Latina Christiana vs. Latin for Children

[Vrouwtje]

OK, in my search for a good Latin program I am now closely looking at both Prima Latina/Latina Christiana and Latin for Children. I have a friend that has Prima Latina / Latina Christiana, so it will be nice to take a good look at those. I did take a peek at the sample resources for Latin for Children online.

 

Has any of you used both programs? What were the main differences? I understand that there is a lot of chanting in LFC. Does LC have that? I know that LFC offers both pronunciations, LC offers only ecclesiastical pronunciation. I studied Latin in high school, but will have ds 81/2 do a lot of self-study with the DVD (he will be 9 in 3rd grade next year). He is higly motivated to study Latin as he wants to be a scientist.

 

Which program is more user-friendly?

Which program is the clearest when it comes to teaching the material? What is the difference in quality of teaching on the DVDs?

What about quality of pronunciation?

I saw that LFC has readers, does LC have actual passages to read also? How do they compare when it comes to practicing new material?

They seem to be for the same grade levels. Any differences in level of difficulty?

At the end of each program, which one would prepare you better for advanced Latin?

Any other differences?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Caroline4kids]

I used both last summer, and after previewing all the DVD's for both, I decided that I liked LC much better. I wanted to really like LfC, but LC has and continues to give me a better understanding of Latin. I like Leigh Lowe and her approach and my boys like her too. We watch the DVD on Mon and then they copy the lesson and do the workbook on the following days. I wish it had fun jingles like LfC, but not enough to switch.

 

LfC has a lot of extras that can be a blessing, or a curse. I wanted to do about 20- 30 minutes of Latin a day, but LfC was taking us much longer.

 

LfC is great for some, but I just appreciate how in-depth the LC DVD's are and feel more confident about it. We are not Catholic, but I really like the Lingua Angelica program. Nothing like Gregorian chants to mellow out wild children. :lol:

[SonshineLearner]

LC is not "Catholic" but it does have Church prayers and such...since that's a big reason Latin is around today. I really like LCI and II and believe that it's more correct than LFC. I do like the chants on LFC, but have heard that you really need to know Latin well enough to correct the mistakes.

Carrie:-)

[yslek]

I'm not familiar with both programs, so can't compare.

 

I just wanted to add that the pronunciation mistakes in LFC are annoying (for those of us who are picky about such things) but aren't difficult to correct. The book actually does explain at the beginning where the stress of a word should fall & what sound each letter makes. The DVDs just don't always follow the rules. :tongue_smilie:

 

In the chants, the endings are often emphasized, which leads to an incorrect emphasis on the final syllable (for example, they say "ah-MO" instead of "AH-mo"). Every now and again, someone will slip up and use an English sound in a word rather than the Latin (such as pronouncing aurum "awe-rum" instead of "ow-rum") but, as I said, the correct rules are listed in the front of the book.

 

Overall, I think LFC is an excellent, solid Latin program. It doesn't take us more than half an hour a day, and I think the benefits far outweigh the pronunciation issues. :)

[TMarie]

from a mom with no Latin background....

We found that LfC moved too quickly for us.

LC has been a hit with my kids.

Edited March 10, 2009 by TMarie
spelling

[Pongo]

LC has been a hit with my kids.

:iagree:

We have used Prima Latina, finishing up LC 1 and I purchased LC 2 for next year at the request of my dd. We did try LFC although, I did purchase it when it had errors and not being that well versed in Latin, I decided to go with something that was around a longer:)

[Melissa in CA]

I have used both and prefer LFC. I don't believe you could go wrong with either program, both are good. For me, LFC is easier to teach. It does move rather quickly, but they offer so many forms of review (activity bk, free down-loadable worksheets/tests/quizzes/vocab drill cards) that my son is doing just fine with it. We do take longer than a week per chapter though.

 

As for the pronunciation differences... I recall the LC teacher (or perhaps it was in Latin Road to English Grammar :confused:) once mentioning that pronunciation is not that important as this IS a dead language. So I don't overly concern myself with that aspect of Latin, though we do try our best to get it right.

[Vrouwtje]

Thanks for the responses so far, I really appreciate all of them. It seems that LfC offers plenty of practice. For those who use LC, do you feel that there is enough practice also?

 

Also, NayfiesMama, when you refer to LC being more correct, are you referring to the pronunciation issues yslek mentioned? Or are there other errors?

 

How long have both programs been around?

 

Are LC's DVDs more in depth than LfC's? How do the DVD's compare?

 

Sorry, more questions! But this is really helpful, thanks again in advance!

[Pongo]

Here is what we use for LC practice

For LC Games, try here

I use this, if you wanted more practice, from Cathy Duffy's review:

To make the study of Latin using Latina Christiana a bit more fun, you might use Memoria Press’s books of crossword, word search, and hangman puzzles, Ludere Lantine, written by Paul O’Brien. Ludere Latine I correlates with Latina Christiana I, and Ludere Latine II correlates with Latina Christiana II. The puzzles provide valuable practice on vocabulary, declensions, and conjugations. For example, to solve one of the crosswords, students must come up with the nominative case, plural, masculine form of the Latin word for “third.†Instructions for five more group games are included at the end of the student pages. Answer keys for all the puzzles are at the back of each book. The first book has 110 pages while the second has 210, but both are priced at $19.95.

 

Lastly, there are some practice and drill pages available for download on the yahoo support group.

 

Good Luck!