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Please bear with me as I brag a bit.... I can't even breathe! My senior got a perfect paper and gold medal on her Latin IV test. This is my girl who loves, love, loves Latin, but never gets the highest grade on things in her Lukeion classes even though she studies Latin so much. She said she was the only perfect paper.  I am so happy for her! she struggles so much with tests because of the pressure. Apparently, there is a $1,000 scholarship for those who plan to continue their Latin studies (she hopes to.)

 

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I was over the moon to see Gold for both my Latin scholars.  Especially as this year they've had to do some quizes in Starbucks or Chick-Fil-A when we were traveling, many classes and work in hotel rooms or at grandma's house.  Lots of assignments completed in the van, while we are enroute from here to there. Latin being taken along to weekend swim meets so the swimmer can study in the hotel at night.

 

The NLE was taken early morning as dh was loading up the car for phase 2 of our cross country drive. (No pressure there.)

 

Since moving to the west coast, our class time has shifted to 6am. Which means there is a morning alarm at 0540 so they can roll over and fire up their computers in order to do Latin in bed. The only glitch was forgetting that homework deadlines were also moved forward 3 hours. Nothing like the chagrin of having work finished and realizing that the window for submitting it closed an hour earlier.  :banghead:  

 

Yep, I'm pretty proud of those Golds.

 

It is a huge testimony to Amy Barr and Sue Fisher (last year's teacher) that there are almost never complaints about Latin.

 

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To everyone with silvers, golds and perfect papers, congratulations!!!!  So very exciting.

 

I will add that dd got a gold, and she is beyond thrilled.  This entire year has been difficult -- Latin II, violin, math, science, catching up on credits, friends, etc.  As Amy made the NLE announcements, dd was worried as the levels kept going up because she thought she hadn't done well.  The NLE award has made this year much better.  Whew!

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PSQ stands for Pre-semester quiz at Lukeion.  Before class starts students take a quiz to make sure they do not have gaps in the material from the last semester or year and if so have time to review before they start the new class.  It basically has two levels, a certain percentage will let you pass the quiz and if you score above another percentage you will receive a 100 on the first quiz of the next class. 

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Does anyone mind sharing the paths they took to get to such nice results? Did you start with Lukeion? Or did you do prep with other materials at younger grades? (I understand this took a lot of diligence and hard work, I'm just wondering if people tended to take the same routes or different ones, if people self-studied or took classes, etc.)

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Stephinsocal,

 

What book/stage is your son at in Cambridge?  I'm trying to figure out where one would have to be in Cambridge to take the Level 1 exam. My daughter loves the look and feel of Cambridge, but my boys have done Wheelock's and I'm not familiar with the content of Cambridge.

 

Idnib, my boys did LfC A-C and then Wheelock's w/ VP online. Doing it over, my daughter is only doing LfC A-B & then, probably, Wheelock's next year. 

 

A friend's daughter earned a gold and only missed one question on the level 2 exam after completing the first half of Wheelock's. She used Kolbe's lesson plans, completely on her own. No class.

 

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Does anyone mind sharing the paths they took to get to such nice results? Did you start with Lukeion? Or did you do prep with other materials at younger grades? (I understand this took a lot of diligence and hard work, I'm just wondering if people tended to take the same routes or different ones, if people self-studied or took classes, etc.)

 

One of mine did Henle for two years with the Memoria syllabi (we were also in Classical Conversations, but went faster and harder), and then went into Latin 2 with VPSA (Wheelocks), and then Latin 3 and AP Latin with Lukeion.  During those years we did the NLE Intro through IV exams and earned a certificate, a silver medal, three gold medals, and a perfect paper.  This is my languages kid (three languages total on the transcript).

 

My younger one did two years of Henle with the Memoria syllabus (and also in Classical Conversations, but went faster and harder), but I felt was better served by going into Latin 1 with VPSA.  Languages are not a passion, but I still want four years of Latin for high school.  During those years we did the NLE Intro through I, and earned a certificate and then a silver medal this year.

 

We didn't do languages earlier than 7th, but had rigorous grammar and writing (Classical Conversations Essentials).

 

I'll also note that Henle is IMHO not good preparation on its own for the NLE, SAT-II, or AP.  It was written before those tests.  If you use Henle, you must add additional vocabulary and cultural details in the early books and rearrange the later books with supplemental material if your goal is one of the pre-college tests.  I like Henle from a teaching standpoint, but there are other choices that don't require tweaking if you goal is to do well on the national exams.  

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SAT 2 Latin is similar to the NLE levels 3/4 Prose and Poetry. AP Latin corresponds to NLE levels 5/6.

 

My kids did very well (golds) on NLE through levels 5/6 using different approaches. Ds used Artes Latinae and dd used Henle 1 and 2 for mastering Latin grammar. We did that really thoroughly, about 4 years each, starting around grades 5/6. Then for high school, both kids moved on to Bolchazy Carducci readers for higher levels. They have plenty of material for various Latin authors (AP and otherwise) with good teaching guides. We did it all at home without outsourcing, but I was very involved in their studies, working alongside them. Dd is currently finishing a Latin Classics degree now with an NLE scholarship.

