For Latin Prep users, how long, how often

[Kimber]

and do you have to hold your younger kid's hands. I'm going to wait until my son is older and definitely ready, but I'm thinking ahead to how much time commitment will be needed for this curriculum.

 

Thanks for the information:)

[Patricia in WA]

I will try to write it out again, but bear with me.

 

DD, 12 in 10 days, is my take the easy road child so Latin was a big struggle in the beginning but because she would make careless mistakes.

 

For example, taken from her notebook, the sentence reads (Ii don't know how to do the accents)

 

quinque equos in agros agricola movit

 

She translated as:

 

The five horses move the farmer in the field.

 

She looked at the words and just translated them pretty much in the order the sentences appeared. WRONG!!!!

 

I have taught her to look for the verb first.....movit is present 3rdperson singular so he/she moves. Who moves? Agricola is nominative singular for farmer so "The farmer moves" Moves what? quinque is five. The farmer moves five what? equos is accusative plural so "The farmer moves the five horses" where? in agros is a prep phrase with a plural noun so into the fields.

 

The farmer moves the five horse into the fields.

 

I had to go over this for every sentence for the first 4 or 5 chapters in Book 1 before it became habit. She is now in Book 2 and every now and then I still have to remind her to remember number (plural or singular) or some other small fact. Overall she teachers it to herself and is doing just fine. When she has questions she brings them to me before she is completely lost.

 

DS, 9, is in Chapter 4 of book 1. He has previosuly done Minimus (learned some vocab and that Yoda must have spoken Latin as his verbs are always at the end too:D) and LfC A (mostly vocab..the grammar was severely lacking). He plays blindfold chess frequently and used to holding entire games in his head so the process above he does mostly in his mind now.

 

Other than the above I have not really had to be involved much. DD used to write the vocab on index cards and I would quiz her but she has not done that in Book 2 and is still remembering everythign just fine. She does write the conjugations over and over as this helps her remember them better, but again this takes no effort on my part.

 

To be honest, Latin is our least teacher intensive subject. Now let's not talk about writing.....;)

 

HTHs,

[Mama Lynx]

My nearly 12 year old, who has done some LC, some LfC, some Latin Book One, some Henle - lol, does one textbook exercise and one workbook exercise a day. Because he's already had so much Latin the exercises are easy for him (we're in Chapter 5 of the first book, and I think we started in November, and took a few weeks off for Christmas). He does the textbook exercise orally.

 

He actually takes to Latin quite well, but he suffers from an inattention to detail. He frequently has to do workbook exercises over, simply because he wasn't paying attention to silly things like endings and verb tenses.

 

My 10 year old does *either* a textbook exercise (orally, with me) or a workbook exercise.

 

If this was our first experience with Latin, I'd also have them spending a couple of minutes a day drilling endings and tenses.

 

But all in all, it does not take a lot of time. Neither of mine use it to teach themselves, but neither of mine are motivated to do so. The program makes it easy to use very independently, IMO. However, I like to do the oral work with them; that way I really know what they know, and what they don't.

[Laura Corin]

We do 30 minute lessons twice a week together; Calvin also does two 15 minute memorisation sessions. Up to now (ending book two) we have done most of the work orally and haven't used the workbooks. We are just starting to alternate between oral and written work. We get through a little under one book a year - I'm in no rush.

 

Laura

[Kimber]

Thanks Guys,

 

This seems very doable. I am getting ahead of myself, but it definitely seems doable. Thanks!

[Jenny in Atl]

We do LP1 5x a week for about 15-20 mins. We are going slow cause mom is learning along with dd 12. I'm also doing LL with dd 7. I just may take the Latin exam along side my kids. :D

[Susan in SoCal]

of course, how teacher intensive this curriculum is going to be is almost entirely dependent on the student (!!).

