It's time to play: Name That Latin Curriculum!

[Melissa in St Louis]

Ok, ladies and gentlemen;

 

Which Latin curriculum:

is written for children in 2nd or 3rd grade,

is a good progam to use hen finished with Song School Latin,

won't break the bank,

has a CD of songs or something,

and will not kill a love of learning Latin.....

 

 

Any takers??? Who's tonight's lucky winner????:D

 

TIA!

 

Melissa in St Louuis

[Alana in Canada]

What do we win?

[Melissa in St Louis]

What do we win?

 

Bragging rights??? :D

[abbeyej]

Minimus. :D

 

(While I think the TM is helpful,it's not absolutely necessary. And without it, the program is cheap. The CD doesn't have songs...)

[latinteach]

Ok, ladies and gentlemen;

 

Which Latin curriculum:

is written for children in 2nd or 3rd grade,

is a good progam to use hen finished with Song School Latin,

won't break the bank,

has a CD of songs or something,

and will not kill a love of learning Latin.....

 

 

Any takers??? Who's tonight's lucky winner????:D

 

TIA!

 

Melissa in St Louuis

 

Well, you could try taking a look at the materials offered by the American Classical League's Teaching Materials and Resource Center.

 

http://www.aclclassics.org/

 

You'll find the button for the TMRC in the sidebar. There's a category of materials there for use with younger students which are quite inexpensive! There's an Elementary Latin Activity Packet for $14.55 (#E12) as well as another, even less expensive, Latin for Elementary Students ($4, #B8)

 

You might take a look at the Exploratory Latin Curriculum which has a review Activity Packet available ($28.50, #E15). There's an accompanying songbook for $22.50 (#E16) It's recommended for grades 3-6.

[Malenki]

Minimus seems like it would work. There is an audio CD where they dramatize the stories with different voices. It was a big hit here. We didn't use the TM. Just the student book and CD won't be that expensive (and both do show up used at times).

[buddhabelly]

Are you asking for a program that can be used EITHER in 2nd or 3rd grade? For second, I would recommend Minimus. For third, Latin for Children. Yes, it makes a difference. I'm not sure what happens around the age of 7 or 8, but it happens and enables the child to learn Latin at a different level.

 

Now if you have a really OLD second grader.....:) But really, that's my answer. So if you have TWO children using the program simultaneously, I would definitely go for Minimus. There are a few songs on the CD (I think), but it's mostly dialogue. Hugely entertaining, since two of the characters are a mouse (named Minimus) and a cat (named Vibrisssssssa -- well that's the way she says it).

 

Latin for Children has songs to learn the prepositions. (The objects of some prepositions take the ablative case, but the objects of others take the accusative, so there are two songs to help you learn which is which.) The other stuff is usually chanted instead of sung. We find that walking around the house while we chant puts it into our memory better.

 

Good luck!

[Melissa in St Louis]

So what if the child in question will technically be in 2nd grade, but is doing 3rd grade work in every subject??? Does it matter? I was already thinking of going with Minimus or LfC, but want to nail it down....

 

Thanks!

 

Melissa in St Louis

[buddhabelly]

That was exactly our situation. In second grade, my son did both Minimus and LFC A. We alternated program (one week Minimus, one week LFC), but they are so different that I would do Minimus first and then begin LFC A. There is no way that Minimus will take you all year. LFC might, though, so perhaps you could do Minimus in the late summer/early fall then start LFC in the late fall. (Or do Minimus in the middle of the summer if you school year-round.)

 

Have fun! If LFC A stretches out into 3rd grade, just start "B" whenever your child finishes "A." My son is doing LFC Primer C now, but he probably won't finish it until the middle of the summer. We take it slowly....it is quite challenging. We also supplement with Lingua Latina as a "reward" after four weeks or so of doing LFC. It is a reward because it is exciting that we can read a book in Latin!

 

Julie

[Melissa in St Louis]

All great suggestions! I guess I didn't realize Minimus was not a full-year deal....We are about to finish up SSL, so we can add in Minimus just as we start our study of Ancient Rome! After that, we'll be ready for LfC.

 

Are you sure I don't need the Minimus teacher's manual???:confused:

Anything that is that expensive makes me curious!!!! :lol:

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Melissa in St Louis

[latinteach]

All great suggestions! I guess I didn't realize Minimus was not a full-year deal....We are about to finish up SSL, so we can add in Minimus just as we start our study of Ancient Rome! After that, we'll be ready for LfC.

 

Are you sure I don't need the Minimus teacher's manual???:confused:

Anything that is that expensive makes me curious!!!! :lol:

 

 

I recommended the American Classical League materials previously because of the age given and the request for inexpensive materials as most of ACL's items are quite reasonable, but if you think your student is ready for Minimus, then it's a good idea to go right ahead.

 

Actually, there are two volumes in the Minimus series. The first is Minimus: Getting Started in Latin, intended for 7-10 year olds. The second is Minimus Secundus, which will keep you moving along for a while longer. The Minimus series is published by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England) and is intended as a preliminary to the Cambridge Latin Course, which is a full Latin course that works well for middle school and high school students (paced slower for younger students, faster for older students.)

