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First Form Latin Questions


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My kids are demanding to study Latin this year. They will be going into 6th & 7th. I have absolutely no experience with Latin. Based on all the reviews, I think I might like First Form Latin. I really want something that is simple for me to execute. We have will have a pretty full year before we add Latin. I really only want to spend around 30 minutes a day on this, 60 at the most.

 

Would First Form Latin be a good fit? If so, what components should I order? (I will probably order from RR.) I'm thinking we will need 2 student texts, student workbooks, & 2 tests & quizzes. Should I get the Grammar Wall Charts? Flashcards??

 

All advice will be greatly appreciated!

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My dd did FFL this year w/o any help from me. I bought the dvds, but the dog chewed one, so she decided she didn't need them anyway. She said they slowed her down. I didn't buy wall charts/flash cards. I bought the whole kit and caboodle when ds did LCI and II, but found we didn't really need it.

 

My dd made her own flash cards, which I would encourage. You could do the same w/posters.

 

One of the best things that helped my kids w/Latin was the Latin portion of the Classical Conversations memory work. I'm not sure if it's worth it to purchase the whole cd just for those portions from Cycle 1 and 2, but my son who just finished the first year of high school Henle would often pull the chants from his brain from CC memory work. You could probably do this on your own w/recording your own chants.

 

HTH,

Laura

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I think FFL will fit the bill nicely. If your students will be working on Latin at the same time or they really hate to share then you should get 2 texts. I only have one which my students shared. It was inconvenient at times. If money isn't an issue it would be nice to have 2. You don't need 2 test books. Those are reproducible. I agree with a pp that making their own flashcards is a worthwhile activity. We didn't use wall posters or dvd's so can't comment except to say that we haven't missed them. Actually haven't used the audio CD either but after LCI and LCII we felt like we had a good enough grasp on the pronunciation system. If this is your first foray you'll want the audio.

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We love First Form Latin! I bought the teacher's guides (very valuable!), two student sets for my two kids, and I think our package came with a CD which I haven't even tried, and a set of flash cards. I liked having flash cards for myself because I use them to drill the children during our recitations. I have my children make their own flashcards, though, because they learn something in doing so. You'll need a bunch of index cards for this!

 

As for how long it takes, we spend an hour on Monday with a recitation of the grammar questions and teaching that week's lesson. Then Tuesday-Thursday, they will review vocabulary and work on their workbooks and we'll check the workbook pages and do the oral drills to prepare for the quiz. That takes less than 30 minutes each day, usually. On Friday they spend 15 minutes or less taking the quiz or test for that week. If we want to take Friday off, then I compact their workbook work into two days and we test on Thursday. My time commitment is that hour on Monday and half an hour on Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday they work alone. If we had the DVDs, I'm sure my oldest could do this completely alone. My younger one might as well.

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I will be starting FFL with my DD10 in the fall. I bought the full kit with DVDs. The teacher's manual is laid out well, I obviously haven't used it, but have been reading through it to get a handle on how to schedule out the lessons.

 

My issue is I don't see any references as to when to use the DVDs...can anyone help? My guess is that it is used on the first day to teach the new grammar :confused: And if that is the case, do I not need to spend teacher time going through the "Grammar-Chalk Talk" steps in the TM? maybe it needs to be used more often to review?

Has anyone used them?:bigear:

 

By the way, my MP box full of latin arrived almost a month ago, but I have been procrastinating planning it out until I read this thread...thanks!

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Hi Kerry,

 

I use the DVD on the first day of the new lesson, and sometimes I even watch it twice if I need/want to ;). The DVDs do MOST of the teaching in the TM, but I still read through to see if I have missed anything - more detail IS given in the TM re: derivatives, grammar etc.

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Hi Kerry,

 

I use the DVD on the first day of the new lesson, and sometimes I even watch it twice if I need/want to ;). The DVDs do MOST of the teaching in the TM, but I still read through to see if I have missed anything - more detail IS given in the TM re: derivatives, grammar etc.

 

Thank you!

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