Latin complaints, should I just switch curriculums, or languages?

[summer]

We are currently doing Latina Christiana 1. My DD is struggling with it. She is not quite "getting" the idea off conjugating a verb. She is very bright and I siuspect she gets it, she just doesn't like doing it.

 

I feel that LC1 is one of the least confusing, most straight forward Latin Programs out there that I have seen. Now, I have not seen them all, but this one is pretty good. But perhaps if I switched up to something more interesting, not sure what that would be, but perhaps she would stop complaining. (although, this is a smart child who will typically complain about anything that is foreign enough to her to force her to use her brain much)

 

DD says why don't we just switch back to Rosetta Stone for French, it is sooo much easier. Well, she complained about Rosetta Stone when she did it. We no longer have a Latin Rosetta Stone. When we tried to do French, she complained about that too. The local homeschool store is offering French this fall and she is not interested in taking itt.

 

I know foreign language is not her cup of tea, but it is simply one of those requirements she just has to do whether she likes it or not. She is at a phase in her life where complaining can be a problem.

 

So, should I just ignore her complaints (because we have spent at least 2 years switching things up in this area and it has not gotten us anywhere), add something more to the Latin to make it more interesting, or let her try to go back to Rosetta Stone French?

[Sahamamama]

Drew (Plaid Dad) could give you a better answer about the particulars of Latin programs, but I'll just offer my 2 cents here.

 

How can I say this gently? Hmmm.... I think you, the mother-teacher, need to determine for yourself what your goals are in teaching any world language to your child. Why teach a world language at all? Why teach it now? Why Latin? Why French? Answering these questions (in writing) will help you to not bounce all over the place in this area of learning.

 

Your determination to persevere will be tested by a child who does not seem to want to be guided down this road. So, you need to know your reasons, or you will cave in to her every time the going gets a bit rough.

 

I hope this comes across the right way. ? :confused: Perhaps it's not the program you are doing that needs to keep on changing, but the conviction that X (language study) is good for Y (child) because of Z (your reasons). HTH.

[Plaid Dad]

Summer, how old is your dd again?

[summer]

She is 12 now. She turned 12 in April. Thanks! I will be looking for your answer.

[Plaid Dad]

She is at the upper age level for LC, so the resistance you're seeing may have more to do with lack of challenge than with conceptual difficulty. I would try Henle and see how she fares with it.

[TracyR]

Hmm. She sounds like my oldest . Not so much with learning a foreign language. She likes that so far . But sometimes with other subjects no matter what I use she complains .

 

I think it all goes by what one mom here said . What your plans are. Why do you want her to learn Latin ?

For church exposure ?

For better SAT scores ?

What are your goals as far as this is concerned ?

How is conjugating explained in the LC1 book ?

Its explained as this in the PL book :

 

Think of the word :Walk

If you are talking about yourself , you say : " I walk " ( these are my words here :>) I would have her walk in place as she says : " I walk "

If you are talking about your friend John ( or insert one of her friends to make it a bit more concrete ) then you would say " John walks"

 

See how you change ( or conjugate ) the verb because of who is doing the verb ?

 

Try another one : The verb is run.

If your dog , Spot , runs, you say: " Spot runs" ( show a stuffed dog pretending to run I'm sure she'll enjoy the humor of it :>)

If you run , you say " I run " ( have her run in place )

If you run with your dog , you say : " We run " ( then have her hold the stuffed dog and have her run in place )

 

A verb is also changed ( or conjugated ) because of when the verb happens .

The verb is call .

If you called yesterday , you would say " Yesterday I called"

If you are going to call tomorrow , you say: " Tomorrow I will call ."

If you are calling right now , you say " I call "

( Talk about a time she called someone , or if she will call someone . )

 

Also I've found drawing pictures helps cement facts, words into their minds if she likes to draw .

Sometimes teaching Latin requires a little bit of creativity for some children to keep things interesting .

It just sounds like she needs a break from the structure of the program. Don't feel like you have to do everything .

 

Are you using the DVD program ? I have found this very helpful with the PL program for us . I don't think I could teach Latin without this program .

If you aren't using this I highly recommend them .

Sometimes you just need to move on and continue reviewing while you move onto other things too . She just may need more time to absorb the concept .

Sometimes just like with math sometimes or any other subject sometimes they need more time to think about the concept and to come back to it later too .

 

Also , Catholic Heritage Curricula has a cute reader series called Little Latin Readers . I am most definitley getting these for my daughters just to change things a bit too .

http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/LanguageArts/Latin/catalog.html?

[Crissy]

LC is so very dry. My first son did well with it, but I could hand him a dictionary, tell him to memorize it and he's smile at me and say, "Okay!"

 

My younger son hated it. We switched to Latin Primer and he enjoys Latin every day now.

Being able to use the language instead of simply writing it out, word by word, on an index card made all the difference for him.

I suspect he would have done well with Henle, but LP is written with a measurable amount of 'boy humor' and he's loving it.

 

Do give Drew's suggestion a try. Your daughter may be asking for a more challenging program.

[Peela]

LC is very dry. (So is Henle, IMO, but people learn Latin for different reasons).

I would have a look at Latin Prep by Galore Park for your daughter, if you are committed to doing Latin. It gives interesting and fun, often gory and really humorous sentences, is far from dry, and it gives context, so she will be understanding why she is learning what she is learning, rather than just memorising.

But in the end, it is up to you. I have two kids who would quit Latin if given a choice. They would also quit Maths, Grammar, one child would do no writing. In fact, if left to themselves, they would read, watch movies, and play computer games all day :). Oh, and one would do lots of art, too. You are the teacher. :)

[Rosie_0801]

Obviously I don't know your reasons for insisting on a language. However, if you are committed to the idea of her learning a language, but not fussed which, try your national sign language. She can come out fluent in the language long before she would with a spoken language, the grammar is more flexible and there is no need to learn to read and write it. It's funky so you can't really help but learn, and fingerspelling makes language repair easy. It might just be different enough to stop her complaining since it requires moving and rather less sitting still.

Just an idea.

Rosie