Has anyone else decided to put Lively Latin aside?

[lovemyboys]

Dc and I were really excited by this new program but it's just not the same with Latin anymore. Ds commented the other day, "this sure isn't 'lively.' " So we decided that rather than let Latin become a drudge, we will switch back to the way we were using Prima Latina. Dc really enjoyed it, we modified it to suit us and they were loving this. In fact, I'm amazed at how much they retained after the summer. We were nearly done with PL, so I thought I'd switch, but it's not a good fit -- at least for now.

 

Anyone else found this happening? If you're using Lively Latin, what age/level are you finding it good for?

 

tia

[Alana in Canada]

We're enjoying it. It seems to be better suited for the older one, though. I'm bginning to struggle a bit with it, though. I need things just a tad more explicit.

 

On the other hand, we all hated Prima Latina. The repetition was torture--for us.

[lovemyboys]

We're enjoying it. It seems to be better suited for the older one, though. I'm bginning to struggle a bit with it, though. I need things just a tad more explicit.

 

On the other hand, we all hated Prima Latina. The repetition was torture--for us.

 

We probably didn't do PL like we were supposed to, that's why they enjoyed it so much. :lol: But that's why they like Saxon too, we don't belabor it.

 

I think the thing that threw me was the masc/fem. nouns memorization right from the start. I thought I had Latin figured out for the year, but now I'm not sure what to do next.

[Linda...inOwasso]

Dd8 and I made it halfway through Lively Latin and then set it aside for this year. I've never tried another Latin program so I have nothing to compare it to, but I decided to put it off a year.

 

I've really ramped up the writing and independent reading this year and "I" just don't have time to deal with Latin too. I'll save that battle for another year. :)

[Cindy in NY]

We decided to shelf Lively Latin also.

 

We had started with Latina Christiana, and it was going well, but I was intrigued by Lively Latin, so we switched mid year (last year). At our beginning of the year planning session this year my 9 and 11 year olds decided that they would rather return to LC. They felt they had learned more with it and retained it much better. I had to agree.

 

We are back to LC and I am amazed at how much of it they still remember. We will stick with it from here on out.

[Jen500]

Anyone else found this happening? If you're using Lively Latin, what age/level are you finding it good for?

 

My boys are 8 and we tried PL first, didn't like it, and are now enjoying Lively Latin. :001_smile:

[Alana in Canada]

I'm interested in hearing about the differences between LL and Latina Christiana. Why do you think one is successful in one household where the other isn't--and vice versa.

 

I'm beginning to feel uneasy about LL and while we'll see the program to the end, I'm not sure if we should switch and if we do, where we should go.

[sandra in va]

We used Memoria press Latin with our oldest two. My third used PL last year, and I thought it might be nice to change to something more fun and colorful. I got it and was very impressed with many things...but in the long run decided to just stick with the LC series with him.

 

The switch back was really for very personal reasons - I liked the focus of grammar/vocab weekly in LC instead of alternating grammar with history in LL. I need a regular structure. I don't have the time to be able to adjust to different kinds of lessons each week. Also, from my initial read through, it seems that it might need more written practice/drill. I know they have games on their website, so that might be provided there...esp for the weeks where you're studying history, to keep the grammar/vocab up.

[nmoira]

 

I'm beginning to feel uneasy about LL and while we'll see the program to the end, I'm not sure if we should switch and if we do, where we should go.

What is it that's giving you pause? Are you on the Yahoo! group? It's not terribly busy yet, but there's at least one person there (me) who has gone through LL1, and Ms. Drown is a member there as well.

[Alana in Canada]

I haven't quite articulated it to myself, but I've been thinking of joining the yahoo group.

 

I have questions like these.

Do you still use the vocabulary cards? I know we should be quizzing translation...but we don't.

 

What are the declensions called? I don't have anything to refer to them by.

 

The kids sit there helplessly when asked to decline. They have no idea how to go about it--I make them go back through their noes and look it up--but it is a lot of looking. If we knew what to call them, we could just recite nauta nautae, m, xxx" (xxx being the name of the declension, for example.)

 

The other day they had to put a sentence together--and we had to review everything! It was a flurry of papers and tempers.

 

We're on lesson 8--1/2 way through and nothing is sticking.

[latinteach]

What are the declensions called? I don't have anything to refer to them by.

 

I hope this answers your question.

 

Nouns that look like "puella" are called "First Declension Nouns." They are usually feminine, though there are a few masculine nouns that end in "-a." Those few masculine nouns (the PAIN words: "pirata/poeta, agricola, incola, and nauta") are all derived from Greek nouns, borrowed into Latin. So you might ask your children to "Decline the first declension noun 'puella'." They should recognize that it is a first declension noun because the nominative singular ends in -a.

 

Nouns that look like "taurus" are called "Second Declension Nouns." Also, nouns that look like "puer" and "vir." (The nominative singular endings are different for these 3 types of nouns, but the rest of the endings will be the same for "-us, -er, and -r" nouns.) You can ask your child to "Decline the second declension noun 'taurus/puer/vir." These nouns are masculine.

 

There are also "Second Declension Neuter" nouns. "Bellum" is the most common example. Second Declension Neuter nouns end in -um in the nominative singular. The nominative and accusatives are always identical and the nominative and accusative plural always ends in "-a."

 

 

The kids sit there helplessly when asked to decline. They have no idea how to go about it--I make them go back through their noes and look it up--but it is a lot of looking. If we knew what to call them, we could just recite nauta nautae, m, xxx" (xxx being the name of the declension, for example.)

