I want to give up on Latin

[bethben]

We are in year 2 of our Latin studies. I just want to give up. I'm having to learn Latin right along with my ds and honestly, there are better ways I can spend my time than learning Latin - like reading the books we're going to discuss, cleaning my home better, having a few minutes of personal time...He's finding it hard - i can tell that languages are just not going to be his thing. There's challenge and then there's too much challenge where he questions why do I have to do this and I can't give him a good answer. I guess my goal right now is to get the minimum of language study done in high school so we can have it for college transcripts. It's hard to teach languages and I would LOVE to farm out that subject, but there are other subjects I'm farming (or will be in the future) that I consider to be more important in his education. Yes, DH was a Spanish minor in college, but DH is gone from 6:30 in the morning to 6 pm at night and is DONE for the day. He doesn't have time or energy to devote to educating any subject around here. Help! I am tired of teaching myself Latin (or any other language for that matter!). How can I survive this without too much pain.

 

Beth

[sleeplessnights]

I guess you'd have to go back and reflect on why you're doing Latin. Is it important, or would it just be nice? Do you have to do it, just have to do a foreign language, or is it altogether optional? Do you have to teach it, or is there some way to just supervise? Is it worth the effort you have to put in?

[Walking-Iris]

I don't do Latin. I don't know if I will in the middle school or teen years, but not likely. I DO however work on Latin/Greek root vocabulary and I plan on introducing some basic Latin phrases so they will have a chance of understanding them in readings. But the complete and total language as a whole---no.

 

I'm not 100% sure I will even homeschool high school, and I know that Latin is offered in our local school, so a basic awareness of it may be enough till then.

 

I don't know much about Latin curriculum, but maybe a change of format would help it go down easier?

[Zoo Keeper]

Is this your 12 year old doing Second Form? Have you tried the DVD's? Memoria Press folks are very good about responding to questions on their forums as well...

[Hunter]

I did a lot of Latin and Greek with my younger son. I'm not doing Latin with any of my tutoring students. It's requiring me to teach a whole bunch more ENGLISH.

 

No advice. Just saying that Latin, when using certain curricula, doesn't take all that much extra time, IF it substantially cuts down on English study.

 

I'm not sure what I would do now if I had a captive audience I was solely responsible for. Tutoring isn't the same as having your own children. I'd probably teach a lot of Ancient Greek and mostly for all the wrong reasons, if I'm being honest. I found that teaching radically accelerated math and Ancient Greek, kept people from looking at my homeschool any deeper, and I liked that. They just assumed lots of other things and left me alone.

[bethben]

There are a lot of reasons to do Latin, I guess my main ones are vocabulary development, the fact that it is a dead language and pronunciation isn't as important and making other languages (especially Latin based) easier to learn. I feel stuck in that I am not a linguist and learning a language in high school was very difficult for me. It was the only class I ever cheated at (not proud of that one). I had four years in high school and squeeked by with getting out of two semesters in college. My only year of learning a language in college was spent with a lot of tutor help and I passed with a "C" which I felt was well earned and the best I could do. I know that eventually I will have to figure out how to teach him/ enroll him in some class to get that language requirement done. I just don't want to have to put my 42 year old brain through this.

 

Yes, my 12 year old is doing second form. I don't know if there's anything easier out there. Maybe I could cut the things like the Latin sayings and get everything else done...

 

Beth

[RootAnn]

So, if this is your 12 yr old, you aren't doing SFL for high school credit. So, you could drop it now, right?

Do you know what language you are going to use for the language requirement for high school?

There are other 'vocab development' programs (Rummy Roots seems pretty easy, Vocab from Classical Roots, Something-on-the-Vine) out there. Don't kill yourself if you don't feel it is worth it. I'm sure there are other people out there who would love to take your Second Form off your hands to help you recoup your $$.

[Coffeemama]

I started out trying to learn Latin alongside my DD11, but like you I just don't feel that is the best use of my time right now.

 

My DD is now learning from the First Form DVDs on her own. It seems to be working well for her. She is almost done with FF and will be starting Second Form in February. I let her take the pace down a bit. She will end up completing FF and SF in 3 years (grades 5-7) instead of two years. Fine with me, since it is a high school level program. When we begin planning grade 8, I'll let her decide whether or not to continue Latin while we begin a living language.

 

If you have not tried the DVDs and have a child who might learn well that way, I highly recommend buying or borrowing them.

[lifesadream83]

I get that learning the latin and greek roots of words can be useful... but how much more useful would it be to put your efforts into learning a language that is not dead if you are going to learn one.

[Mommy22alyns]

Where's that big ears smilie when you need it? I've had the same thoughts recently. She's complained about Latin before and says she wants to learn French and Spanish (alongside? instead of?). I don't think I'd do a great job teaching either of those, no real way to farm them out. How important is this to me?

