kentuckymom Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 I actually preferred some of the other suggestions on my previous thread, but I showed samples to my son and his great preference was Visual Latin. He does tend to learn well through videos. I'm not a big fan of the ecclesiastical pronunciation idea (and apparently it's actually kind of a mix between that and classical, which is even worse), but I can live with it if that's the only problem and the course helps my son learn more Latin and be excited about it. Any want to share negative experiences of this program? Is it worth the money? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 We did it up through lesson #30. I thought the program was fine. (We did add Lingua Latina in at some point, which we liked better.) Honestly, we grew a little tired of the super-casual teaching style and lame jokes. Maybe my kids were a little old for it. I didn't like the "live" feel to it when the instructor misspoke and had to go back and correct himself. I know in a classroom with a teacher that's going to happen sometimes. But on video? Why not just edit it? I don't know, that might be too petty, but it did get annoying. It didn't happen in every lesson. But that's a preference/style thing which others may not have a problem with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 We did it up through lesson #30. I thought the program was fine. (We did add Lingua Latina in at some point, which we liked better.) Honestly, we grew a little tired of the super-casual teaching style and lame jokes. Maybe my kids were a little old for it. I didn't like the "live" feel to it when the instructor misspoke and had to go back and correct himself. I know in a classroom with a teacher that's going to happen sometimes. But on video? Why not just edit it? I don't know, that might be too petty, but it did get annoying. It didn't happen in every lesson. But that's a preference/style thing which others may not have a problem with. Thanks for the feedback! My son tells lame jokes himself ALL.THE.TIME. so he might love that :). It will probably drive ME crazy, but sometimes Notgrass History drives me crazy and I put up with it because my son loves it and is learning a lot. I have to remind myself sometimes that this is his education, not mine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diaperjoys Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Our boys worked with Visual Latin for a semester or so. I'd guess that if your child liked the samples and learns well from videos, it could be a great pick for him. However, you'll need to be able to organize and make accessible the misc. worksheets and resources for him. The program fell apart for us (13yo, 12yo). We had the worksheets all printed out, and easy links set up on the computer so they could access the Quizlet vocab practice. But, still, they quickly fell behind on vocab memory. Once that was a factor, and they had some lessons where they didn't understand the grammar being explained, it became difficult for them to do the worksheets. Some of the translation work is intentionally set up with some guesswork involved - since so many Latin words look like their English derivatives. But this was discouraging for our literal son, who felt that he should have quick recall of every word presented on the worksheet. This program is a decent one, and, if I had been sitting beside them while they watched, and had helped them to "connect the dots" with the various concepts being presented, it would have been absolutely great. However, that isn't where we are in life right now. There are too many grades and special needs among my children for that to happen. We're currently using DuoLingo, and the two older boys are independently (and very successfully) studying German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kentuckymom Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Our boys worked with Visual Latin for a semester or so. I'd guess that if your child liked the samples and learns well from videos, it could be a great pick for him. However, you'll need to be able to organize and make accessible the misc. worksheets and resources for him. The program fell apart for us (13yo, 12yo). We had the worksheets all printed out, and easy links set up on the computer so they could access the Quizlet vocab practice. But, still, they quickly fell behind on vocab memory. Once that was a factor, and they had some lessons where they didn't understand the grammar being explained, it became difficult for them to do the worksheets. Some of the translation work is intentionally set up with some guesswork involved - since so many Latin words look like their English derivatives. But this was discouraging for our literal son, who felt that he should have quick recall of every word presented on the worksheet. This program is a decent one, and, if I had been sitting beside them while they watched, and had helped them to "connect the dots" with the various concepts being presented, it would have been absolutely great. However, that isn't where we are in life right now. There are too many grades and special needs among my children for that to happen. We're currently using DuoLingo, and the two older boys are independently (and very successfully) studying German. Thanks for the evaluation. Since he's the only one home with me, I do have time to sit with him and help connect the dots if needed. It's helpful to know that it could be needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 My 9th grader loves this program. She is almost finished with Visual Latin 1. I had never heard of it until someone mentioned it on the high school board, so we decided to try it this year. If you go with VL, look through the free downloads - one of them talks about how to implement the program. You're supposed to supplement with several things. One of those is the Lingua Latina Latin reader (that's very important to include that). Don't skip the reader. You'll also need to buy a Latin dictionary. They're also supposed to listen to something to hear the pronunciations. Anyway, it's all outlined in the teacher's pages or one of those downloads. The monthly subscription is only like 7 bucks. So, if they don't like it or it's not a good fit, you can just cancel. You don't have to buy the entire thing up front. This has been one of the few curricula that my daughter actually likes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Indeed Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 We love it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanna1949 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 I think that might have been the video course that we found bumping up the speed a tad bit helped. It was just little slow paced. Otherwise, it was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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