I’m not sure how “CM” it is, but we are currently using Prima Latina. There is a ton of writing in the books, but we do the lessons outloud, as a family, so there is very little writing. We generally begin each lesson with the CD (listening and speaking), then go over a few of the student guide questions orally. Once or twice a week, I like to pull out flashcards of all the words for review. Every couple weeks, I have my older two copy some of the words and prayers in place of their regular copywork. We will probably move onto another Memoria Press book after this since they really enjoy it.
I really, really like Latin in the Christian Trivium. I am a little suspect of “immersion” Latin programs. Latin is TOUGH and it would take an awful lot of “immersion” to begin to learn all the paradigms! I like a “hybrid” program, one that both teaches grammar, declensions and conjugations right away, but also has reading REAL stories right away. IN this book’s case, the stories are about a Roman family who goes to Palestine and end up encountering Jesus. From what I can tell, Charlotte did not use an atypical method of Latin instruction for her time; I can’t find any mention of using a Gouin series in Latin. It appears to me that the school’s Latin classes were pretty normal for the time–heavy on grammar instruction. Like I said, I really don’t think methods that don’t instruct in grammar are that practical for Latin. I like to have the reading going on right away–I think it really ups the interest level. But you need the grammar! I originally looked at English from the Roots Up, but was not satisfied with the way it approached teaching. It seemed a little dull, and over heavy on grammar and English application of it, LitCT seemed a lot more fluid and the teacher support is terrific. My kids have done very well with it.
We are using Getting Started with Latin and we love it. You can get a very substantial KIndle sample of it from Amazon. That’s what we used to start. We loved it, so we bought the book. This is the first thing my 11 year old son pulls out every day. We will be following it up with Visual Latin.
We are only partway through it. I figure it will take us about one semester. You could stretch it out for a year if you wanted to. We do an average of 5 lessons per week, but the lessons are very short.
August 27, 2013 at 12:09 am
Anonymous
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We used Getting Started with Latin for my daughter’s first Latin course. She did very well with it. I felt it was a good introductory course. We are trying First Form Latin this year and so far that is going well.
The Getting Started with Latin reviews on Amazon are really good…I think they are all 4’s & 5’s. I’d been thinking of switching to it, but they are enjoying Memoria Press, so I’m not sure I want to rock the boat.
Thinking of starting Visual Latin in the fall with my 5th and 7th graders….was glad to see you are using it. Have you still been pleased? It’s been a while since you posted….thanks for any feedback.
We are almost done with the first year of Visual Latin, and we are happy with it. As suggested by the teacher, we added in Lingua Latina about halfway through and we are liking that as well. Amazon sells the mp3 for Lingua Latina so we listen to the chapter being read also. I find this very helpful.
The only caution I will give is that I believe we would have gotten lost and frustrated if we had not completed Getting Started with Latin first. I would highly recommend using that if you and your kids don’t have a Latin background. The lessons are short and simple, yet very effective.
We did Latin last year, took 1/2 year off this year and will be starting again today! Last year we used Classical Academic Press, Latin For Children and really liked it. It has videos that teach each lesson, which was helpful for me since I know no Latin!! This year we are using Latin Alive-same company but for middle school/high school. It is a bit costly but it was very helpful and the children learned A LOT
Our 5th grader started this year with Latina Christiana from Memoria Press. I bought the DVD’s and she was completing it on her own with occasional help from me. She got really bogged down and hated it. This from a child who is normally compliant, loves school, and does pretty much whatever I ask. She is also using Michael Clay Thompson Town Level, which includes some Latin in Caesar’s English. At the start of 2nd term, we opted to drop LC and just continue with MCT. I’m hoping this was not a mistake. Maybe I should look into some of these other programs?