What are the differences between Latin Alive and Latin in the Christian Trivium?

[Leonor]

If the child is 14 and has never done Latin before.

Which would be better?

Thanks,

Maury

[Robin in Tx]

We did LitCT last year. If I had to do it over again, I'd do Latin Alive. I think it's more comprehensive, prepares the student better for the NLE (by incorporating more culture/histor) and focuses more on real latin lit instead of a fictionalized story. I found LitCT a little frustrating at times because it didn't always properly review material in the exercises. I thought my dd succeeded in the course by using her short term memory more so than by truly learning the material. Latin Alive explains the english correlation better. It also teaches more "neat" topics like state mottos, etc.

 

LitCT is set up as 15 lessons, each to be spread out over two weeks. The TM gives you a punch list of objectives, and the website offers a suggested schedule, but you still have to figure out how to spread the entire thing out over the two weeks. Many find the exercises in the book coupled with the exercises in the drill and study sheets to be adequate. I thought the program lacked enough exercises for it to really cement with my dd. She could do the exercises in the book in an afternoon. And then the exercises on the drill/study sheets in another afternoon. It left her without any more exercises to do for the remainder of the week, and so she didn't get enough practice to really, really master the material.

 

Latin Alive is something like 30 or 36 weekly lessons, and it tells you what set of exercises to do first, second, third, etc... all laid out. There's more to read, because it explains everything better.

 

To be fair, I think if we had been wise enough to divide out the exercises over the two weeks in LitCT, instead of blasting through them in one sitting, we would have fared better. So we probably didn't use it properly in that regard. You can't really get around that in Latin Alive - it's already divided out into small daily exercises that build on each other as the lesson progresses through the week. With LitCT, the entire lesson is give to you at once and the exercises are all handed to you at once... no gradual building.

 

HTH

Robin

 

ETA: PS... LitCT is ecclesiastical pronunciation, Latin Alive is classical (if that matters to you)

[kidzr1st]

I'm using Lively Latin this year and you can access online audio files in Classicial or Ecclesiastical pronunciation.