Bookworm! Latin Question

Hi!  This is my favorite topic!

OK.  I don’t use self-teaching materials.  They all require at least some parental input.  I don’t think you can expect anyone who is not already completely self-motivated to learn something like Latin by themselves.  If your child could learn calculus by himself, he can probably learn Latin by himself.  You would need an enormous amount of self-discipline to do Latin by yourself and get anywhere.  I recommend beginning around age 10-12.  Exactly when would depend on your child.  A child ready for serious Latin study should know the basic parts of speech, understand the differences between subjects, direct objects, and objects of prepositions, be able to read and spell English reasonably well, and not mind doing some writing, and have the discipline to memorize forms and paradigms.  When the student is ready, I would begin with either 1) Getting Started with Latin, and then move into Latin in the Christian Trivium I (gentler option) OR go straight into Latin in the Christian Trivium I.  GSWL probably won’t take longer than a year; each book in LitCT can take up to a year and a half if used in a CM way.  I recommend doing at least the first 3 years of LitCT; the fourth year is optional for students who are good at languages or would like to be able to read more classical literature or might want to take Latin competency exams or go into further study.  

When my youngest was 11, we began with GSWL; it took us about 6 or so months.  Then it took us a bit over a year to do LitCT I; he just turned 13 and has done 5 chapters of LitCT II.  For reference purposes only!  Kids are different.