Compare Prima Latina and Latina Christiana for me?

[PachiSusan]

I don't have either of them in my possession so I really can't compare them next to each other. I have a 10 year old who will be starting 5th grade next year and we had originally decided to start with Prima Latina because it was a gentle introduction and it was more familiarity with prayers and the vocabulary and not really heavy on grammar.

 

Now I am beginning to second guess our decision because of a few threads mentioning that Prima is REALLLLY excruciatingly slow at times and focuses more on learning the prayers of the Mass. Is that true in your experience? The prayers part will not bother me as we are going to be going to Latin Mass every few months or so to have her get familiarity with it. If it's TOO slow, she'll shut down. If it's too much, she'll shut down.

 

What is the main difference between the two? It says either can be for a first introduction to Latin.

[texasmama]

I just asked my boys, ages 10 and 12, who took Prima Latina followed by Latina Christiana the past two years in a co op class. My 12 year old said that he thought that Prima moved a little bit slow and that Latina Christiana moved a bit fast. He said that they learned one chant in Prima as opposed to 15 chants in LC. My 10 year old says that she should start with Prima because she will be overwhelmed by jumping straight into LC.

 

I have completely outsourced Latin so I cannot comment, though I have been greatly impressed by the program and how my boys have learned Latin. Their co op teacher took Latin at the college level and prefers this program. My boys will be taking LC2 next year.

 

Hope that is at all helpful. I think you can probably do either and make it work by speeding up a slowish program or slowing down a fast one. I personally think it is easier to speed through redundant or slow parts, but that is just me. :)

[PachiSusan]

That is some great information! Thank you!

[sleeplessnights]

Prima Latin is definitely focused on the younger (2nd-3rd grade, maybe 4th grade) crowd. The purpose of the program is to learn the parts of speech and some prayers. For example, one week you will learn what adjectives are, and then learn five Latin adjectives. Then you learn what pronouns are and learn the six Latin pronouns. You take two weeks to learn how to count to 10 in Latin. I think it would be excruciatingly slow for older kids. My 2nd grader does about 5-10 minutes a day and has mastered everything no problem.

 

For your ages, I would be choosing between LC and First Form. LC moves much slower than First Form, but you are actually learning Latin conjugations and declensions. If you are looking for a easier intro to Latin, I would definitely choose LC.

[KrissiK]

Prima Latina is very gentle and good for younger kids. My 3rd grader did well this year with PL. My 4th grader did well with Latina Christiana this year, having had PL last year. I think it was good for him to start with PL because everything wasn't so new to him, but starting an older kid with PL might be too slow.

[petepie2]

I've used both Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. I agree that Prima Latina would be way too slow for a 10 yr old. First Form Latin is recommended for that age by Memoria Press, but if you want a bit slower start, then I would definitely go with Latina Christiana. We're doing First Form next year (4th grade), and I just watched the first five lessons last night. Whew! I'm glad I've seen most of that stuff before in LC! Much faster!

[RootAnn]

Did you take foreign language when you were in school? I took French starting in 7th grade. We did "one year" of high school French spread over two years of middle school. Have you seen the high school programs yet that can be done earlier -- but slowed down to half-speed? Do you realize that "one year" of high school French is supposedly equivalent to one semester of college French?

 

So here is what I would propose. I'm going to say -- start Prima. Cover as much as you think she can handle each day for however many days per week that you are going to do it. (If you are doing the videos, they'll take 30 min or so. I wouldn't do any more of a lesson on those days.) You may see that you are covering 1 1/2 lessons per week, but you might take longer for a review & make it a full week (every five lessons) to firm up the prayers. (We usually took only a couple of days for each review lesson.)

 

This way, Prima is still a good gentle introduction. However, you can go at the pace your daughter finds acceptable.

 

Prima does five vocab words per lesson. LC1 has 10. Both have practical Latin each lesson - but in Prima, it is sometimes just another vocab word (discipuli) and in LC, it is always a Latin phrase. Prima covers in 25 lessons what LC covers in 12-15. It makes LC more 'digestible', IMO.

 

Susan, I'm a tweaker. So, I have no problem with doing Prima as a gentle introduction (albeit at whatever pace the child needs) before tackling LC. Firm foundation!!

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[PachiSusan]

Thank you ladies - you are giving me some good information to share with Hubby and make our decision. ANyone else?

[joyfulhomeschooler]

We are doing Prima Latina this year with a 9 and 7 year old. It is too fast for our 7yr old and perfect for our 9 year old. My 9yr old is a bright kiddo, but I am glad we've started with Prima. We aren't very far into it though and he will be 10 in a few months. I plan on keeping going with him through the summer and letting my younger mature a bit more before going on.

