Elementary Latin curricula recs?

[EKT]

Hi all,

 

We've been homeschooling using the WTM as our guide from the very beginning, but this is my first time venturing here to the forums. My oldest daughter will begin third grade in the late summer/early fall and I want to get started teaching her Latin. I was hoping users here could offer their candid feedback/opinions/recommendations on elementary Latin curricula. Any information you can provide (What is the ballpark cost? How many years of instruction does the program span? Is the program particularly religious? etc.) would be very helpful and very much appreciated.

 

Thank you so much for your help!

 

P.S. As I mentioned above, I am brand-new to these forums, so my apologies if this is a tedious question to regulars. :-)

[StartingOver]

I will be honest, most folks drop Latin like a hot potato.

 

I highly recommend Getting Started with Latin is an awesome introduction. It is $10 on Kindle. ( Kindle app can be downloaded to PC, or cell, for free. ) It is simple, straight forward, one word a day, up to 10 sentences to translate, amazing overview of Latin. It is secular, and Audio can be downloaded at gettingstartedwithlatin.com .

 

We then moved to Lively Latin 1 &2, and are now using Latin Prep. All of which are secular, parts to whole, grammar based Latin. Which we adore.

 

Now there are other options. Yahoo group for Latin Book 1. Lenny's Latin Class linked on the website link above. So you can teach Latin with some effort for free.

[StartingOver]

We will do Latin through 12 th grade. Building with the goal of reading original Latin language books, and understanding English grammar and vocabulary much better.

[Runningmom80]

We use lively Latin.

[Miss Tick]

We did, and enjoyed, GSWL starting in 3rd. I bought the soft-cover book for $20. It is a nice, gentle program. However, after a while I added days of English to Latin translation, and I split some of the lessons into two parts. It took longer, but each lesson was only about 15 minutes, which was a nice way to introduce it to my students without overwhelming them.

[Momling]

We used Minimus, then Lively Latin and finally Latin Prep. We loved Minimus the best, but don't expect kids to learn much Latin in elementary school regardless of the program.

[KrissiK]

We are committed to Latin, which you need to be, since it is no small task. We use Memoria Press's curriculum. It's not fancy and entertaining, no flying elephants and fun games. There are a lot of threads here on Latin, so you will probably want to look those up, but I am amazed at MP's program. It is solid, easy to teach (we use the DVD's) and my kids really know and understand Latin for where they are in the program. As far as cost.... The DVDs will add to the cost, but you only buy those once, so if you are planning on educating multiple children you can look at it as an investment. The DVDs are what do the teaching, so IMO, if you are serious about Latin and have no Latin training yourself, get the whole program and do it as recommended. A previous poster said Latin often gets dropped. Well, that may be true, but I think a lot of people are unwilling to put in what it takes to learn the language and it becomes difficult... Then impossible....then dropped. We treat Latin as a core subject. Just like Math and reading. We do a recitation every single day. And they do Latin every single day. Even on those shortened days when you can only fit in a few subjects.... maybe you can't get to history or science, but we always do Latin, math and reading, no matter what happens. Good luck! I definitely think it is a worthwhile subject to study.

[ALB]

We also use Memoria Press Latin and treat it similarly to KrissiK.  It is absolutely a core subject.  Our experience has been that this is the only way to persevere with it.  If you look at it as an enrichment subject, you'll never get very far.  It's too challenging and demands too much time and effort for that.  But if you are convinced that learning Latin is valuable and show your kids that by making it a priority, you can absolutely go all the way to translating Cicero and other authors.  

 

I have a review of Prima Latina (Memoria Press's beginning program for 2nd-3rd graders) here on my blog.  I think its a great starting point for 3rd graders since its a pretty gentle introduction.  We didn't use the DVD's for that or for Latina Christiana, but we are finding them useful for First Form Latin.  

 

Whatever you choose, I also recommend reading up on why Latin is worthwhile.  My favorite book for that so far is Climbing Parnassus.  Doing some research will help you solidify your goals and decide whether its worth committing to or not.

[Ali in OR]

We used Classical Academic Press' Latin for Children series, A, B, and C, for third through 6th grade. I learned along with the kids and we used the DVD which made it enjoyable for the kids and easy for me. We used the DVD, textbook, and teacher's edition. Looks like now they have an answer key instead of the teacher's edition which should be just fine as the teacher's edition was just the student edition with answers--no extra info. That bundle is $73.95 at Rainbow Resource.

 

Both of my kids did well with the LFC series. We continued on with CAP's Latin Alive next. My older dd has more of a bent for languages, and she was able to do the course on her own--she did the first two books. Then she did an online class with Lone Pine Classical school and that was a really good experience for her. Then she went off to public high school and is not able to continue Latin at this time--maybe in college. My younger dd does not enjoy Latin. We made it through book one of Latin Alive this year and I'm letting her drop Latin now.

[freeindeed]

We used Memoria Press Prima Latina and then moved to Latina Christiana.

[whitestavern]

We used Getting Started with Latin and then Lively Latin.  Surprisingly they were easy for me to implement and both were enjoyed by the students. 

[Stellalarella]

My kids that struggle with school tell me they love Latin.

 

It's very satisfying to learn something from the parts up to the whole.  

 

Lively Latin has worked well for us, followed by Wheelocks.  

[8filltheheart]

We view Latin as a core subject, but we eschew elementary Latin.  Waiting until slightly older, 6th grade-ish, has been a better approach for our family.  My kids that started later had stronger incentive to stick with it b/c their progression was more rapid and they enjoyed it.

[EKT]

Thanks so much for all the responses so far! Very helpful! :-)