 

As other posters have pointed out, for NLE it's important not only to master grammar & vocabulary at appropriate levels, but also culture, history, geography, mythology, Latin derivatives & common Latin sayings (see the NLE syllabi for details). We found that the following the WTM history & literature reading lists through the years was excellent prep in that regard!

 

 

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DS got a gold medal and perfect paper in Latin 2! He said the NLE was a piece of cake compared to Amy's Latin tests, lol. 

 

Congratulations! So that was your son and that was probably his second year in a row with a perfect paper? Nicely done. Dd is in one of Amy's Latin 2 classes and got a gold but not a perfect paper. Amy is an amazing teacher.

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I don't teach my kids Latin at the high school level anymore. (I enroll them in online classes instead.) I tried to teach a few of the older ones when I was their only option. We had lousy internet connection and no available local teachers back then. But, none of my oldest three kids would have medaled with me as their teacher. Even though I've been studying Latin alongside my kids for the past 12 years, there is no way I could do anything that remotely resembles what Amy Barr does at Lukeion, so my current students have her as their teacher.

 

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it couldn't be done by me. Kathy in Richmond has always been superhuman in my mind. (eta: I was posting when she posted.)

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Does anyone mind sharing the paths they took to get to such nice results? Did you start with Lukeion? Or did you do prep with other materials at younger grades? (I understand this took a lot of diligence and hard work, I'm just wondering if people tended to take the same routes or different ones, if people self-studied or took classes, etc.)

 

Dd studied Wheelock's at home for the first two years of high school. (I've posted our syllabus here before, and I can find it if you want more info.) I had taught Latin to her and to classes of homeschooled student up through about the equivalent of first year Latin, based on the Latin I had in high school. By Latin II, she was on her own. As she was finishing that year, I realized I needed outside help, so I talked to Amy at the Cincinnati convention about merging her in. She took the placement test and did fairly well (she was missing one topic which I can't remember now, but she remediated over the summer.) She jumped right in to Latin III and IV with Amy and loves it (other than the peer review of essays, which I hate but put up with for the class.)

 

If I didn't have some Latin background, and if dd wasn't very self-motivated, I would have just done Lukeion all four years.

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Congrats again to all and I have another question I should have asked in my previous post. Did you have any personal experience with Latin yourself, before teaching your kids? 

 

Thanks.

 

I grew up speaking English, Spanish, and German at home.  Then I studied German in school through AP German and on to a minor in German.

 

But Latin scared me. That said, I studied with my oldest when he started with another teacher in 7th.  I soon decided that we needed to up the ante though, and we did more than the class did.  The following year was the same, and I finished Henle I on my own.  That got me recruited to teach Latin II locally for two years, which was tough but reasonable because my oldest had far surpassed me by then and could check my lesson plans and help me with thorny problems.  He was taking Latin online by then.  By the time I finished my second year teaching Latin II locally with Henle II, I decided that it was time to hang up my Latin spurs.  My younger one had gotten through half of Henle I with me, and is Latin I now online using Wheelock's.

 

I enjoy Latin, but this year they're both in online classes with other teachers.  For me at least, getting past Latin II would require a lot more effort and study on my part.  I've always worked and homeschooled, but decided to work a little more so I could outsource to folks who love and know Latin more than I do.  I have the utmost respect for folks that can get beyond Latin II on their own, but for me it was too much.

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Congratulations! So that was your son and that was probably his second year in a row with a perfect paper? Nicely done. Dd is in one of Amy's Latin 2 classes and got a gold but not a perfect paper. Amy is an amazing teacher.

 

Yes, he got a perfect paper last year, too. Since he started with Greek, he thinks of Latin as the "easy" language, lol. Amy and Regan are both fantastic teachers, and just all-around excellent human beings. We've had the privilege of traveling to Greece and Turkey with them, and they are two of the nicest, most decent people you will ever meet. We love everything about Lukeion!

 

 

Congrats again to all and I have another question I should have asked in my previous post. Did you have any personal experience with Latin yourself, before teaching your kids? 

 

No Latin background here — DS started Lukeion's Greek & Latin classes with no prior background or experience in either language, so Regan and Amy get all the credit! 

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Does anyone mind sharing the paths they took to get to such nice results? Did you start with Lukeion? Or did you do prep with other materials at younger grades? (I understand this took a lot of diligence and hard work, I'm just wondering if people tended to take the same routes or different ones, if people self-studied or took classes, etc.)

 

We did a little bit of Prima Latina when the boys were in elementary and some Latina Christiana. But I wasn't very dilligent and it didn't go into anything near the depth of Lukeion.

 

My older boys started Lukeion 1 when they were 8th & 9th grade. I'm glad I didn't start them any earlier. Even though they are bright kids, the course has a tempo and a depth that is pretty demanding. It has been a great class for them to learn to budget their time and keep to a schedule and to learn how to study something. But I think it would have been overwhelming earlier.

 

Amy Barr had an article in a homeschool magazine a few months back about why she recommended waiting for high school. It was pretty compelling and made me feel better about not doing much Latin in the early grades.

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Congratulations to all.  How exciting to see the results!

