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Top Ten Reasons for Latin
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I posted the first hafl of this article previously–it is here: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Top10-Reasons-for-Latin.html
Here is the link to the issue with the second half of the article:
http://www.memoriapress.com/catalog/spring2012/classical-teacher-spring-2012-web.pdf
Enjoy!
Wow, that was great! Thank you for sharing! I always planned to do Latin and now I am really sold 🙂 Question: I thought CM recommended Latin beginning around 4th grade. It looks like this curriculum starts in 2nd grade. Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations on this? My 8yo will be in 3rd grade next year. I’m just wondering if it is better to start early and move slowly, or start later for any reason?
Thanks
Tara
In my opinion, it’s better to follow Charlotte’s ideas and begin when the child is a little older. I begin at 10-11. If you start too young, all you can do is memorize vocab, a six year old can’t understand a declension. Parroting back vocab only gets you so far. I wait.
Is it too late to start in 8th grade?? I know, I’m a little behind, but I just couldn’t squeeze it in before now.
Any suggestions on curriculum for this grade/age??
Thanks.
I really like all these reasons for learning Latin, but am still undecided. I have a 11.5 boy just wrapping up 5th grade. He struggles with the challenges of dysgraphia so written assignments are very difficult for him, but he is able to orally narrate quite well considering we’ve only been homeschooling for a year. We have not done any written narration yet. We are looking at starting that in his grade 6 year.
I am really struggling to decide how best to address his needs and challenges with our language arts program for 6th grade. I’ve looked at using ILL, for 6th & 7th and may yet. I am considering the workbook version if it will help him be more independent, as I need him to be as independent as possible where I work mornings. I’ve also toyed with the idea of skipping ILL and just focus on slowly introducing written narration in terms of our history, science and lit work as his typing improves, leaving Grammar unitl 7th & 8th or 8th & 9th. I am not really worried about him learning to diagram a sentence if he is able to identify the major parts of speach and use language correctly and understand why it is correct.
I guess what I’m wondering is how to structure a language arts program that meets his needs and at what point would it be best to introduce Latin, if that were a realistic expectation for him. Also — did you/do you postpone foreign language studies until after your child(ren) reach a certain point in their Latin studies?
I often struggle with having to decide if a program/curriculum/subject is right for my boys, or more something that interests me and fits more with my “perfect fantasy education”. My boys learn so much differently than I do and are interested in such different things. I don’t want to exasperate them with the unnecessary, esecially if the unneccessary is too challenging or takes too much energy and focus from the things that really do matter.
I’d love to hear people’s favorite resources for teaching Latin; I’d be teaching 12-year-olds and a 15-year old and would assume they’d use different materials.
No, I’ve taught that big a spread using one curriculum. You can use Latin in the Christian Trivium for 10 and up. I used it all the way with all my older kids grouped together.
4myboys, will try to get back to you later on questions, my high schooler is graduating! Need to run.
4myboys, last night was our second graduation ceremony. Last Saturday was our state association’s ceremony. It was great. I did not know how these went–they had all 3 of us (dh, me and ds) go up on stage and Cade gave me a rose and then dh gave him his diploma and he hugged us and we had a picture. We had lots of family come up, it was very nice. It was a day to remember. I didn’t cry–well, not really. I don’t think it counts if I wiped all the tears away before they ran down my cheeks. LOL
Last night he graduated from our church’s high-school scripture study program, which meets at six a.m. all school year and it quite a bit of work. He got some awards there and played a solo as well. It was another big night for him. I can’t believe he’s graduated now! I think it hasn’t really sunk in.
Anyway, back to Latin. I teach Spanish to my young children; we add Latin at about 10 or 11, and then in high school we add another modern language (I let them pick). If your student is still struggling with English some, I might wait a bit–but when you think he is ready for real grammar, I encourage you to go ahead and try. Grammar in another language is a VERY good way to teach grammar in English. You don’t know it’s important until you NEED to know the difference between a perfect or imperfect tense in order to say it! LOL
We do a lot of our Latin translation work orally, so when his skills are a little stronger, the dysgraphia need not stop him. But you may want to take a little more time to get him comfortable with other skills before you drop Latin on him–it can be a challenge. We love it, it turns out, but it IS work.
Bookworm: You said, ” You can use Latin in the Christian Trivium for 10 and up. I used it all the way with all my older kids grouped together.”
I have a question. My oldest is ten. I would love to teach my 2 oldest together to make it easier and more doable. They are 10 and 8. Would I just wait until the youngest is ten? Or would you recommend my starting my oldest next year?
How big of a deal is it for each to study on their own at their own level? Would I be spending a lot of time with each of them every day?
I really appreciate the post. I wasn’t sure what to do about Latin. I really wanted to study it, but was intimidated. (Still am. :-)) I so much want my children to have a good education- better than I had. I want them to learn to think.
We’re really loving Visual Latin. My 12 and 11-yr-olds can do it totally solo, or I can watch with them and learn myself. The 8-yr-old might be able to do it on his own too, but I decided to wait a bit. We plan on doing the 3 levels of that and then hit whatever it was Bookworm told me to use next. i do whatever she tells me to.
My kids like Visual Latin so much that they watch it for FUN. And my 8-yr-old was conversing with the store clerk the other day, “Did you know that if Pizza were a Latin word, it would be feminine because Latin words that end in A are girl words. Weird, huh?” And this from the kid who isn’t formally taking the lessons!
My son will be 12 this next year and he will be starting Latin for Children A. My dd won’t start then, but I am having her do the Critical Thinking Skills Word Roots Latin for an “intro”, so-to-speak then she can start Latin in the 2013/2014 year when she’s 12 1/2.
I need to have something with a DVD to “replace” if necessary, due to life happening. Plus, my son if strong in languages, but poor in spelling; I’m looking forward to seeing moreimprovement in that area. My dd is poor in languages but strong in spelling, hence waiting another year for her.
yoliemiller, I found Latin in the Christian Trivium to be tough to do with more than one level at once. I JUST pulled it off when two of my older ones were doing Level 4 and the younger one (by 4-6 years) was in Level 1. It was about all I could manage, and I’ve gotten pretty good at Latin (not as good as my oldest, but not bad.) I’d personally wait a bit and start them all in a year or two, OR do something simple between now and then like Getting Started With Latin (easy and inexpensive) and then move on to LitCT when they are both ready.
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