LC1 for two years

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

My 2nd and 3rd children will use LC1 for two years starting in the fall. The youngest will just be listening and watching. The 3rd grader will use the book. Would you recommend

 

(1) doing everything at half pace?

 

or

 

(2) completing the book at regular pace with no quizzes and then repeating with quizzes and the extra practice?

[mama25angels]

My 2nd and 3rd children will use LC1 for two years starting in the fall. The youngest will just be listening and watching. The 3rd grader will use the book. Would you recommend(1) doing everything at half pace?or (2) completing the book at regular pace with no quizzes and then repeating with quizzes and the extra practice?

I recommend doing it at half pace IF that's what he needs. You could also check the MP website, I think they have lesson plans for doing it half pace since that is what they're recommending now for third grade.

[RootAnn]

The other option is going through & just memorizing the vocab the first year. I'd do it with games & homemade flashcards. One game could be "memory" where half the cards have the Latin word & half have the English translation. I'd probably also add in the chants slowly.

The second year, you go through the book 'as is', review all the vocab, and focus on the grammar & exercises in the book. 

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

That is a good idea, but I'd bet it wouldn't get done in our house.  Workbooks seem to keep us on track.  It is one of the reason I'm growing to love Memoria Press.  I'll keep thinking.  I have 6 months.

[ALB]

I would do it half pace over the 2 years.  I'm not really sure what you'd gain by doing it the other way, since all the vocabulary is really the trickiest part of LC (IMO).  Then you'd have 2 weeks to do each lesson and could really devote time to mastering it.  I definitely recommend buying the Review Worksheets that go along with it!  The games (Ludere Latine) are nice to have, but not as helpful for review as the worksheets.

 

If you spend about 15-20 minutes on Latin every day for two years, your kids will rock at First Form Latin once they get there.  A lot of it will be review to begin with and they'll be ready for the faster pace by then.

[RootAnn]

I understand about having workbooks to keep you on track. If I didn't have a written plan for things, they wouldn't get done. 

 

The first time through LC (oldest dd), I made a little booklet of the blank drill sheets. We used the extra review worksheets this time, but my kids still needed more work with the vocab. We do a lot of flashcard work & add in Quizlet practice as needed. 

 

IMO, the grammar forms and how to translate are the hardest part of LC -- understanding how changing the ending changes either who is doing the action & when it takes place (verbs) or the word's job in a sentence (declension). It is a tough thing to wrap your head around as an adult if you don't have a foreign language background & some of my kids have struggled with the concept in Latin. In chapters where they know most of the vocab from Prima Latina, they have been mostly free to wrestle with the grammar concept and conquer it. When they have to wrestle with a new declension AND learn new vocab, we have to take longer on that chapter to get it down.

[ALB]

I see your point and understand how that could work well. I guess either way will give you lots of time for the information to sink in. By the way, First Form Latin starts over again at the beginning so even if your kids don't absolutely master and remember everything in LC, they can still proceed on to FFL and do fine with it.