 

The Teacher's Manual for Minimus is expensive, but there's a reason. The series was written intended for the classroom. There are printable worksheets in the manual and so the cost takes into account permission for the teacher to make copies of those pages for his or her classroom. Most classroom teachers will use that manual for a number of years and teach many students. If you do not write in the teacher's manual, it generally has very good resale value. Checking Amazon right now, the manual is new at $65 with used copies starting at $55.

 

Do you need the manual? Not necessarily. It does have some great teaching tips and suggestions to go along with each unit. It does more than just give the answers. There are printable pages and activities. There's also a glossary (unnecessary, though, if you buy yourself a $5 paperback Latin dictionary, such as Traupman's New College Latin-English dictionary). You can probably figure out most of the stories by using the vocabulary given in the book, though if you haven't studied Latin before yourself, there are a couple things that may or may not trip you up, though it's usually pretty easy to reason it all out.

 

Do see their website: http://www.minimus-etc.co.uk/index.shtml as there's a page for homeschoolers, links to extra activities (http://www.minimus-etc.co.uk/resources_page.htm) and support sheets, two sets of Minibooks, etc.

Edited April 5, 2009 by latinteach

[mcconnellboys]

Yep, yep - I like Minimus (and it, along with the TM, can be used over and over again)....

[Larissa]

We did it at co-op and tried to make it more fun with games like charades and bingo. My kids enjoyed the class and continued to Latina Christiana and Henle.

Larissa

homeschooling 5 in NJ

[HollyDay]

I love Minimus!!

 

I personally would not attempt LFC with a 2nd grader. The amount of grammar required might possibly overload a 2nd grader. My 3rd grader began to truly hate latin. She loved Minimus, but after a few weeks of LFC, she grew to hate it. It is a rather ambitious program for that age I think.

 

Okay, I love Latin's not so Tough and would HIGHLY recommend it for this age group - and yes, you could do both dc together. LNST is not well liked here (I am being generous I think, when I say this). But, I have had really positive experiences with it. My dc are looking forward to the next level, and they are enjoying latin. And, they are learning and retaining the vast majority of the material.

[melissa123]

I agree that LfC might be a bit much given the grammar involved. We started with Prima Latina when my daughter was 9, then moved to LfC. I wish I had know about Minimus - it looks like a fun way to introduce latin, and I would have used that before we started LfC.

[Mommy22alyns]

I plugged these on the AL board, but the Bolchazy-Carducci I Am Reading Latin series would be a great addition, either as a fun supplement now or while you're going through Minimus.

 

http://www.bolchazy.com/

 

Becca loves the animal stories and understands the Latin, even though we're barely halfway through SSL.

 

There is, unfortunately, a HUGE leap from SSL to LfC, so we're going to putter around with Minimus and no TM too.

 

I've considered Latin's Not So Tough level 2, but I hear a lot of negative reviews around here.

 

 

Latinteach, thank you for the Minimus links! I'm bookmarking those for later.

[abbeyej]

...There is no way that Minimus will take you all year. ...

 

Actually, I'm going to disagree. I think it's quite possible to spend a year on Minimus -- but not if you just read through the book (which isn't a terrible way to approach it either).

 

The book has 12 chapters. Each chapter offers two distinct cartoon stories (in Latin) to read through, generally with follow-up grammar and/or historical material to cover. Most new grammar is covered after the first story of the chapter, and a myth is included after the second story.

 

So when teaching Minimus, I would spend a week on the first story and new grammar, etc, of the chapter, then a week on the second story and the myth. Every fifth week was review of all previous material. We did flashcards for vocabulary (roughly 5-8 words per week except on review weeks). I did teach some grammar paradigms (and a fair amount of English grammar). We did projects (generally based on the history material or the myths), games (generally modified versions of other games to review grammar or vocabulary)...

 

Doing it this way takes 30 weeks per year. It's not the only way to do Minimus. But it's one way to make each of the two books take a year.

[christine in al]

This has been very helpful because we are going too slowly for my 8 yo through SSL. I'm ready for him to jump into Minumus,

my 6 yold may stay in SSL and 8 yo go on to Minumus. ick, two different things at a time.

 

I am thinking Lively Latin after Minimus, any thoughts?

 

Would y'all do Minimus Secundus or on to LFC . or LL ?

~c in AL

[abbeyej]

This has been very helpful because we are going too slowly for my 8 yo through SSL. I'm ready for him to jump into Minumus,

my 6 yold may stay in SSL and 8 yo go on to Minumus. ick, two different things at a time.

 

I am thinking Lively Latin after Minimus, any thoughts?

 

Would y'all do Minimus Secundus or on to LFC . or LL ?

~c in AL

 

I would go ahead and let the 6yo follow along with Minimus. Sure, the 6yo won't get as much out of it as the 8yo (though it depends on the individual, certainly), but it won't hurt.

 

I think I would go on to LL after Minimus. Secundus is okay, but I didn't care for it as much as Minimus. More vocab, more story, but since the grammar remains minimal, it can be frustrating. I like what I've seen of LL over LfC, and it appears that it would transition well into my favorite Latin for middle-grade students, Latin Prep.