Prima Latina and/or Song School Latin?

[EmilyGF]

You all gave wonderful reviews about PL, but then I remembered about SSL this morning.

 

Could they be reasonably combined? Should they be reasonably combined? Have you used both?

 

Which would you recommend? I'll be teaching my two oldest kids, and exposing my youngest.

 

Thanks,

Emily

(For ds 8, dd 6.5, and dd nearly 5)

[Samiam]

I wouldn't combine. That would be confusing since they aren't covering the same vocab at the same time. Combing equals overkill which then creates "Latin is too hard" syndrome.

[K&Rs Mom]

I know Prima uses ecclesiastical pronunciation, and I think SSL uses classical pronunciation - if that's true, then I wouldn't combine, it's just too confusing. Prima can be very dry, so I totally understand the desire to supplement, but it seems a lot of the more "fun" programs use classical so won't fit together well. I don't think learning more vocab would be too much, because Prima doesn't have a ton of words per chapter and if you're going on to LC1 or MP's Forms, you'll see them all again, so not knowing them perfectly isn't a huge deal.

[aufan]

We are doing SSL for exposure to Latin starting in Aug. if it is a hit we will be starting PL in 2014 (with the older 2). SSL looks like it will be a good fit for my kids and something fun we can do. I will have an 8,6,4,and 2yo tag along for reference.

[SarahW]

SSL also has the ecclesiastical option.

 

You could maybe make PL "primarily" for the oldest, SSL "primarily" for the youngest, see which one is best for the middle "primarily" and just have those primarily using PL sing the songs with those using SSL.

[Zoo Keeper]

I know Prima uses ecclesiastical pronunciation, and I think SSL uses classical pronunciation - if that's true, then I wouldn't combine, it's just too confusing. Prima can be very dry, so I totally understand the desire to supplement, but it seems a lot of the more "fun" programs use classical so won't fit together well. I don't think learning more vocab would be too much, because Prima doesn't have a ton of words per chapter and if you're going on to LC1 or MP's Forms, you'll see them all again, so not knowing them perfectly isn't a huge deal.

 

You can use classical or ecclesiastical with SSL; the cd has the songs sung both ways.

 

I wouldn't combine SSL and PL; let each stand on its own. I would do PL after SSL. Your oldest may want to breeze through SSL, and may want something "bigger". PL would fit the bill nicely.

[JenniferLynn]

We ended up starting with SSL, mostly oral and mostly relying on the CD (the 2nd half is ecclesiastical). The songs make it fun. Then it went fairly quickly to go through the book and learn the vocab. I am hoping the "Latin is fun" attitude will continue when we begin PL in a few weeks.