Latin

[MomOfABunch]

So DS loved Getting started with Latin and completed it very easily. We moved into Cambridge and he now hates it. I need another text. The thing he liked about GSWL was the easy to understand layout, ie complete one lesson and move to the next. What would you recommend?

[crazyforlatin]

I would say Henle is similar in that it has a lesson with many exercises, albeit more vocabulary per lesson than the one-word lesson in GSWL. That's what we did after GSWL. We switched 3/4 of the way through to Lukeion because I needed us to be more accountable and on track with our goal of taking AP Latin in a few years.

 

I really love Latin for the New Millenium, but it's expensive and has a different style than Henle.

 

I don't own Cambridge and may have looked through it once, but I've read enough about it here to know that it probably leans more towards immersion than the strict grammar-based approach of Henle or Wheelock. Someone can correct me on that. Is that the problem you think your DS may be having? Immersion might make learning more fun, but perhaps it does not suit some who really want to know exactly why.

[EndOfOrdinary]

There is a significant teaching difference between GSWL and Cambridge.  Cambridge wants to you discover/apply as you are going.  My son is very against this method.  He immediately becomes frustrated and turns off to it.  He wants the grammatical approach like GSWL.  He wants it spelled out, tell him what to do, then ask him to do it.

 

You might want to ask your son to specify what it is that he doesn't like about Cambridge or what it is that he really liked about GSWL (or at least try to, sometimes that is a really hard thing to do).

 

Until my son could explain this aspect of why he really liked some curriculum for languages, it was really hit or miss.  Now that I know, it is much easier to find ones that he will respond well to and ones to avoid.

 

We used Cambridge for oral work.  I would read the paragraphs to him out loud sentence by sentence.  He would translate without looking at the text.  That worked incredibly well.  The sentences build, but are simple and use similar vocabulary through out.

[flyingiguana]

I'd second the idea of finding out from him what he thinks the problem is.

 

GSWL does seem to move a lot slower than Cambridge. If that's the issue, then you're going to find that any textbook beyond GSWL is not going to be a good fit.

 

Or maybe Cambridge is just moving too slow in the beginning because he already has a lot of the early stuff down.

 

If it's the first problem, then I'd slow way down.  If it's the 2nd, then speed up.

 

If it's the workbook type approach that he likes, you can get some workbooks for Cambridge.  I don't know how effective they are (haven't actually used them).

 

Alternatively, if you get access to the Cambridge online activities, that may be more what he expects from a Latin course:

http://www.cambridgescp.com/Upage.php?p=clc^oa_unit1^stage1

There are games and quizzes and such which reinforce what's in the textbook.

 

I've found that the other Latin textbooks I've tried also needed more supplementation -- more reading or more quizzes or more matching type games.  A good teacher (who knows Latin) may create these.  But it's hard to jump in to a straight text book without these sources or guidance from a teacher.

 

So I'm wondering if your problem is not the particular textbook, but that he's jumped up to another level and the text alone isn't enough.  It needs the supplementals from a teacher or from the textbook website.

[flyingiguana]

BTW -- I don't buy the argument that Cambridge is immersion while other books are parts to whole or whatever the terms are.  The truth is, you need both and most decent books (including Cambridge) include both.  Cambridge may have more reading passages so people may think the grammar explanations aren't there.  But they actually are.

 

You could also pick up a used copy of something like Wheelock (older editions are cheap) and use it for strict grammar exercises while keeping Cambridge for the extra reading passages that it provides.  But Wheelock, while it has the grammar explanations (at least in the early chapters.  I'm not convinced it keeps up after about chapter 20) is pretty weak on reading and repetition.  It concentrates on translating, which is also useful, but then you miss out on just being able to read a passage, which is what Cambridge is building towards.

 

You also might benefit from the Cambridge yahoo group.  It's a bunch of teachers sharing info and ideas:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CambridgeLatin/info

[flyingiguana]

http://www.linneyslatinclass.com/index.php

Maybe everyone knows about this already?  Linney does lectures using The First Year of Latin (which is online).

[flyingiguana]

This is just plain weird, but seems to appeal to students who have gone through the first book of Cambridge

[flyingiguana]

Now that I've mentioned it, I'm wondering if anyone has actually had a subscription to the Cambridge Latin website

http://www.cambridge...oa_unit1^stage1

 

I'm curious if it worked from the US.  I see a sign up page and I don't see any restriction on where the person needs to be to sign up.  They even give a conversion from pounds to dollars.  So I suspect it probably works for the US.

 

But, still wondering if anyone in the US has had experience with a Cambridge subscription and if it actually worked for them.

 

Is all the text from the books at that site?  Or do you still need to buy the books?

[Miss Tick]

Dmmetler just recommended the Cambridge Latin website to someone else in another post I was reading (vague, so vague). You might try pm'ing her to seewhat here experience is (I'm pretty sure they are in the states..vague again)

[Homeschoolmom3]

Latin Alive by Classical Academic Press is a bit more user friendly as opposed to that.  My oldest used Wheelock's but I wouldn't recommend that one, I would say it is similar to Cambridge.  HTH