MCT CE1 question

[greenmamato3]

we've studied Elementary Greek this year, and DS10 has previously completed Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. We have also begun working through EFTRU, though are only about 10 roots in. we LOVE languages in our house, so it's been a natural thing for us .... and delightful.

 

i'm looking at using MCT's CE1 this year with both DS10 and DD8 (who has only had one year of latin and isn't as linguistically driven as older bro but still holds her own). we did Building Language this past year all together after dabbling in the EFTRU. we like it all. but i'm wondering if CE1 is just going to be a lot of repeat or if we're really going to grow from using it. the samples are ..... :( i don't want to waste money or time doing something that is going to feel like a repeat since he's had so much latin, but i want him to GROW in his understanding of vocabulary, since he'll be in 5th grade .....

 

i know everyone raves about CE1 (if they are MCT fans as we are), but i am interested in hearing whether that's coming from families who've done independent latin studies prior to that or whether that's due to the fact that CE is their first taste of the deep root connections of latin to our language.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, I like the Latin roots aspect of CE, but that's not why I rave about it. What I like is that it is excellent preparation for reading great literature and (with the new Enhanced CE) reading nonfiction expository texts using advanced vocabulary. MCT has done a word study of classic literature and sorted words based on frequency of occurrence - and these most frequent words are introduced in CE 1 & 2. Every other lesson you get 5 new words, along with definitions, examples from literature, as well as information on the roots. The alternate lessons are specifically about new roots (5 per lesson), and he introduces new nonfiction advanced words that use those roots in those lessons, too. So I do think you get far more than just root study with CE: you get preparation to read and enjoy great literature.

 

We had done a year of Latin before beginning CE, but nothing near as extensive as what you have done, btw.

[Maisy]

Ok, everything Chrysalis said, and . . .

 

DS (10) has done 1.5 years of Latin (Lively Latin). We dropped Latin this year, however, to focus on Spanish, but added in CE1. It's been great! It's not a repeat of Latin instruction, and it is such a vocabulary builder--shows how English, Latin, and Spanish are related. We used it along with The Wind in the Willows, etc. literature set. It was a nice complement (although I wish the literature sets offered more direction and focus, but that's another story . . . ). DS did finish early, as there are only 20 lessons, but I didn't want to rush it. Some weeks we just reviewed vocab/stem flashcards.

 

DS really liked it and we're planning to use CE2 next year.

[highfamily]

We had done 2 VERY rigorous years of Latin before CE1...the little bit of overlap just reinforced the value of our Latin studies, in my opinion, and formed a great bridge between the 2 subjects. My son has completed CE 1 and 2 and 4 years of Latin study (he is 12), and I've never thought of dropping CE. I hope it is enjoyed at your house!

 

Jana

[greenmamato3]

We had done 2 VERY rigorous years of Latin before CE1...the little bit of overlap just reinforced the value of our Latin studies, in my opinion, and formed a great bridge between the 2 subjects. My son has completed CE 1 and 2 and 4 years of Latin study (he is 12), and I've never thought of dropping CE. I hope it is enjoyed at your house!

 

Jana

this is exactly what i was hoping someone would say :) yay! on we go with CE1!!!! :)

btw, if i may ask, what latin books have you used for your studies? we're currently exploring Elementary Greek and Galore Park French while my DD finishes Prima Latina because i wasn't thrilled with Latina Christiana and have been trying to decide whether to do Visual Latin (joint) for our next step in Latin or whether to hire a private tutor who used to teach Latin in the Classical Academy that is local to us. if you have any suggestions on Latin programs other than VL, i'd really like to hear about it :) thanks!!

[greenmamato3]

Ok, everything Chrysalis said, and . . .

 

DS (10) has done 1.5 years of Latin (Lively Latin). We dropped Latin this year, however, to focus on Spanish, but added in CE1. It's been great! It's not a repeat of Latin instruction, and it is such a vocabulary builder--shows how English, Latin, and Spanish are related. We used it along with The Wind in the Willows, etc. literature set. It was a nice complement (although I wish the literature sets offered more direction and focus, but that's another story . . . ). DS did finish early, as there are only 20 lessons, but I didn't want to rush it. Some weeks we just reviewed vocab/stem flashcards.

 

DS really liked it and we're planning to use CE2 next year.

i'm interested in hearing "the other story" regarding the lit set .... :) i have a thread going about that right now, too, as i'm trying to garner input to discern whether it's something that fits a need i see exists in our famiy's education.

 

if you want, you can post here or if you prefer you can private message me about it. i'd appreciate your input :)

[highfamily]

With my son we started with a crazy-hard online program (not in the mainstream) which I wouldn't recommend; then we completed Memoria Press's First and Second Form Latin. I love the structure and organization of the series. I looked into Visual Latin because of all the rave reviews, but I realized I had seen no English to Latin translation in all the worksheets I looked through, so we stuck with the Form series. It just depends on what your goals are for Latin study.

 

I taught my daughter and niece with Lively Latin Book 1 last year, and they loved it. My son would NOT have liked it because of the cute clip art.

 

We have 2 sets of the MCT literature...the teacher guide gives some great writing prompts, and the text highlights sections that are interesting grammatically or illustrate poetic devices. We did some DVD's last year from Center for Lit with Adam Andrews, and my son enjoyed those much more.

 

Hope this helps - enjoy CE!

Jana

[greenmamato3]

this helps a lot, actually :) thank you so much, highfamily/jana. where did you purchase your dvds for CenterForLit? are they they adult ones? have you used/would you ever use the Ready Readers from TTC? i've looked at them. ..... hmmmm ......

[highfamily]

I've bought the DVD's at the Center for Lit website and also from Exodus Books online. The target ages are listed for each book. We have done Wind in the Willows and Huckleberry Finn, and we'll do The Yearling soon. They are in the "Classics Club" section of the website. We have been very happy with them...a lit guide for each book is available as a free download. I haven't used the Ready Readers, but I have been tempted. :-)

 

http://centerforlit.com/Materials/CC.aspx

[lwiesman]

I have the CE but will start next year. How did you all implement it into your studies? Also has anyone use the Teaching the Classics DVD series from the Center for Lit? I am interested in watching those and wanted a review.

[Chrysalis Academy]

We did the Classical version of CE1 two days a week for 20 weeks till it was done. On Monday, we first did the quiz (they are cumulative), then we did half the week's lesson, on Tuesday we did the 2nd half. Occaisionally we'd power through a lesson in one day, but I was trying to go slow and savor it, not rush.

 

With CE2, we are just doing it once a week. With the older version of CE1, once a week is fine, too. There is more to the Enhanced CE, so it was worth spreading over two days.