Does your 4th grader have to learn Latin?

[mazakaal]

My dd wants to know how many other 'mean moms' there are out there. :001_smile: So I told her I'd set up a poll here.

 

eta: If you voted 'other' could you say why. Is your child learning Latin, but you don't consider yourself a 'mean mom' because they want to?

Edited June 18, 2012 by MeganP

[frugalmama]

Nope. Tell her it could be worse - dd will be studying Arabic and Spanish in 4th!

[Element]

Yep. You can tell her you're nice- many WTMoms start younger than that! :D

[rdj2027]

Ha, I am meaner than you. We do Latin, Ancient Greek and German. In seventh grade French will enter the mix :-)

[Dmmetler]

My DD is going into 3rd, and has been doing Latin since 1st :).

[KrissiK]

Well, I am not a mean mom, my rising 4th grader will be starting his second year of Latin, and my rising 3rd grader will be starting his first year. They don't love Latin but they certainly don't hate it. I think it's a very good thing to study and we use Prima Latina/Latina Christiana and that's not exactly tortuous.

[mazakaal]

Well, she is learning Spanish also, but that's because she wanted to, not because I've prompted it. And she's trying to learn the Russian alphabet because she found my old textbooks. But, yeah, I thought I was being easy on her to let her wait until 4th grade to learn Latin. Her older brothers started in 3rd grade. I let her wait because 3rd grade was her first year of Spanish and I didn't want to start two languages at the same time.

 

I'm very glad that I'm not the only mean mom around, though. :D

[Chrysalis Academy]

I voted "Yes I'm a mean mom" but the truth is Miss P wants to study Latin, so I am not "making" her do it . . . not sure if I would make her do it if she didn't want to. Hmm.

[Laura Corin]

No - I think that the earlier years are a good time for learning a living language. Mine started Latin later. Calvin is quite happily heading for higher level IB Latin in the autumn. Meanwhile he has fluent Mandarin and decent French.

 

Laura

[stripe]

No. My bilingual kids (younger than 4th) are working on their third language. Latin will have to wait. I wish we had time to study Chinese because I think now's the time to learn new sounds. Oh well.

 

I studied Latin in school in 6th and 7th grade. I think later is fine, but I do think some language study in 4th grade is a good idea.

[twoxcell]

My 4th grader will no be learning Latin. He will be continuing with Spanish, and I'm still a mean mom. ;)

[redsquirrel]

No, my kids don't start Latin in 4th grade. They start in second. And they think they are lucky to study Latin. Really. A couple of their friends have expressed envy that they get to study such a cool language.

 

So, I am not a mean mom, but my kids do study Latin.

[Greta]

We started Latin in 3rd. How's that for a mean mom? :D

 

(But we've dropped Latin now and she will be studying Japanese next year instead. Don't know if you want to mention that part or not!)

[Alice]

We started in 2nd, but Latin is one of my son's favorite subjects. So yes, I'm mean, but for other reasons. :)

[MyLittleWonders]

I voted yes, but my rising 4th grader) who has studied Latin starting with SSL since 1st grade, says Latin is his favorite subject (or it might be my rising 6th grader who has studied since 3rd grade who says Latin is his favorite and my rising 4th says Latin is his second favorite). At any rate, my boys don't hate Latin and seem to like it, and in their books, I'm a mean mommy for different subjects, not Latin. ;)

[Tress]

I'm a mean mom, because I make my dd8 study English (foreign language). She doesn't like it, but I don't care :lol:. Well, I do, but we simply have no choice.

 

She will also start Latin in 4th, but I'm pretty confident that she will like it. It might be a bit too difficult (the book is grammar based, comparably to Henle), but we will take it slow. I plan on adding Greek in 6th. In 7th I will have to add French and German, but I'm not thinking about that....lalalalalalala.

[Heather in VA]

My answer is - depends on the kid. My oldest didn't because she wasn't homeschooled in the 4th but she did go on to study Latin all the way through high school.

 

My middle did because i required it of her but I will not make her continue in high school because she dislikes it greatly. She starts French this year (8th grade).

 

My youngest is entering 4th this year and while I'd love to start with her, she isn't ready. She has some learning issues and I don't think the time would be well-spent.

 

Heather

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, but mine loves it. She did PL at home with me for 3rd grade which is easy and fun.

 

We did LCI at co-op for 4th grade. I taught it there to a group which made it fun. They practiced their conversational latin to each other, "What is your name. My name is... How are you? I am ..." And they got to do group recitations. So at home doing the workbook the other few days wasn't a drag for her, because she had the fun group class at the end of the week. Maybe that made a difference?

