CAP Latin: Where to begin?

[Slache]

I had planned on concentrating on Spanish and then beginning Latin Alive in 7th grade. Some recent threads suggested that Latin Alive comes much more naturally when one does Latin For Children first. If I'm going to consider Latin For Children then I'm going to consider Song School Latin as well. So where did you start and how happy are you with the results? If I were to do the entire sequence I would like to begin in 2nd grade. Anyone opposed? Thank you for your thoughts.

[Ethel Mertz]

Sounds like a good plan to me! DS loved Song School Latin (they only had the first year when we did it). I kept DS in LFC this year, but next year (8th), we'll start in with Latin Alive.

[ScoutTN]

My Dd started in 2nd with SSL and will be a 6th grader in Latin alive this fall. We also did GSWL in there along the way. 

My kids love the SSL CD. They didn't have the Dvd when we did it. 

 

Dd is a words girl and is good at grammar so Latin comes easily for her. Ds... remains to be seen. He starts this coming year as a 3rd grader.

 

I have found the CAP customer service people to be helpful and responsive.

Edited May 24, 2016 by ScoutTN

[MinivanMom]

My dd started Latin Alive in 6th and did great. Her only previous exposure to Latin was a few months of working through Getting Started with Latin at the end of 5th grade. She's a strong humanities girl, though. We concentrated on French in elementary school, because I felt strongly that a spoken language should come first. I do think Latin has come a lot easier for dd, because she started a little bit older when she had a solid grammar foundation in place.

 

My understanding is that all the CAP series start from the beginning. Latin for Children just moves at a quicker pace than Song School Latin, and Latin Alive moves at a quicker pace than Latin for Children. So it isn't necessary to do SSL or LfC before Latin Alive. You can if you want to, but Latin Alive starts from the very beginning; it doesn't assume any prior knowledge. Some kids would probably benefit from doing Latin for Children A in 6th grade before starting Latin Alive in 7th, but other kids could jump into Latin Alive in 7th without any problems. It really depends on the student.

 

If you're going to focus on one language now with elementary kids, I would strongly recommend going with Spanish. There will be lots of time down the road for Latin.

[SilverMoon]

Either plan would work fine. CAP now or later. Really really. But doing two languages at once is a huge chore. It's like having two full math programs to do it well. Which lands me back at why did you decide to do Spanish first and Latin later? If those reasons haven't changed I'd stay the course. It's a good plan! :001_smile:

 

We started with Latin as our first language, and did it as a family. The older two started with LFC A and the middle two started with SSL. Hub nor I had any previous Latin experience. We had fun and learned gobs. A few years later we really wanted to work on Spanish. The language loving kid tried running a program of each for a year, and everyone else mostly ended up dabbling in both and not doing either really well. We set Spanish aside, finished our Latin books (LFC and LA by then) for the year, and made a full switch to Spanish. We're now ending our first, solid, family-wide year of Spanish and it's gone really well. Those years of Latin really boosted their Spanish progress! We had more than one native speaker comment on how they seemed more advanced than typical first year students. The older two kids probably won't make it back around to Latin while homeschooled. #3 probably won't consider it worth having a full block on the schedule when one of his desired secondary schools doesn't accept Latin (Air Force), but that language lover (#4) still plans on adding it back in when her Spanish is stronger. Even if they never get back to Latin they have really benefited from the time we spent on it and I don't regret one minute.

 

Since the family is Spanish focused the little two kids have/will start with Spanish. My rising third grader has already done Song School Spanish, The Fun Spanish (Brookdale), and will start Spanish for Children this fall. The little guy has picked up random bits of Spanish just from living here. When they're solidly around a 5th-6th grade level I'll reevaluate starting them on Latin.

 

To actually answer the OP, SSL was really a fabulous introduction to the language. It really got a basic familiarity set in, a handful of useful vocab a week, and their pronunciation was solid by the end of it. (No experience with SSL2.) LFC was a strong step up from SSL, but it has a LOT of support. The activity book, readers, free practice pages, Headventureland.com. Great program. LA is another strong step up, has a higher interest level and a more mature approach. We had to add vocab practice to this one, since it left the sing-songy chants behind. I've no real complaints from any of them.

Edited May 24, 2016 by SilverMoon

[Slache]

I speak Spanish. My original plan was to speak, read, watch and listen to Spanish, then start a Spanish grammar program around 3rd grade. On the side I wanted them to study Greek so I really wanted to hold off on yet another language. I think at this point I'll plan on beginning with Latin Alive, but keep SSL and LFC in the back of my mind in case I change my mind. Thanks for everything!

[MinivanMom]

I speak Spanish. My original plan was to speak, read, watch and listen to Spanish, then start a Spanish grammar program around 3rd grade. On the side I wanted them to study Greek so I really wanted to hold off on yet another language. I think at this point I'll plan on beginning with Latin Alive, but keep SSL and LFC in the back of my mind in case I change my mind. Thanks for everything!

 

If you speak Spanish, then you should absolutely go with Spanish. Don't miss the opportunity to help them develop fluency while they're young. Growing up bilingual is a wonderful gift.

 

Once they are strong Spanish speakers, then they will have no problem jumping into Latin or Greek in middle school if you decide to add a third language at that point.

[SoCal_Bear]

We finished SSL1 this year and have started SSL2. It is definitely a step up and introduces grammar. After I looked at SSL2 and looked at the beginning of LFCA, I definitely see how SSL2 leads right into it.