Trouble with LfC

[galaxy]

Hi everyone,

 

This was fun for the first three chapters, but it's become a little difficult to teach There's no real guide how to teach this to kids. It simply has all the information and they apparently hope you can then give the lesson? I'm learning right along with them, so it's become too hard to teach and strenuous on all of us (two boys, 8, 10).

 

Let me know if there's another choice out there with more detailed instruction, or at least something a new parent can help teach, or even something they can do more independently?

 

Thanks!

[Cosmos]

I assume you mean Latin for Children?

 

Are you using the DVDs? What do you feel is missing from the instruction? We have found it pretty straight-forward. We watch the DVD. Later I assign ds to read the grammar page on his own to refresh his memory. (The first year we did this part together.) Then he does the exercises in the book. That's been working well for us.

 

I'm sorry it's strenuous for you. That doesn't sound fun!

[Narrow Gate Academy]

Are you using the DVDs? What do you feel is missing from the instruction? We have found it pretty straight-forward. We watch the DVD. Later I assign ds to read the grammar page on his own to refresh his memory. (The first year we did this part together.) Then he does the exercises in the book. That's been working well for us.

 

:iagree: The DVDs are excellent. This is what we do as well. If you're trying it without the DVDs, you're going to need to work ahead of your kids to learn the material yourself before explaining it to them.

 

Lesson 4 is basically about introducing the noun endings for the first declension. You just need to memorize the names of the five cases and the endings and be able to explain that case shows how a word is used in the sentence (ie, subject, direct object, etc.) At a later point in the book, it will start explaining what the different cases are used for. HTH

[galaxy]

Yes, we use the DVD's, a lot. I think what might be happening for us is we're trying to master every chapter before we move on? Do you guys try to memorize all the vocabulary and conjugations before moving on? We do and it takes about 2 weeks per chapter to do so.

 

Hmm, thanks for your thoughts, we are doing what you guys are doing, but maybe we're pushing it a little too hard.

[Cosmos]

Yes, we use the DVD's, a lot. I think what might be happening for us is we're trying to master every chapter before we move on? Do you guys try to memorize all the vocabulary and conjugations before moving on? We do and it takes about 2 weeks per chapter to do so.

 

Hmm, thanks for your thoughts, we are doing what you guys are doing, but maybe we're pushing it a little too hard.

 

We master them. When we started, we did spend more than a week on a chapter because it was all so new to ds. By all means, take the time to really get the vocabulary and endings down.

 

I mentioned this in another thread, but I found shifting our schedule a bit helped in this aspect. We don't do the written work in a chapter until *after* the vocabulary is memorized. So we are always working one chapter behind. For example --

 

Week A -- Watch Lesson 12, chant vocabulary every day for Lessons 11 & 12, do exercises for Lesson 11

 

Week B -- Watch Lesson 13, chant vocabulary every day for Lessons 12 & 13, do exercises for Lesson 12

 

and so on. This way we chant the vocabulary for each chapter for two weeks, and he doesn't begin the written work until AFTER the vocabulary is memorized (or nearly so). That cut way down on the time it took him to do the written work and on his frustration level.

[Haiku]

Here is something I wrote about LfC in another thread:

 

"I felt very liberated in November when my former bf, a European, came to stay with us for a week. He knows 7 languages, including Latin, which he studied from 6th grade through university. The first day he was here I shoved my Latin materials at him and asked for his opinion. He looked through LfC A for about half an hour and then asked me incredulously, "You want to use this for dd8 ... NOW???" In his opinion, LfC is a good program that moved VERY quickly, and he recommended not starting it until 6th grade. His suggestion was to focus on English grammar until then."

 

Considering that my friend is highly educated and extremely proficient in Latin, I took him seriously. I'm not going to wait until 6th grade to start Latin (we're starting GSWL either later this year or next year) but his reaction confirmed my opinion that LfC moves very, very quickly. If it takes you two weeks (or more) to learn the material for a chapter, so be it. The point is to learn the material, not sprint through the program. :)

 

Tara

[acurtis75]

At first we were trying to memorize everything but then I realized that as we moved forward there are review chapters...just when I thought it was getting a little too tough for dd we hit ch 5 which was review and a mental break. I'm also finding that as we move on there is a lot of review. My goal is to memorize everything by the end of the unit. In other words before we moved to ch 6 we needed all of the vocab memorized for 1-4. Daily we do the chant for current week's lesson plus one for review. The memorization is a lot easier for dd than for me so I had to scan all the vocabulary pages as pdf's and put them in my iPad to review daily and reference if she gets stuck.

[elegantlion]

I agree, Latin is a marathon, not a sprint. If it takes two weeks to finish a chapter, it's fine. 8 and 10 is young. We started ds in 5th, he would have been 11. The youngest I would have felt comfortable is 4th, but that would have pushing his abilities.

