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Help choosing a curriculum for Latin


pehp
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My son will be 8 this fall, and I am contemplating starting Latin. We may delay until next year; we shall see. In any event, I would love to get thoughts on which Latin program might be a good fit for us. My approach is gentle. My son is very visual. Someone passed along Prima Latina (I think!) but I am open to anything. I took four years of Latin so I am familiar with it, which may help.

 

Please tell me your favorite Latin curriculum for the youngest people, and why you like it. Thank you!

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GSWL.  Hands down, unequivocally, my most favorite program of any subject.

 

GSWL purposely limits the amount of vocabulary as new concepts are being learned.  The learning is primarily, or entirely, by translating practice, which was great for my visual learner.  It's all about context.

 

What to use afterward is the tough question.  (My dd used GSWL in 3rd grade and started Henle in 4th.  She ended up going to B&M school for 6th where she studied Spanish.  Starting high school in the fall, she is planning to take Latin, and will probably zip through GSWL for a review this summer.)

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We liked GSWL alot, and I have Latina Christiana I (which comes after Prima Latina) but it looks a little boring. Not that I need to make Latin super exciting or anything. I still have to watch the DVD's so maybe that will help fill it out some. I was expecting more challenge I guess.

 

http://www.ispeaklatin.com/I am looking at this next because it teaches more the way I do - out of the box somewhat. It's seems really easy to teach this way. Check out the 15 page sample and see what you think. Great visuals as the student makes flash cards and illustrates them for all the words.

 

Everyone here says you should pick the program you want to use in the upper grades, and follow it backwards to align the grammar/stage products up for a good fit. But GSWL seems to work anywhere you want to introduce Latin - so it might be a really good fit for you. (And only one book so not so many parts which is always a nice thing.

 

Good luck!

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We used Getting Started with Latin, which is a wonderful introduction, one word a day with translations. Can be done orally. Then we moved to Lively Latin, and are now using Latin Prep. I adore all three, a bit of review between them but that has been a good thing for my son who is almost 9. ( We purchased Song School Latin, but quickly gave it up, as it not what we were looking for. There was no retention. )

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I haven't used anything else to compare, but I really like Memoria Press's Latin.  This is my second run through with Prima Latina, and I think it is a good, gentle introduction to Latin.  My dd has gone on to use Latina Christiana and First Form Latin, and the programs build well on each other.  While it's not absolutely necessary to do PL and LC before FFL, the student who has done them will be extra prepared.  

 

I do wish Prima Latina had more review built in.  LC and FFL have tons, but PL doesn't have quite enough, IMO.  I have supplemented by coming up with my own games and worksheets.

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This is our first year of formal Latin study.  My kids are (newly) 11 and 8.  We've been using and loving GSWL this year.  It has been a perfect introduction for us, as I only took a required semester of Latin in middle school, and then moved onto Spanish in high school.  The 8 yo has completed MCT Island level, so she's already familiar with direct and indirect objects, objects of the preposition, etc.  As a result, she keeps up easily with her older brother. 

 

I am not sure what we'll use next.  I have Latin Prep here from Galore Park because I snagged it at a used curriculum sale.  I am not sure where to go when we finish GSWL, so I'll be following your thread, OP. 

 

My kids seem to really enjoy GSWL.

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My DS asked to start Latin in middle school, and I had no time to learn and teach Latin myself. We chose GSWL and it was perfect. He learned more than I expected and was completely independent. After GSWL, he moved to Visual Latin, which is DVD and worksheet based, so again, it's completely independent.

 

I am not expecting language fluency at this age. But I have been very impressed at how studying Latin has solidified his understanding of English grammar and spelling. He is much better prepared for high school language study now. He's excited to do Visual Latin 2 in the fall.

 

My DD will be starting GSWL in the fall, followed as well by 2 years of Visual Latin.

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I've used Lively Latin Books 1 and 2 for my older kids and myself to begin Latin and now that they are through the curriculum I've started over with Lively Latin (BBOLL1) for my 8, 10, and 11 yo.  The 6 year old listens along with us and seems to pick it up as well.

