Which Henle to start with?

[golgibody]

My 13 yo has completed unit 3 of Cambridge Latin and received a silver medal on the Latin I NLE last year. He will take the Latin II NLE next month. This fall he will be taking a Latin class at the local high school which uses the Henle text. I'm not sure which level of Henle to sign him up for- the approach is so different than with Cambridge. My kid doesn't do well when overwhelmed and I am leaning towards just signing him up for Henle First Year but don't want it to be all review for him either. Thoughts?

[momofjep]

Just some thoughts since no one has jumped in on this:

 

In 8th grade, my son did the first half of Henle 1 as Latin 1 (many consider Henle 1 a two-year course that counts as Latin 1 and 2). Does your school use Henle 1 as a one-year course? If so, it probably moves fast. I would think it would overwhelm a student with no Latin experience, but since your son has done well so far, it may be all review. 

 

In 9th grade, my son went on to the local high school and started with Latin 1 (not Henle) and it was all review. He could have started with Latin 2, but I wanted him to have an easy class while he was adjusting to public school. He started learning new material about halfway through Latin 2. Now he is back home and using Henle 2 with Dwane Thomas as his Latin 3, which seems to have been a good placement for him.

 

From what the public school Latin teacher told me, the 1st two years of Latin are grammar and the last two are translating original texts. Is he ready to translate texts or do you think he needs more time with the grammar?

 

I'm sure that didn't answer your questions...lol...but maybe you can find something useful from our experience. 

[RootAnn]

:iagree:  If the school does the first book of Henle over two years (Latin 1 & Latin 2), I'd start him in Latin 2 as there will be some review, some new material, and quite a bit of getting used to things. Based on his NLE placement, I think Latin 2 might be a bit lower of a level than he COULD start with, but would be a safer placement without having him completely bored.

 

The big question is whether he'll do well with Henle's method after doing Cambridge. He might end up hating Latin for that year.

 

If the school covers all of Henle book 1 in Latin 1, you might have to bite the bullet & have him retake it just to make sure his grammar is solid. I guess it depends on if the school has a placement test and what their next Latin class is. Is he ready for it specifically?

[golgibody]

Thanks everyone. The class goes through Henle I in 2 years - I think I will see how he does on NLE this year and then have him look over the text with the teacher he'll have next year and see what she thinks. They don't have a formal placement test (school is very small) but maybe this is better.

[Nancy in NH]

One thing to consider, besides Henle and Cambridge utilizing different teaching methods, is that the vocabulary introduced in Henle will be different than what is studied in Cambridge.  Your son might be a bit bored by the grammar exercises in Henle First Year (though I do like the thorough approach to grammar that Henle uses), but it might benefit him to at least get familiar with the vocabulary in First Year.

 

For what it's worth, I studied Henle First Year with my oldest, and later Cambridge Units 1-3 (now into Unit 4) with my two youngest.  Each method appeals to me in different ways (I like the structure and the rigor of the grammar in Henle, but I also enjoy the reading method and story lines in Cambridge), and I think studying Latin with various resources can be very beneficial.

 

One other consideration is preparing for NLE III, if that is part of the plan, as I see your son is taking NLE II this year.  My DS took NLE III after finishing Henle Second Year and NLE III/IV Prose after finishing Third Year.

 

Hope this helps!

Nancy in NH