 

I would also think about what your long term goals are for Latin? If you use LFC A-C, that's three years (according to their schedule). What after that? If you move into Latin Alive that's another three years. I wouldn't recommend Latin Alive below the 7th grade level. It's a very thorough program that is well worthy of a high school credit.

 

LFC is a grammar approach to Latin. If you wanted to add a conversational aspect, one that would be age appropriate, you could look into a new program called I Speak Latin. http://ispeaklatin.com/ Scroll to the bottom where you can download a sample.

[MyLittleWonders]

This thread is helping me feel a bit better. We have been plugging along at LfC A since the middle of last year. I ended up putting ds#2 (young 3rd grade) in Prima Latina (waiting for SSL 2) because he just was struggling. But even ds#1 is struggling. The hard thing is 2 weeks feels too long for a chapter, but one week is much too short. The grammar portion is easy, but the vocabulary and conjugations/declensions are killing us. Ds#1 is slated to start LfC B in January (half way through 5th grade). I'm thinking though we should shelve it until he starts 6th grade. But, I don't want to stop Latin ... I do have I Speak Latin and Minimus, which seems like something all three boys could do together. Are there other options that keep the instruction going but without quite the intensity of LfC ... I do absolutely love the program, but it feels a bit too much even for my oldest yet.

 

And Tara ... you brought up a good point. I've thought often about what we would do after LfC, as I do plan on having Latin as a subject through high school. I haven't looked much at Latin Alive, but I could see doing LfC A-C from 5th'ish through 8th grade and then LA through 11th grade or so. Maybe I need to shelve it all and keep with an easier approach for now that allows us to enjoy the language.

[Haiku]

I had planned to use LfC when dd started Latin, but my plans have changed. At this point I plan to start with GSWL and Salvete together. Salvete is (I believe) Minimus's predecessor, and I managed to pick it up (both student books and the teacher book) from Alibris for about $15 total. I've read through much of it, and I think it's a good program. I'm not especially worried about how long it takes us to get through these programs. We'll just work until they are finished, assess where we are, and see where we go from there. I have spent countless hours of my life trying to plan too far ahead in Latin (and many other things) and I finally realized that, to some degree, I don't know where we will go in certain subjects until it's almost time to go there. So much depends on the kids and their aptitudes and interests. So, imo, I wouldn't so much worry where you might go after LfC (or Latin Prep, or Prima Latina, or First Form, or whatever other program you're using), because there are too many variables to account for when you are first starting out.

 

Tara

[galaxy]

Some excellent thoughts all around everyone, thanks so much! I have a lot to think about.

[MyLittleWonders]

Thanks Tara for your thoughts. Much like my oldest, I like to have the big picture all planned out. But, then, I get overly anxious trying to keep to that big picture. So, then I change it and the cycle continues. :lol: I do know that I want them to have a solid foundation of Latin (and eventually a couple modern languages, probably of Latin origin, like Spanish, French, and/or Italian). But, getting there has been a stress. I do love the LfC program thus far. But it's just moving too fast for us right now.

 

I do think, once we pick it back up, I'll try Cosmos's idea above where the written work is done the second week ... So, now just to regroup and start again. I have GSWL in my Amazon cart, and I think I'll get it and Minimus Secondus (we are almost done with Minimus). And, maybe we'll just have fun with it all, including Prima Latina (not my favorite at all, but most of the vocabulary is just review of what we have already learned in LfC A, and all I use it for is keeping vocab. fresh). Hmmm ... I'm glad next week is an "off" week for us so I can figure this out, at least for this school year. :lol:

[twoforjoy]

"I felt very liberated in November when my former bf, a European, came to stay with us for a week. He knows 7 languages, including Latin, which he studied from 6th grade through university. The first day he was here I shoved my Latin materials at him and asked for his opinion. He looked through LfC A for about half an hour and then asked me incredulously, "You want to use this for dd8 ... NOW???" In his opinion, LfC is a good program that moved VERY quickly, and he recommended not starting it until 6th grade. His suggestion was to focus on English grammar until then."

 

I concur. I probably won't wait until 6th grade, but we've put LfC aside and I have Song School Latin coming (actually, it should be on the UPS truck to us right now). DS actually likes Latin, and he's very good with grammar, but it is too much. Way too much. My revised Latin plan, at this point, is to do SSL this year for second grade, SSL2 (which I'm glad to hear is coming out!) next year for third grade, and then spend two years on LfC A in fourth and fifth grade. I'm thinking we'll spend one year each on LfC B and C in sixth and seventh grade, but at that point who knows?

 

Honestly, I was mentioning on the Wheelock thread that my husband wants to learn Latin but is intimidated by Wheelock. I'm seriously considering handing him LfC A as a less-intimidating introduction!

