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question for those who teach Latin
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I have gone back an forth on this one and still haven’t decided if teaching Latin is worth the extra work, time and expense.
My boys are going into 7th and 4th next year. My teaching time is already limited because I work part-time (M-F until noon). My boys have not done any formal grammar yet, and I have not really decided what I want to use for that next year. The boys are interested in learning Spanish, so that is on my radar as well for this year, though I still haven’t narrowed down what to use for that either — possibly The Easy Spanish.
I am wondering if beginning formal grammar, Latin and Spanish all in the same year might not be a bit of over kill? I’ve been thinking more about Latin because we are going to study ancient Rome next year, so it seems like they would tie together very nicely.
Can anyone advise on whether or not this would be too much, and/or recommend a program that wouldn’t be too teacher intensive? I’ve not studied Spanish or Latin myself, but wondered if I could do them off days, with an independent workbook for grammar that they could do in the mornings while I’m at the office.
I used Latina Christiana for my son’s foriegn language starting when he was in 9th grade. I chose it because it seemed fairly simple and had the DVD component and was designed for teachers with no latin experience. I really liked the program and so did he. He completed it entirely independantly and learned quite a bit of latin.
http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/latin/latina-christiana-i
My personal choice would probably be to break it up a little and do grammar for at least a semster and then introduce latin. I would probably add the spanish as a fun activity in the summer or when not much else is going on.
Hmm…I wouldn’t consider Latina a foriegn lnaguage, personally. To me the point of a foriegn language is to converse with others in a cultural setting. To me, Spanish will take precidence over Latin if I must choose one or the other.
I have no time to spare here – I’m hoping Bookworm jumps in with her wisdom in this area – but I will say I would begin with Latin over another foreign language based on what I have seen in my own children and what I have read here and elsewhere.
Latin For Children from Classical Academic Press might work well for you – there is a dvd available for the teaching portion. We have two using Latin For Children and an older student using Latin in the Christian Trivium.
I agree with Houseofchaos. We are using Visual Latin with good results. Has DVD’s and although I do sit with the kids it could be done independently. It has really broadened our English grammar and we have learned so much using Latin. I also agree if Bookworm is around to add her 2cents (as she sold me on Latin before and I haven’t regretted it yet).
I really am not sure which direction to go. I’ve personally never studied Latin. My youngest is the language buff. We are heading to a spanish speaking country in a couple weeks, so we’ve been practicing our manners and greetings in spanish, counting to ten and a few other little things, but not a lot. We are all very interested, though, and I want to capitalize on that interest. Right now I am the only one interested in Latin, and I think my youngest (who has a natuaral interest and aptitude for reading, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, loves word puzzels etc.) will be very interested once he is introduced to it, but my oldest will complain about having something else added to his course load.
How often do you use your Latin curriculum and how long are your lessons generally?
My 10yo is using Visual Latin as well, and really enjoying it. They have the first few lessons free, so you could get a feel for it, and see if it would be a good fit for your family.
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