 

My son has recently turned 11, and is in the first chapter of LP3 (he had previously done LfC A-B, and a good chunk of LBO). He reads on his own. Sometimes asks me for clarification. We do the Latin to English parts out loud. If he's struggling I can ask him a series of questions to get him going in the right direction. And then he does the English to Latin parts as written exercises. He spends about 45 minutes every morning on Latin. My involvement is rarely more than 15 minutes daily.

[Kimber]

Did your son go right in to LP3 after LfC A and B and LBO? I was assuming that one would have to begin at the begging of LP. I don't know why I made that assumption.

 

And after this he goes to So You Really Want to Learn Latin, right?

[Susan in SoCal]

We started at LP2 and moved thru it pretty quickly (3.5 months). Some of it was review, some of it was new.

 

After LP3, we're planning to do SYRWTLL3 (skipping 1&2).

[Laura Corin]

After LP3, we're planning to do SYRWTLL3 (skipping 1&2).

 

I think you are the first person to go into SY3 after LP3 and it would be great to get reports, either here or on the Yahoo group.

 

Laura

[Susan in SoCal]

we're just now beginning LP3...

 

But, I'll be happy to check back in when we get there. :p

[Laura Corin]

You're not far ahead of us then - we have a couple of exercises to go to finish LP 2. We are moving pretty slowly though, so I'd love to hear how it goes for you.

 

I can't remember: what are your plans after SY3? I am planning on going into the distance learning Cambridge course, but Calvin's going to have to spend some time on their online vocabulary games - I think that the course builds much more vocab than does the GP courses.

 

Laura

[Colleen]

A student who isn't yet 12 and is using Latin Prep 2 is not one I'd describe as a "take the easy road child".

 

I think the handful of people on these boards who use Galore Park Latin tend to be particularly gifted in this subject. We go much more slowly and have to puzzle things out much more than the rest of you.

[Mama Lynx]

Since Patricia's child sounds like mine, let me try to clarify.

 

They're bright. Yes. They're capable. But mine, at least, relies on his native brighness and quickness. He does not check his work. He does not think through his answers. He does not bother with correct spelling. Or punctuation. Or to check the case endings to see if he's translated correctly. Or to check his singulars/plurals. Or to write legibly. Or to read the directions.

 

He *can* do all these things. He's very capable. But he can't be bothered. And THAT, yes, is a tendency to take the easy road.

[Pensguys]

Lynx, your son sounds JUST like mine....EXACTLY when it comes to Latin.

[Mama Lynx]

And mine wants to be an engineer or a computer programmer.. We keep pointing out that, er, attention to detail is kinda important for those jobs. LOL

[Jenny in Atl]

I would not say my kids are gifted. We are very average and we still love LP. I think it depends a lot on your attitude. I'm doing LP 1 along with my 12 dd. She gets a good bit of it quicker then me but still we both do a good bit of review. I don't think this is a hard program, in fact, for me it makes much more sense then the LC I had. Maybe learning style?

[Susan in SoCal]

Y'know, I don't have any set-in-stone plans yet for after SY3. At that point, I may move into Henle. or I may use Wheelocks & Lingua Latina to bump up our vocabulary base and reading fluency. (yes, you're correct. LP does limit vocabulary while presenting the grammar - it's very like Henle in that respect).

[Patricia in WA]

Thank you MamaLynx for explaining that so well.:)

[Patricia in WA]

I will benefit from your "been there, done that." :D

 

 

To to Enjoy the sunshine I am getting in WA today,

[Colleen]

I would not say my kids are gifted. We are very average and we still love LP. I think it depends a lot on your attitude. I'm doing LP 1 along with my 12 dd. She gets a good bit of it quicker then me but still we both do a good bit of review. I don't think this is a hard program, in fact, for me it makes much more sense then the LC I had. Maybe learning style?

I/we don't think it's a hard program, either, nor did we find LC particularly difficult. I was responding to Patricia somewhat tongue-in-cheek because most students aren't going to be working in LP 2 already at age 11.

[Mama Lynx]

In that case, I beg pardon for misunderstanding your tone. I did not interpret it as tongue in cheek. Thanks for clarifying.