 

I appreciate the grammar instruction in LL and discontinued our regular English grammar study for a time because I knew that LL would be sufficient. We are on lesson 9 and have covered subject, verb, noun, linking verb and predicate  nominatives thus far. 

 

LL asks kids to draw pictures of some of the Latin words, which somer of my kids enjoy doing.  The ones who don't just write out a translation. LL also includes picture study.

 

LL has good quality audio files for both pronunciations and some video instruction as well.

 

We went straight from the BBOLL2 (Big Book of LIvely Latin 2) into Wheelocks.

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We use Lively Latin and really like it.  My only complaint about it is that the pages can sometimes be too busy.  I would prefer a cleaner layout.  Other than that, the videos are helpful, the audio is great to be sure pronunciation is correct.  We started using Quizlet for the vocabulary instead of the games on the site though.

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We use Lively Latin and love it. My oldest is about 3/4 of the way through BB2 and my middle son is about 3/4 of the way through BB1. My oldest loves  history which is one of the reasons why I chose it. But I really like it all around. I like the videos, audio files, and extra stuff on the website. I find it easy to teach and I only took one year of Latin in 8th grade. (So, about 100 years ago.) My middle son doesn't like history much so I just print out everything else and skip the history pages for him. I like the vocabulary/word study. I like the grammar. I like it all. :) My oldest took the NLE Intro Exam last year and did very well and he took NLE Latin I this year as a challenge and felt like it was pretty easy (no scores yet).

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We did GSWL mostly orally and I added un some days for English to Latin translation. We spent a year and a half doing that and just started Lively Latin. My kids are enjoying the different format and it seems easy since there is a fair amount of review.

 

I imagine we will continue on to book 2, and after that I'm looking at Latin Book 1.

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My kids use Memoria Press Latin as well, but I've never heard them say it was fun. I love it, but it is totally drill and kill. I recommend combing kids in a level so they can learn together. We do have fun playing speed games with the flashcards, chanting while dancing, or any other silly thing I can think of to make it a tolerable part of our day.

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Hmm...no, I wouldn't say MP Latin is fun.  I would say it's thorough, simple, and easy to teach. I do make up some very simple games now and then to add to the fun factor, but I'm not overly concerned with making it entertaining all the time.  At some point they're going to figure out that Latin requires perseverance, diligence, and plain hard work.  Honestly, that's part of why we're studying Latin to begin with.

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Thanks for all these tips. I had never even heard of GSWL.  I will have to make a list and start looking into each program (sigh, my least favorite part of homeschooling!!!!!).  I am not even sure we are going to do it in third grade; I may punt to later in elementary school, but I do need to have a curriculum in my back pocket so that we are ready to go when it is time. 

 

I will "study on this" as the country folks here say.  Thank you all!!!

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My oldest did two years of Memoria Press before we ditched it and went to Galore Park Latin Prep. It's such a better fit for him. My second did GSWL and then Galore Park. GSWL is a nice prep for GP I think. A lot of the same Vocab is used. The cases are presented in a different order though, so keep that in mind.

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We did Song School in K/1st, then picked up GSWL for 2nd/3rd, then began Memoria Press' First Form Latin in 4th.  This is a path that is working very well for my goals of a rigorous Latin education leading to reading/translating classics in high school.  My child has never had much fun with Latin (not even SSL!) but he does get occasionally excited by what we're learning in FFL.  He likes the videos especially. 

 

I am thinking of incorporating some Galore Park materials -- not sure quite how -- to boost the classical culture exposure and provide "color".  But I am so, so happy with the coverage that we're getting with FFL that we'll be continuing it next year for certain and plan to complete the series. 

 

ETA: I had no previous Latin knowledge.  If I had I'd have used Minimus along with GSWL -- I hope to be able to do that easily with my second child.  Some folks use Minimus even though they don't know Latin, but I couldn't do it very well (I own it and tried).

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Just adding on here - I had given away my old copy of GSWL and just bought a new copy for my older three to use this summer (in the fall, dd will be starting Cambridge at a private high school and my ds12s will be using First Form at middle school).  It was sitting there on the counter, fresh out of the box, and ds8 picked it up and started teaching himself Latin.  Dd showed up and they worked together for a while but then a fight ensued... over who got to use the book.  

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