Cambridge Latin? Sonya?

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  • Melanie32
    Participant

    We are using Visual Latin right now and my daughter is doing fairly well with it. She really likes Dwayne (the teacher) and is learning a lot. However, she sometimes gets frustrated because explanations are not very clear or she is expected to translate vocabulary words that she hasn’t been exposed to and can’t find in the vocabulary section. I still really like the program and my plan was to finish up Latin 1 and move into Latin 2. My daughter is 2/3’s through Latin 1.

    However, I have been intrigued by Cambridge Latin for a while now but it seemed to have lots of parts and be a bit more complicated than Visual Latin. Then I came across a thread mentioning that Cambridge Latin’s online course is very inexpensive so I checked it out. From my understanding, it’s only $25 for a complete year of study and you have access to all levels. That is a significant cost decrease from Visual Latin. Also, Cambridge can take my daughter further in Latin as they offer more levels than VL. We have been using the monthly subscription fee for VL and I will spend $25 in about 3 months, not to mention the cost of printing or buying the student pages.

    To get to the point, the SCM curriculum guide is the first place I discovered Cambridge but I haven’t heard from anyone who has actually used it.

    Sonya, I see from searching the boards where you mention your plans to use it with one of your daughters. Did you ever use it and, if so, what is your opinion concerning it?

    If anyone else has experience with Cambridge Latin, I would love to hear your thoughts!

    Many Thanks,

    Melanie

    nebby
    Participant

    My son started using Cambridgr Latin in 9th. We got the books (used on Amazon) but he mainly did all the work online because they do basically provide all the same materials that way. I had to divide up the lessons for him. After almost 2 yrs he started with a tutor and it is obvious there was a lot he wasn’t getting on his own. I think it’s just hard to do a language that way, even a dead one, as it was all written with no oral component and no one really telling him what was important to learn.

    Melanie32
    Participant

    Thanks for sharing your son’s experience with Cambridge Latin Nebby.

    HollyS
    Participant

     

    Melanie, have you looked into Henle Latin as well?  The books are inexpensive and it has 4 levels.  The first two books are recommended to be covered over 2 years (or more).  If you go to Compass Classrooms’ free downloads, there is a chart lining up VL & Henle (plus another for Lingua Latina).  Memoria Press has a guide with daily Henle lessons, as well as a book of weekly quizzes.  Being 2/3 through VL, your DD could probably go at a faster pace.

    My plan is to use Henle & MP guides, but fill in the with the VL dvds for extra help.  We’ll eventually add in Lingua Latina, as scheduled in VL for a bit of fun.  I’ve been going through VL & Henle in my own, so hopefully I’ll be able to help my DC in the coming years!

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    My daughter worked her way through the first book. My goal was that she could read passages in Latin, understand them, and translate them into English. She was doing that with long paragraphs by the end of the book.

    One thing that really helped, I think, is that we took our time working through it. We broke down each lesson into small chunks, worked on it two or three days per week, and reviewed each chunk before we moved on.

    I like Cambridge’s story approach and the fact that they put in historical artifacts and details along the side. To me, that helps makes the language study come alive.

    Melanie32
    Participant

    Holly-Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I was turned off of Henle by watching a video from Dwayne comparing latin programs. It just didn’t seem like my cup of tea. I’ll have to give it another look. I was planning on having my daughter complete Visual Latin 1 and then read as far as she can in Lingua Latina. Once she starts struggling with that, I was going to have her start VL 2. I’m only rethinking the VL 2 part because of the cost and the fact that my daughter sometimes feels that it is not giving her all the information she needs to succeed. I would also like to use a program that has more levels. I’ll take another look at Henle.

    Sonya-Thank you as well for sharing your experience. I think I’ll have my daughter try the free lessons available online and see what she thinks.

    You ladies have been so helpful! 🙂

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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