[Jayne J]

I have done both--we started with Prima in 2nd grade, and then followed with LC in 3rd. I would suggest starting with your student. I seem to recall that your daughter is pretty bright, Susan. If I am remembering that correctly, PL might bore her to death. You could go through it faster, but LC will cover the exact same stuff again, and it will get repetitive. So if your daughter is fairly bright and gets bored by lots of repetition, then I would start right into LC, but go entirely at her pace and not try to cover one lesson per week--do a certain number of minutes per day and cover it at her pace, whatever that may be. If, however, she is nervous about starting Latin, struggles with English grammar, or has a heavy curricular load in addition to Latin, then PL is a great choice to build confidence and get a solid start in grammar while not overwhelming her.

 

ETA: we continued into First Form in 4th grade, but I definately would not *start* with it. The pace is breathtaking, even after doing PL and LC. I love it, and will continue with the series to the end, but we will have to slow waaaay down if the pace continues to accelerate like this.

[K&Rs Mom]

LC will cover the exact same stuff again, and it will get repetitive. So if your daughter is fairly bright and gets bored by lots of repetition, then I would start right into LC, but go entirely at her pace and not try to cover one lesson per week--do a certain number of minutes per day and cover it at her pace, whatever that may be.

 

This.

 

I start PL with mine when they're 6 - barring special needs, it's not at all right for a 10yo IMO: it spends a lot of time on things like 'this is a noun' and 'this is a verb.'

 

LC1 covers all of PL and then some; FFL covers all of LC1 and then some. A bright or motivated middle schooler could start in FFL, skipping LC altogether, but it's nice to have less pressure the first year. Plus, LC1 seems a little more friendly to the teacher/mom who has never had Latin before (that would be me) - I don't know if I'd be as comfortable tackling the Forms series without starting slower.

[chiguirre]

I'm doing LC1 and hopefully some of LC2 with T over the summer to get her ready for MP's First Form class in the fall. It's been going very smoothly and she's enjoying it. I like the layout of the pages and the slow, steady progression of grammar. T loves doing the Ludere Latine puzzles. I'm not sure she's cottoned on to them really being a whole bunch of grammar drill, but I'm not going to tell her if she thinks they're fun. If you look on Amazon, you can find the LC materials used for a significant discount.

[K&Rs Mom]

ETA: we continued into First Form in 4th grade, but I definately would not *start* with it. The pace is breathtaking, even after doing PL and LC. I love it, and will continue with the series to the end, but we will have to slow waaaay down if the pace continues to accelerate like this.

 

It does continue - halfway through SFL, there's more new info presented in each lesson. I was hoping my 10yo would be up to a chapter a week by now, after doing a chapter every 2 weeks in LC1 and most of FFL, but I'm glad dd started young and can take the time to really let things sink in. She's mostly doing about 1.5 weeks per chapter at the moment.

[Jayne J]

Yeah, we are finding that with FF we need about 1.5-2 weeks per lesson. We covered the first 20 lessons this year, and after our summer break (during which we are switching to Latin Prep1 for a little more translation work as well as a change of scene) we will finish the last 14 lessons and then just start into 2nd Form. I am learning that the whole "finish this book this year" concept just doesn't work for us. We work at our own best pace and order the next level when we are ready.

[Amy Jo]

If you are comfortable teaching First Form (aka you can wrap your mind around declensions & conjugations), you might want to try it, it's so nicely laid out. You could just do it at half pace. My 10yo is working on FFL, he's had some GSWL before, as well as a few misc. programs that didn't last long. I am pretty confident teaching it so far, and he is doing fine. He is also the type that needs to do something, so writing down the answers on the worksheets is great for him.

 

I'm doing Prima with my 3rd grader (8/9 years old) - I'd say he's a language guy - and I wish I'd done LC instead. We are taking 3 days a lesson with Prima and then I'm going to put him in FFL. FF is so easy to teach, even without the DVDs. I'm sure we'll have to go easy for a while, but I think it will turn out fine. He's also done some GSWL this year, so that may help.

 

Disclaimer: I've never seen LC I except in samples. It seems to be like Prima, only faster.

[PachiSusan]

Thank you so much ladies. As I am a complete Latin newbie, I will not be able to help her in the least unless I do a few lessons ahead of her. I'm thinking that Prima Latina is still going to be our choice. We can always move through it faster than they say if it's too slow and get to Latina Christiana sooner. I really appreciate all your thoughts and help!