Why Continue Latin after Henle 2? And if so, where?

[Kendall]

I haven't had a child move beyond Henle Latin 2. My current 9th grader will finish Book 2 and we will have some time to do Lingua Latina the rest of the year. I have two questions.

 

1) Why should he continue on in Latin if he isn't interested in majoring in ancient languages? Hasn't he gotten most of the benefits with regard to logic, vocabulary, thinking, grammar?

 

2) If we do continue, what are the best options after Henle 2(I'm not going to attempt Henle 3 at home so I need something online). I know of Scholars online, Regina Coli. What are your favorite options for Latin 3?

 

Thanks in advance

Kendall

[Brenda in MA]

I haven't had a child move beyond Henle Latin 2. My current 9th grader will finish Book 2 and we will have some time to do Lingua Latina the rest of the year. I have two questions.

 

1) Why should he continue on in Latin if he isn't interested in majoring in ancient languages? Hasn't he gotten most of the benefits with regard to logic, vocabulary, thinking, grammar?

 

2) If we do continue, what are the best options after Henle 2(I'm not going to attempt Henle 3 at home so I need something online). I know of Scholars online, Regina Coli. What are your favorite options for Latin 3?

 

Thanks in advance

Kendall

 

 

Hi Kendall,

 

My son also finished Henle 2 about mid-9th grade and did other readings for the rest of the year. I wanted him to continue with Latin because I wanted him to have 4 years of foreign language on his transcript. I also felt that he had spent so much time learning the grammar that he didn't really get much chance to read real works in Latin -- and that is where one experiences the real art and beauty of the language. As he has progressed, he is feeling pretty good that his comprehension is improving, and he is beginning to head towards fluency.

 

I had initially intended to teach Latin 3 & 4 to my son at home. Kathy in Richmond did this with her kids, and if you search, she has several helpful posts about the materials that she used. During that summer between 9th & 10th grades, I started to think that an outside course might be better. I eventually settled on Lukeion, and my son has been in Latin class with them these last two years.

 

The Lukeion classes are a lot of work, but they are well done, and the students in Latin 3 & 4 get to read a variety of Latin authors. They learn about the people and history of the ancient Romans and also hone their essay writing skills. My son has done more work for an outside teacher than he would have done for me, and he has really benefited from the feedback he has received on his writing. He enjoys the live class time and the give and take with the teacher and the other students.

 

If you do decide to go the higher Latin route, I would suggest having your son work very hard to learn vocabulary for the rest of the year. Lingua Latina is a good source for words that are not in Henle, and also, there are Wheelocks vocabulary lists on the web. When my son made the jump from Henle into Lukeion's Latin 3, his grammar skills (learned through Henle) were excellent, but it's taken him quite a bit of time to gain the more varied vocabulary one needs to read several different Latin authors.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[G5052]

Very worthwhile IMHO. I did the equivalent of 5 years of a single language (the first year was spread over 7th-8th grade), and I am so glad that my father insisted on that. He insisted that studying one foreign language to the point of reading original literature was part of a solid education. You learn so much about the meaning of language and culture that you don't learn otherwise. I actually toook more in college and used that as my literature credit.

 

We're probably not going to be able to swing a selective college, but the ones we're targetting all want 3-4 years of a single language with 4 preferred. Even the fall-back school recommends 3 years of a single language or 2 years each of 2 languages.

 

We've been happy with Lukeion, and it tracks to the AP Test although we'll probably do the SAT subject one too. Veritas offers two Latin literature classes that would be appropriate, or Memoria offers higher-level Latin if you want to stick with Henle.

[Kendall]

Thank you both; this was so helpful. I talked with my son and he and I both want him to continue on. Thanks for the options to explore. Do you know when the Lukeion project does registration for next year? I couldn't see the time for next year's class listed anywhere.

 

Dumb question. When you say essays-.are they in Latin? He hasn't done any original writing in Latin.

[G5052]

Lukeion registers starting March 1.

 

I'll warn you though that the placement test is tough. My oldest (aka my experiment) barely got into Latin 3 with Lukeion because of an iffy placement score (this was after solid A's all along in Latin and gold medals in the National Latin exam). He rose to the occasion though, and got an "A." They have a number of short essays in English required in Latin 3 (not essays in Latin yet), and there are essay questions on the tests. That said, Latin is his toughest subject this year, even when compaired to his Veritas Online Omnibus classes (we just did the two 5-hour semester exams this week -- eeeks!), Algebra II, and DIVE Biology.

1) Why should he continue on in Latin if he isn't interested in majoring in ancient languages? Hasn't he gotten most of the benefits with regard to logic, vocabulary, thinking, grammar?

 

 

After the 2nd year is when all the good stuff begins! It is so much dull work to memorize all the paradigms, that you might as well put them to good use, and read the classics in their original language, to read the self-aggrandizing propaganda of Caesar, and think about modern equivalents. To read the grand speeches of Cicero, and hear them echoed by modern statesmen. Ponder the grandeur that is the Aeneid. This is really when the thinking begins, not the low-level grammatical construction and deconstruction.

[Susan of Croton]

If you need motivation to continue Latin, check out:

 

 

http://bestlatin.blogspot.com/

 

It may interest your kid, and it can be set up to come into your inbox.

[Kendall]

Thanks for that blog link!