[my2boysteacher]

I had planned to use LFC A this year, and borrowed it from a friend to review. After thoroughly studying it, I decided it was just too heavy on vocab, and too light on translation and actual usage. We decided to use Lively Latin this year, which I really like. It is lighter on vocab, but has a generous amount of word roots, declining, translating, etc.

[acurtis75]

I agree, Latin is a marathon, not a sprint. If it takes two weeks to finish a chapter, it's fine. 8 and 10 is young. We started ds in 5th, he would have been 11. The youngest I would have felt comfortable is 4th, but that would have pushing his abilities.

 

I would also think about what your long term goals are for Latin? If you use LFC A-C, that's three years (according to their schedule). What after that? If you move into Latin Alive that's another three years. I wouldn't recommend Latin Alive below the 7th grade level. It's a very thorough program that is well worthy of a high school credit.

 

LFC is a grammar approach to Latin. If you wanted to add a conversational aspect, one that would be age appropriate, you could look into a new program called I Speak Latin. http://ispeaklatin.com/ Scroll to the bottom where you can download a sample.

 

I am doing lfc a. With dd & love it but I checked out the link and think that could be a cool supplement. I keep saying I'm not buying anything else & then I see something else cool on this board!

[Sahamamama]

I agree, Latin is a marathon, not a sprint. If it takes two weeks to finish a chapter, it's fine. 8 and 10 is young. We started ds in 5th, he would have been 11. The youngest I would have felt comfortable is 4th, but that would have pushing his abilities.

 

I would also think about what your long term goals are for Latin? If you use LFC A-C, that's three years (according to their schedule). What after that? If you move into Latin Alive that's another three years. I wouldn't recommend Latin Alive below the 7th grade level. It's a very thorough program that is well worthy of a high school credit.

 

LFC is a grammar approach to Latin. If you wanted to add a conversational aspect, one that would be age appropriate, you could look into a new program called I Speak Latin. http://ispeaklatin.com/ Scroll to the bottom where you can download a sample.

 

Thank you for this post (and this thread). Somehow, just reading it makes me feel better about putting Latin off until 4th grade (or even 5th). Thanks.

 

[breathes sigh of relief that at least THAT is settled for next year. ;)]

[elegantlion]

I am doing lfc a. With dd & love it but I checked out the link and think that could be a cool supplement. I keep saying I'm not buying anything else & then I see something else cool on this board!

 

This board is dangerous~~

 

Thank you for this post (and this thread). Somehow, just reading it makes me feel better about putting Latin off until 4th grade (or even 5th). Thanks.

 

[breathes sigh of relief that at least THAT is settled for next year. ;)]

 

Good. :grouphug:

[Penelope]

I used part of A last year with an 8 year old, and it quickly became too much for me to keep up with.

 

This year at 9 it's a different story. We are easily covering one lesson per week, a few minutes per day, and he enjoys it. He already understands the grammar concepts because parts of speech and parts of sentence are all review for him. He can do a lot of his memory and review independently, with me checking in periodically. Last year it was me doing most of the work. I have watched the lessons and read ahead through the book, though I have to admit I'm behind on the memorization aspect (not as easy to quickly learn all the declensions at thirty-something vs. nine). Even with the basic instruction, I think level A is primarily to get some vocabulary and endings down in the memory banks while the memory comes easily.

[Ali in OR]

LFC has been a good fit for us. I'm trying to think why that is, and I'm thinking it might be because my 11 yo (who has completed it) and I are both auditory learners. She has a strong memory and has been able to handle the vocab lists just fine (more easily than I). She was not as crazy about writing when we started, so I was always the scribe as she did the lessons orally. I do think that one thing that can help is to play the chant CD in the car periodically. Those chants really help us to get the conjugations and declensions down. Even now in Latin Alive, if we're translating something we'll sing through a chant to help us figure out the endings. And I also remember that the whole program was confusing to me at first until I had learned enough to kind of get the big picture. At first "four principle parts" and the different cases didn't have much meaning for me, but the book does explain more and more as you work through it.

[Zoo Keeper]

I agree with what many have already said; LfC does move through a lot of material at a quick clip. It was too fast for my oldest boy last year--and he is a good auditory learner, and he is a lanuage lover who begged for Latin. I found that he was memorizing well, but it was not being put into his long term memory because he wasn't using it enough.

His younger brother, who was doing GSwL because I thought he wasn't ready for LfC, was much better at knowing just what to do with all those little endings--the consistent translation practice in GSwL was making it all stick. So I had the older boy start doing GSwL, in addition to taking two weeks to go through each LfC chapter (similar to what a previous poster mentioned, he would watch and chant the first week, and then do the paperwork on the second week). His retention and understanding is much, much better.

 

We are continuing this pattern this year, as both the boys are working through finishing LfC A (with using the History reader as more translation work) and GSwL. I would have a serious revolt on my hands if I tried to cut out the LfC videos. My guys love the corny humor.

 

I plan on sticking with LfC, just slowing it down to suit us.