 

I hope it goes so well for FF in 5th grade this coming year.

[Meriwether]

We start Latin in second. All three of my older kids will start Spanish this year. They will be 6, 8, 9 yos. We will start Greek when my oldest is in 7th. I'd like to start German at some point in the next 4 years. Ds7 wants to learn Swedish. I'm afraid it will have to be Rosetta Stone for that. All told they will do about 6 years of Latin, 5 years of Spanish, and two years of German (possibly) and Greek. In high school they can take whatever language they are interested in provided there is a way for them to learn it.

[Dolphin]

Yep! We started Lain in 3rd. He was not a fan until we switched to Latin Prep, now he doesn't mind it.

 

This year, 5th, we are starting Koine Greek.

[Karen in CO]

I'm saving Latin for the Logic stage. It is a combination of precedent and plans. I started taking Latin in middle school at a very challenging classical school. I think it was a terrific time to learn such a logical language. AND the classical school my older dd will attend next year teaches a lovely 4 year sequence of Latin culminating with translating Ovid and other Romans during the year they study ancients in high school.

 

Of course, I force them to take a year of Japanese, Spanish and French in elementary school (free access to Rosetta Stone here), but that isn't what you asked about. :D

[Matryoshka]

I voted no, but in 4th grade my kids were already learning both German and Spanish. And my youngest dd might just add Latin next year (in 6th). :D

[Mommy22alyns]

Rebecca will be doing LFC B in the fall. She actually likes it though it's work for her. She even asked for her own SSL 2 workbook when it comes out!

[bcnlvr]

Yes! We did Getting Started with Latin this year in 4th (as well as Spanish). Latin prep is planned for the fall. ds10 LOVES languages and wants to add Mandarin. I am a mean mommy and told him "no". He has plenty on his plate as it is.

[Embassy]

I chose no, but my 4th grader does Greek, Mandarin, and Arabic. Latin isn't in our plans for the future either.

[Moniksca]

We did song school latin on and off in 4th and we're going to start it again in 6th. I was going to wait until later but he asked to start it again.

[Ohmomjacquie]

We will start in 3rd next year and continue in 4th.

[WTMCassandra]

Yep, mean mom starting teaching Latin in third grade, actually. Now that they are big they additionally do Greek. So tell your daughter to cheer up--at least you're not making her do Greek also!

[SilverMoon]

Other. My rising fourth grader will be continuing his Latin studies, but forced is not the appropriate word. Latin tops the charts in his list of favorite things to learn. If he were vehemently opposed I may consider holding off a couple years.

[Walking-Iris]

Well I'll be the lone voice saying that I don't think any kid *has* to learn Latin at any age. I like the idea of learning Latin and generally agree with the thoughts behind teaching Latin, but I still don't consider it a necessary subject. ymmv. Roots?--yes. And we do use a roots based vocabulary program. Learning some Latin phrases still in common use and why?--sure. Latin isn't really in any of my long-term plans. It could be an interesting fun elective, but only if it didn't take time from the other subjects that I personally give a higher priority.

[boscopup]

Other. It's not an absolute "must do" subject for me. I think a child can be very well educated without ever studying Latin. That said, we will be trying out Latin this year in 3rd grade. We've done a few lessons when I first downloaded the ebook (GSWL), and my son enjoyed them and thought they were cool. I think he'll enjoy Latin this year.

 

If your DD doesn't want to do Latin right now, why not let her do Russian (since she's obviously itching to learn!) and tackle Latin later when she's older? There's no reason she HAS to do it in 4th grade. Many people save it for Logic stage anyway.

 

I think a lot of the benefits of Latin can be found by doing other languages also. So I wouldn't be concerned about her not doing Latin in 4th grade. :)

[rieshy]

No my 4th grader did not study latin- just French and German. But he did start Greek to do over the Summer.

[mazakaal]

Thanks for all the responses, ladies. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one. :001_smile: And it will be great to show her that there are actually kids that enjoy it.

 

I think a big part of her dislike of Latin comes from pre-conceived ideas because her brothers didn't like it. She heard their bad attitudes and caught on. She obviously likes languages. If she would just open up her mind and look at it like a fun challenge, I think she'd quite enjoy it.

 

If your DD doesn't want to do Latin right now, why not let her do Russian (since she's obviously itching to learn!) and tackle Latin later when she's older? There's no reason she HAS to do it in 4th grade. Many people save it for Logic stage anyway.

 

 

I'm not putting a lot of time into Russian right now and pushing the Latin instead because I didn't learn a lot in my year of living there and I wouldn't be able to get her past the first couple of chapters of the book. And I don't know anyone around here that could tutor her.