Ds earned an NLE gold medal in Latin 3 with Amy Barr - this is his third gold medal.  He's hoping he gets his NGE results tomorrow.

 

Ds expressed an interest in Latin early so we did Prima Latina, LC, Latin Prep 1, part of Latin Prep 2 before we switched to Wheelock.  I knew I wanted ds to eventually enroll at Lukeion so we switched to Wheelock in 8th grade and covered the first half at home.  He completed the second half with Lukeion and continued on with Latin 3.  He decided to start Greek 1 with Lukeion this year in 10th grade. The courses have been time consuming but he thoroughly enjoys them.

 

We have been very pleased with Lukeion.

 

 

ETA:  Yay!! Ds earned a Blue Ribbon (Highest honors) for the National Greek Exam (Level 1).

   

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We started with LC and FFL (which my dd14 did not like--though I don't think it was the program.  She just didn't like Latin in the beginning).  She then did 1 quarter of Wheelock's with a tutor and then tested into Latin 1b with Lukeion in 6th grade.  She is now in Latin 3 with Lukeion as an 8th grader and doing very well, so I do think younger kids can succeed with Lukeion.  She just earned a gold medal in Latin 3.  It is time consuming, but she has come to love Latin I think in large part because of Ms.Barr.  She has procrastination issues, and barely gets her work in on time.  I'm glad she's almost done with Latin as she starts high school because she wants to study Greek and a modern language as well.

 

Angela, any words of wisdom to getting through Latin IV.  Next year my dd will have an especially full load, and I'd like to know if there's any way to help her through next year.

 

Thanks,

Laura

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Yvonne,

Sorry for the slow reply.  My son had almost finished Unit 2 of Cambridge when he took the NLE (Level 1) in March.  They recommend Units 1 and 2 as separate full-year courses for middle school, or both together as Latin 1 for high school.  We did Unit 1 in 8th grade, Unit 2 through March of this year (9th), and are now starting Unit 3.  The story format keeps my boys enthusiastic about it, and it includes good cultural and historical material, but I do find Henle valuable for the English-Latin translation exercises that Cambridge lacks.  Getting the gist of a Latin passage, or even making a decent translation into English, doesn't force you to learn the grammar as does actually having to come up with the correct conjugation/declension/whatever on your own. 

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Angela, any words of wisdom to getting through Latin IV.  Next year my dd will have an especially full load, and I'd like to know if there's any way to help her through next year.

 

Thanks,

Laura

Laura,

 

My son took Latin 3 & 4 with Lukeion (finished Latin 4 last year). He actually found Latin 4 to be a bit easier than Latin 3. Latin 3 was more challenging because he was still really working hard to acquire vocabulary, and also, the authors studied switch a lot. In Latin 3, you only spend 3 - 4 weeks on each author, and it seemed that just when you are getting the hang of a particular author's style, you are switching to someone totally new.

 

With Latin 4, you spend the whole first semester on the Aeneid (which was just wonderful), and then the whole second semester on Caesar. My son did have an extensive background with Henle, which made the Caesar semester much easier since he knew most of the vocabulary and was familiar with Caesar's writing style. The course is still a lot of work. I think he spent about 2 hrs/day on Latin 4.

 

The writing assignments in Latin 4 are practice for the essays on the AP exam. As far as study tips -- I would suggest that you make sure your child keeps up with vocabuarly flash cards. There are sight passages on the AP exam, and you need a good vocabulary to tackle these well. Also, some continued practice with scansion is helpful. In addition to Lukeion's Latin 4, we found the Bolchazy workbook that goes with the Vergil part to be very useful. It contained extra practice with sight passages and scansion.

 

Best wishes with Latin 4.

 

Brenda

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Angela, any words of wisdom to getting through Latin IV.  Next year my dd will have an especially full load, and I'd like to know if there's any way to help her through next year.

 

Thanks,

Laura

 

The biggest thing to watch in 4 is that there are multiple assignments due. You cannot wait until the last minute for your translation, because it is due when you also have a quiz to do. Ditto for the papers; they are due along with a translation, so you better have started one or the other ahead of time. :)

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The biggest thing to watch in 4 is that there are multiple assignments due. You cannot wait until the last minute for your translation, because it is due when you also have a quiz to do. Ditto for the papers; they are due along with a translation, so you better have started one or the other ahead of time. :)

 

Yes, I agree.  You can't do all of the day that it is due.  You have to spread it out, or you'll sink very quickly.  

 

That's really true of any language study though.  You need to do some every day.  When I taught Latin 2 locally, the majority of my students did the homework the day before it was due.  And their grasp of the language reflected that, and predictably they did poorly on the National Latin Exam.

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Please bear with me as I brag a bit.... I can't even breathe! My senior got a perfect paper and gold medal on her Latin IV test. This is my girl who loves, love, loves Latin, but never gets the highest grade on things in her Lukeion classes even though she studies Latin so much. She said she was the only perfect paper.  I am so happy for her! she struggles so much with tests because of the pressure. Apparently, there is a $1,000 scholarship for those who plan to continue their Latin studies (she hopes to.)

 

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:   Wonderful!!!!

 

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