Best secular Latin for Elementary?

[dewdropfairy]

My soon to be 3rd and 5th graders are currently learning French and I'd like to add once or twice a week Latin, for sure for the older and possibly for the younger. What is the best (secular) choice for this age group? My personal Latin experience is zero. :huh:

[wapiti]

I think it's difficult to learn a language only once or twice per week. For those ages, for an introduction on a slow (or fast) schedule, I highly recommend GSWL. Where to go after that is another question.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I agree with GSWL. That's what my 3rd grader is using, though she does have previous Latin experience. We are also using Minimus.

 

ETA: We do Latin 4 days a week. Minimus is just 1-2 times a week for fun. We are using the teacher's book and going through it slowly. We have been doing 1 GSWL lesson a day 3 days a week, with day 4 a mom-made review page. Once the lessons become more difficult I'll probably split a lesson up over 2-3 days.

 

GSWL is also great for mom. You could get a head start so it will be easier to teach. DD is able to do the lessons herself mostly, but I check it over with her, me reading the Latin and her translations. Since I'm ahead of her in the book I don't need to check the answers in the back.

[dewdropfairy]

Oh, wow, and the Kindle version is only $10! Not a huge investment. Do either of you know how this would compare to Lively Latin at all? That is what I had been considering, but the price is so good on GSWL....

[StartingOver]

I will third Getting Started With Latin ( GSWL ). We love it here, simple, to the point, beginning, but translating from the very start. My 7 year old is adoring it.

[Haiku]

Getting Started With Latin! If you want to continue after that, I recommend Latin Book One, available free (with answers) at the Latin Book One Yahoo Group. GSWL could probably be managed in one or two days a week, but if you want to move beyond the bare basics, you'll need to devote more days a week to Latin study.

 

Tara

[boscopup]

We've done GSWL this year in 3rd grade. It was perfect for what we wanted! I needed something that made sense to me, who had never touched Latin before. We're going to finish it up, then do Lively Latin, which is also secular.

[JDoe]

Minimus is certainly good, I'm heading off to Osberg's LINGVA LATINA next. (Latin course in Latin, that is not a word of another language :laugh: )

 

http://lingualatina.dk/wp/

[echoterry]

I think it's difficult to learn a language only once or twice per week. For those ages, for an introduction on a slow (or fast) schedule, I highly recommend GSWL. Where to go after that is another question.

 

I will be attempting to teach Latin as well though we have no prior foreign language experience. For a 2nd and 3rd grader, how many days a week would you recommend? And how long would each of those sessions be?

[moonlight]

Song school Latin

[StartingOver]

We have Lively Latin, GSWL, Wheelocks, Song School Latin, and I have seen others over the years with the older kids. GSWL is the first one that I have seen, that explains as we go along, translating from day one. The other have you memorize and tell you why later. I need the why and how. Lively Latin is awesome and my son is still working on it, but now he knows what all those chants were about. ;-)

 

I think we will finish GSWL while using Lively Latin as review. Then will move on. I am not sure I will use Lively Latin 2. I am getting ready to collect some others, to see where we want to go next. ;-)

[Haiku]

For a 2nd and 3rd grader, how many days a week would you recommend? And how long would each of those sessions be?

 

My suggestion is at least 4 days a week for 15-20 minutes. The main problem I have seen with most Latin curricula for young children is that they cover too much material in each lesson, don't focus on one thing at a time, and take too long to complete each lesson in one sitting. I think this is a major factor in the confusion and burnout many people experience.

 

Whatever curriculum you use, remember to make it work for you and not the other way around. I think short, frequent lessons are better than long ones. Break up the lessons over several days if necessary. Latin is not a race, and I would much rather my daughter master the material in the time it takes her to do so than to plow ahead on someone else's timetable but not truly grasp the material.

 

Tara

[8filltheheart]

I'm not sure about the 3rd grader, but for 5th, my fav by far is Artes Latinae. It is expensive but sometimes it is 50% off through Homeschoolbuyers coop.

http://www.bolchazy.com/index.php?cat=al&sub=main

[wapiti]

My suggestion is at least 4 days a week for 15-20 minutes.

....

I think short, frequent lessons are better than long ones.

 

I agree with this! That would be one or two lessons per day - it's possible to do more lessons per day in the beginning, fewer later on (it gets more difficult after around lesson 50). We did it orally, on the couch. I think it's easier to teach one child at a time (and if you do it that way, they can each progress at their own rate).

 

If you start skipping a lot of days, it becomes harder for the kids to remember day-to-day and less fun. You may even notice this after the weekend.

[Georgiana Daniels]

 

I will be attempting to teach Latin as well though we have no prior foreign language experience. For a 2nd and 3rd grader, how many days a week would you recommend? And how long would each of those sessions be?

 

I have a 3rd and 4th grader, and we work on Latin 4 times a week. It really does require more repetition and concentration than other subjects. I LOVE the way it stretches their thinking. We use Lively Latin, and my only beef with it is that the videos don't always work.

[Mom in High Heels]

I'm going to say GSWL too. After that, we moved to Latin Prep I. GSWL was fantastic. We both learned a ton and it was so easy to use. LP I is mostly review in the beginning, but that's okay. We do Latin 4 days a week, with a quiz on Fri, so I know where his weaknesses are and we can review. I don't think you could do it 2x a week and still retain it.

[dewdropfairy]

Minimus was a HUGE hit here with my olders. They liked the cartoon mouse and the cute stories. GSWL is very basic and not as engaging.

 

Isn't Lively Latin secular?

 

What are you using for French?

 

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! We'll try three days a week and see how they retain. I just didn't want to overwhelm them with more than a couple of days a week, but I don't want them to not retain anything either. I'm not picky with how quickly they progress, but I do want them to remember.

 

ETA: I think we'll start out with GSWL and move on to Lively Latin from there. From what I've read, LL is secular.

 

We used Rosetta Stone Level 1 for French this year. I really liked it for all of the lessons except for writing. It was much too difficult for them after only one year of study to be able to write things like "Can you please tell me where the nearest hardware store is" with perfect spelling and accent marks in a non-native language. They would get frustrated when they missed the problem and it wouldn't let them move on without retrying several times. So, I'm looking for other options next year. Or possibly looking at doing RS again but leaving out the writing assignments.

[boscopup]

Thanks for the advice everyone! We'll try three days a week and see how they retain. I just didn't want to overwhelm them with more than a couple of days a week, but I don't want them to not retain anything either. I'm not picky with how quickly they progress, but I do want them to remember.

 

We've done GSWL only 2 days per week all year, and it's been fine. Would retention have been better with more days? Absolutely. But has it been awful? Not really. He remembers most stuff. There are a few words he gets stuck on sometimes. Whenever he says, "What does amo mean?", I start singing that silly amore song, and it's become a big joke. Now he's remembering it more often - he doesn't want me to start singing! :)

 

Now as we near the end of our school year, I have bumped Latin up to 5 days per week instead of the 2 days it was previously. I'll probably spend 4 days a week on Lively Latin next year. I think we're ready to do the chants and memory work now that we have a basic idea of some of the Latin "stuff" that we need to know.

 

Anyway, I made the lesser days choice this year because it was only 3rd grade. As we get more into it, we spend more time on it.

[EliseMcKenna]

*bump*

 

Any recent additions to this list? Or does everyone still like the options listed above?