They should know that nouns ending in -a are first declension; nouns ending in -us, -er, or -r are second declension (masculine); nouns ending in -um are second declension (neuter).

 

The other day they had to put a sentence together--and we had to review everything! It was a flurry of papers and tempers.We're on lesson 8--1/2 way through and nothing is sticking.

Are you going too quickly? The author (C. Drown) does have games on the website. Maybe some review would be helpful before moving on.

[nmoira]

I have questions like these.

Do you still use the vocabulary cards? I know we should be quizzing translation...but we don't.

Yes. We use the latest vocabulary set every day (even days we otherwise skip Latin) and periodically review the others. We're in Big Book 2, and once a week I'll sort out the nouns and say, "tell me the accusative singular and plural of..." and work through the deck. Then repeat for the other two cases we've studied thus far. Vocabulary acquisition is the one part of any Latin program I would encourage you to not downplay.

 

What are the declensions called? I don't have anything to refer to them by.

You mean the case endings? You'll primarily be using nominative case in Big Book 1. The only other case you'll actually use is ablative (of place where)... as in: The farmer works in the garden. "Garden" is the object of the preposition in English, and is in the ablative case in Latin.

 

The other day they had to put a sentence together--and we had to review everything! It was a flurry of papers and tempers.

 

We're on lesson 8--1/2 way through and nothing is sticking.

Is it the grammar or the vocabulary, or both?

[Debbie in OR]

Just a thought but you might want to get your hands on a Henle Grammar book. We are almost through LL and I was beginning to get really lost (had already done PL and Minimus). I bought the Henle Grammar book a few months ago and WOW! It has been so very helpful in trying to traverse the Latin questions.

[latinteach]

Just a thought but you might want to get your hands on a Henle Grammar book. We are almost through LL and I was beginning to get really lost (had already done PL and Minimus). I bought the Henle Grammar book a few months ago and WOW! It has been so very helpful in trying to traverse the Latin questions.

 

Another helpful reference is "English Grammar for Students of Latin: The Study Guide for Those Learning Latin" by Norma Goldman. It's very basic and will answer questions like "What is meant by case? What is a declension? What are the principal parts of a verb?" It explains these things in clear language. It is very useful for a teacher or parent who is trying to explain these concepts to students.

[Alana in Canada]

Thanks so much, folks. Unfortunately, we have to start school in the next few minutes so I don't have time to go over this.

nmoira--it was vocabulary AND grammar! (Noun, verb, what declension, what endings, remember agreement?) Ugh. Fortunately it was only three!

[lovemyboys]

We used Memoria press Latin with our oldest two. My third used PL last year, and I thought it might be nice to change to something more fun and colorful. I got it and was very impressed with many things...but in the long run decided to just stick with the LC series with him.

 

The switch back was really for very personal reasons - I liked the focus of grammar/vocab weekly in LC instead of alternating grammar with history in LL. I need a regular structure. I don't have the time to be able to adjust to different kinds of lessons each week. Also, from my initial read through, it seems that it might need more written practice/drill. I know they have games on their website, so that might be provided there...esp for the weeks where you're studying history, to keep the grammar/vocab up.

 

Thanks for all the thoughts here, I'm writing down the reference books listed in other posts.

 

I'm thinking that this is the path we'll take for the next year or so. And I'll add in a modern language soon.

 

For us, I just looked ahead to the first few lessons with all the technical terminology and realized that for our dc LL would become a drudgery very quickly. Up to this point, they have been loving Latin, which really surprised me. While we enjoyed the history review in LL, and the language paths (especially the part about ol' William the Conqueror and the French influence on our spelling!!), moving into the technical structure of language is just more than they're ready for.

 

fwiw, I also liked that they were learning the prayers and phrases in Latin with PL. That was kind of cool (even though we're not Catholic). :001_smile:

[Shasta Mom]

We just got our download for LL1 and I printed out the first set of lessons and I'm intimidated. We had done through lesson 15 of PL (the secular parts) and I thought the simplicity was good for a 9 year old boy. The LL dives in a little to deeply for my taste. I think we'll finish PL over the next month or so, and then revisit LL. Can someone tell me if LC1 is laid out the same as PL? And if we wanted to skip the religious parts, is it doable as it's been with PL?

[Alana in Canada]

Jut wanted to follow up--I had the kids "play a game"--I read out the english on their vocabulary cards at random. They had to tell me both forms and gender before they got a "point." (We kept score on the black board). If I was looking at blank faces, I gave them a "clue" such as: "forest." ..... Sometimes this word forms the basis of a girl's name. ""wind"......When Mommy burns something on the stove, we open the window for ventilation."

 

They loved it--and we ended the game when there was only one point difference between them. I went to get them a chocolate chip for each point but someone had eaten them all up!

[Melissa in CA]

I personally didn't purchase LL because I knew it wasn't my style and I didn't want a Latin with History added in...but I did purchase Latin For Children and have just decided, today in fact, to put it aside for a few weeks. I feel like it's moving too fast and we are beginning to get a tad lost.

 

I found something that I am going to have my son work through for a bit instead. It's called Getting Started with Latin. It's getting rave reviews on Amazon and after downloading the free lesson commentary and vocabulary mp3s from the authors website, I think the simplicity of it will be a great help in overcoming some of the strangeness of Latin grammar. ;)

 

Here is the website in case anyone else has a beginner needing something simple and to the point: http://www.gettingstartedwithlatin.com