[Walking-Iris]

I'm following this thread also because languages are the one subject that I just don't get. I was similar to the OP that I was never really interested in them in HS. I was able to do the French and pass it, but I can't understand a thing when I hear it. I can read enough to understand a passage though. It's an auditory thing with me, I'm sure.

 

I also feel the same way about Latin. I think the roots are extremely important, but going deeper than that just seems like a lot of time or work taken away from other things I find important.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

We are just doing the roots/vocab. At some point I could no longer justify the time and effort the whole language was taking.

 

It was a tough decision, but it was a relief once the decision was made. It's been a few months since we dropped Latin, and looking at our days I cannot imagine what we would drop to study it again. It just doesn't make up for what we would lose.

 

I do, however, reserve the right to change my mind at any time. ;)

[HecticMama]

My dds are both working in Latina Christiana II and planning First Form for next year. We make flash cards for the words each week and go over them quickly every day. Also, they write the words every day, including the words from the week before. The memorization is key. Everything else is grammar. I am learning along with them. I do not grade this subject; I want them to see this as a learning opportunity, not a failure if they don't get it the first time. We just keep going over it until it's understood. That said, there's nothing wrong with deciding something else is more important. Not getting a great grade in a foreign language is not a college entrance killer!

[Walking-Iris]

My dds are both working in Latina Christiana II and planning First Form for next year. We make flash cards for the words each week and go over them quickly every day. Also, they write the words every day, including the words from the week before. The memorization is key. Everything else is grammar. I am learning along with them. I do not grade this subject; I want them to see this as a learning opportunity, not a failure if they don't get it the first time. We just keep going over it until it's understood. That said, there's nothing wrong with deciding something else is more important. Not getting a great grade in a foreign language is not a college entrance killer!

 

And plenty of us never had Latin and still managed good, passing grades in a foreign language and it didn't reflect on college entrance at all. Plenty of people even study foreign languages in college without formal Latin.

 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

We were on the verge of Latin but we adopted internationally which is very demanding so we let Latin go. We did have Rosetta Stone Latin but we stopped using it. We decided to skip the Latin language and do Latin and Greek Roots instead. My kids did Rosetta Stone Spanish for a while but I'm of the opinion that learning a foreign language is not useful to the vast majority of Americans.

 

If my kid was interested in medicine, law, or linguistics I think Latin would be useful.

 

We've found Rummy Roots, Critical Thinking Company's Word Roots workbooks, and English from the Roots Up useful-in that order. I don't think any of them is particularly outstanding but they're solid.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

If my kid was interested in medicine, law, or linguistics I think Latin would be useful.

 

 

Even in medicine and law it is mostly the roots and vocab that are of value--not the whole language.

[bethben]

If you're just studying Latin for the vocab, then there really is no reason to not drop it. But, there are lots of other really good reasons to study Latin, especially if you can find a way to make it easier on yourself (hire a tutor maybe? an online program?).

 

Cheryl Lowe has an articleon this. DH and I are teaching ourselves Latin so that we can teach the kids for all the reasons she states, but primarily we look at it this way: Latin was essential for education for pretty much all of Western History starting with Rome until the 20th century. When Latin and Greek were removed from schools education started going down hill. It weren't broke, it didn't need fixing. If this is not how you view education, if you think that looking at previous methods of education in the modern day world is unnecessary (and I'm not saying this in a negative manner at all, folks have different ideas about the means/end of education), then there really is no reason to do Latin. In that case, it would be far better to study a modern language. But do study a foreign language, not just for the requirement, but for the sake of your children having broader horizons than just what's available in the English language.

 

Yes---and the reasons Cheryl Lowe states are why I started this whole mess knowing what I know about my ability to learn languages. I think I've come to the decision to take two weeks for every lesson and go slower to see if that helps, but still keep going. I still think it's useful, but at half speed, it might get a chance to sink in better and not overwhelm the both of us. It still gives us the issue of having to possibly meet a "living" language requirement for future college plans, but I'll figure that out when/if we get there.

 

Beth

[KrissiK]

I'm doing Latina Christiana I with DS1 and Prima Latina with DS 2 and I am loving it. I"m not trying to convince the OP to stick with it, because everyone is different, but one thing I've discovered as an added "benefit" of studying a language is that it requires analysis of a different type than most other subjects. DS1 is doing very very simple translations "Regina pugnat" (the queen fights) but as I do these translations with him I'm seeing it's more than just translating one language into another. You have to analyze not only the verb (how to conjugate), but also decline the noun and I see a lot of benefit in this kind of analysis. It's like, the more I homeschool and learn about education, the more I learn that education is absolutely not about "but how am I going to use this in the real world?". The real world is not about how much information I have, but rather about how I am able to use the information given to make wise decisions, how to sift through lies and propaganda and figure out the truth, how not to follow every fad and talking point, but to analyze and figure things out for myself..... in essence, how to think critically. I think learning Latin is an excellent way to teach a child to think critically.