explain the differences & then move on. No big deal.

[Valerie in Chicago]

Just wanted to leave a giant THANK YOU! Each and every one of these responses has been hugely helpful. I'm not ruling out LL for future use, but after sharing all of these DH, I think we'll go with PL for starters.

 

THANK YOU AGAIN!