Do you teach both word roots and Latin? When? Why?

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  • Wings2fly
    Participant

    I like the looks of Getting Started with Latin that SCM recommends.  I also like English from the Roots Up and the workbooks Vocabulary from the Classic Roots.  Would I use all of these?  When?

    I am thinking of starting with VCR 4 & 5 for grade 5 as an intro.  Then I am not sure what would be next or if Latin word roots are necessary when learning Latin.  Would I continue with the VCR series?  I never learned Latin, so I am not sure what to do.  I suppose all of these resources have the purpose of increasing vocabulary though, right?  So what is the advantage of learning Latin in addition to word roots?  It is no longer a spoken language, so do word roots on its own cover what is needed today?  And if you only learn Latin, then won’t you need something for Greek word roots?  We do not plan to learn the Greek language at this point.

    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Bumping.  Any thoughts on teaching both word roots and Latin?  What do you use?

    missceegee
    Participant

    If teaching roots, I’d choose one program to do so. Simple and consistent is better than complicated and inconsistent, in my mind. I am using EftRU cards with my kids this year at a slow pace. They are really catching on.  I printed some worksheets where they only write in the root and the definition instead of all the derivative words. That makes it less tedious for us. I own VCR and GSwL, but would be too overwhelmed to put all 3 together at once.

    I am planning to contine with roots with all kids, perhaps changing resources when we complete EftRU. I am content if this is all we do. I read the LindaFay of Higher Up and Further  In and Charlotte Mason Help only does roots and have talked with others who do the same. However, I may enroll dd14 in a Latin I class in grade 9 for foreign language. I am realistic enough to know I cannot teach Latin well enough or consistently enough to do it justice. I do  think that there are benefits to learning both, but not at the expense of sanity!

    Take my thoughts on this subject with a grain of salt as I am not knowledgeable about Latin as a full language, but am fairly knowledgeable about roots.

    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Thank you for your thoughts on this, missceegee.

    Do you think a plan like this is practical:

    grades 4, 5, 6 – VCR

    grades 7 & 8 – EftRU

    grade 9 – GSwL

    grades 10 and 11 – Spanish or French I and II

    missceegee, did you just make up your own worksheets for EftRU, or did you find something online? I would love to do something  like that if you could point me in the right direction or have any suggestions/experience to share.

    I’ve not used the other programs you mentioned, wings2fly, so I can’t comment on them. I think I have owned one of the others, but try as I might, knowledge and experience does not get absorbed when a book simply sits on a shelf. Darn. Good luck!

    satusmom
    Participant

    I use Getting Started with Latin 3 days per week, one lesson per day with my nine year old daughter.  The book has online links to free mp3 files for pronounciation and files for each lesson.  The author introduces each lesson and the goes through the lesson exercises.  So depending on the student it can be used with minimial teaching.  Not sure what we’ll do next, but this is working better than expected and the information is being retained.  I also use English from the Roots up with her.  I bought just the flashcards.  I then printed worksheets from createbetterwriters.com.  I printed out 36 worksheets and bound them with my Proclick binder.  Once a week she uses one card and completes one worksheet.  So we are going very slowly.  Each worksheet has you write the root word and its definition.  Then she chooses two English words that use the root and defines them.  Then there is a section to draw a picture of the word and finally she writes a sentence for each of the words. By the end of the year she will have created her own little dictionary.  We find that what she has learned with both of these turns up often in science (Apologia Swimming Creatures currently) and in other situations.  She really gets a kick out of this.  I took some Latin in highschool and found it really helped with spelling and vocabulary.  I always wanted to get back to it and now have the perfect excuse.

    missceegee
    Participant
    1. I shared some helpful EftRU resources here. I’m using the sheets from ttkreations.

    missceegee — LOVE the links from that thread, thank you!! I think I’m going to have to schedule in time for myself to peruse. 😉

    satusmom — would you explain what you are doing with createbetterwriters.com and EFtRU? I poked around the site, but would appreciate some clarity with that. Thanks!

    satusmom
    Participant

    createbetterwriters.com/uploads/Newsletter21RootWords is where I found the worksheet.  Sorry I don’t know how to make that a link.  I’m not familiar with their website aside from these worksheets.

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