Latina Christiana or other?

[Momofmyangels]

Once we are well on our way with homeschooling this year, I plan on teaching latin to my children. I believe I have narrowed the curriculum down to Latina Christiana or Prima Latina. I took 4 years of latin in high school, but never in the elementary grades, so I have no experience with this.

My children have an excellent grasp of grammar and have no trouble following the Latin Mass with their missals. I would be teaching grades 6, 4, 3, kindergarten as well as having my preschooler listening in, and therein lies my dillema. I would like to stick to one curriculum and still have all the children interested and challenged.

I have yet to find anyone who has had the experience of teaching latin to various age levels. Has anyone done this? If so, what curriculum have you used, and what would you advise?

 

[HCC]

I’m not familiar, so unfortunately I can’t help you. I think there are websites and forums for homsechooling Catholics and they might be able to offer you sound advice.

What a noble thing you’re doing.

May all your efforts be brought to good fruition.

God’s blessings this school year!

 

[RBK]

We use Latina Christiana. I like it very much. It’s part of the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum, which I love.

 

[Momofmyangels]

We use Latina Christiana. I like it very much. It’s part of the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum, which I love.

What ages are you using it for? I am looking for something that will work for a variety of ages.

 

[ASD]

Per the Dowling Method, I have found that youngsters don’t mind 6 months or a year of more or less mechanical memorization. As 4th grader my daughter did pretty well memorizing declensions, pronouns, and present stem conjugations.

We worked directly from sheets I created. A few examples attached in examples.zip

ASD​

Traditional Latin Mass: Translation and Grammar

 

[floresco]

Once we are well on our way with homeschooling this year, I plan on teaching latin to my children. I believe I have narrowed the curriculum down to Latina Christiana or Prima Latina. I took 4 years of latin in high school, but never in the elementary grades, so I have no experience with this.

My children have an excellent grasp of grammar and have no trouble following the Latin Mass with their missals. I would be teaching grades 6, 4, 3, kindergarten as well as having my preschooler listening in, and therein lies my dillema. I would like to stick to one curriculum and still have all the children interested and challenged.

I have yet to find anyone who has had the experience of teaching latin to various age levels. Has anyone done this? If so, what curriculum have you used, and what would you advise?

You could probably teach the grade 6, 4 and 3 from Latina Christian but the kindergarten child would not be able to keep up. You could either adapt something from LC or use Prima Latina for this child. There is too much range in abilities between grades K and 6 to use the same thing for all of them. If you do PL with all of them the oldest will probably not be challenged enough. And kindergarten is younger than the recommended age for Prima so you might have to move through it a bit more slowly for a child this age.

I would recommend you do LC with the older three and let the kindergarten child listen in with the preschooler. These younger ones will both pick up some Latin this way and you can teach them together is a couple of years.

 

[Momofmyangels]

You could probably teach the grade 6, 4 and 3 from Latina Christian but the kindergarten child would not be able to keep up. You could either adapt something from LC or use Prima Latina for this child. There is too much range in abilities between grades K and 6 to use the same thing for all of them. If you do PL with all of them the oldest will probably not be challenged enough. And kindergarten is younger than the recommended age for Prima so you might have to move through it a bit more slowly for a child this age.

I would recommend you do LC with the older three and let the kindergarten child listen in with the preschooler. These younger ones will both pick up some Latin this way and you can teach them together is a couple of years.

Yes, this was along my thinking as well. I had planned on adjusting the curriculum for the littlest ones. While not expecting too much from the kindergartener and preschooler, I know that they will pick up a great deal just from listening to the older ones (being the giant sponges that they are ).

Thank you for all the responses!

 

[floresco]

Yes, this was along my thinking as well. I had planned on adjusting the curriculum for the littlest ones. While not expecting too much from the kindergartener and preschooler, I know that they will pick up a great deal just from listening to the older ones (being the giant sponges that they are ).

Your littlest ones will probably be able to learn the prayers in LC (one of my favourite features of the program) and, if you follow the recommendation to do daily revision, probably many of the ending paradigms.

Another Memoria Press product that is useful for teaching many ages and levels is their Lingua Angelica. It is not a stand alone program but can be used with others. Your youngest children will be able to memorize the Latin songs, hymns and prayers while your more advanced ones will soon be able to translate and understand them. If you can afford it, I recommend it as a supplement to LC

 

[Momofmyangels]

Your littlest ones will probably be able to learn the prayers in LC (one of my favourite features of the program) and, if you follow the recommendation to do daily revision, probably many of the ending paradigms.

Another Memoria Press product that is useful for teaching many ages and levels is their Lingua Angelica. It is not a stand alone program but can be used with others. Your youngest children will be able to memorize the Latin songs, hymns and prayers while your more advanced ones will soon be able to translate and understand them. If you can afford it, I recommend it as a supplement to LC

Yes, I am familiar with Lingua Angelica. I recently found it and could kick myself for not doing the research and finding it sooner. Now, I do not want to overwhelm everyone with too many additions…“slow and steady win the race…”

Anyway, it does look like a wonderful supplementation to an actual latin curriculum. Have you any personal experience with it?

 

[peregrinator_it]

Not currently active Latin teacher here (don’t like to say “former”) - I have taught Latin to grades 3 through 10 in the past. I wholeheartedly recommend *Latina Christiana *- especially for the age range you want to teach. (And they don’t pay me to say all this!) Prima Latina is aimed at really young kids and I fear may bore your 6th grader.

Latina Christiana has unbeatable vocabulary sets (it gets students familiar with vocabulary that will be relevant if they continue to study Latin and that expand students’ English vocabulary) and great examples of Latin “in context” for beginners (sayings, songs and prayers.)

It is also a little light on grammar, but in such a way that you can supplement what the book gives very easily. (This is a virtue IMO, as some of these modern Latin pedagogical texts introduce grammar in such a way as to make it much harder to learn, and the less grammar-rich format of Latina Christiana allows for flexibility in using one text to teach multiple grades. You can require a 6th grader to do more grammar than is given or allow a 3rd grader to skip grammar that might be over his/her head.)

Hope that helps.

 

[floresco]

Yes, I am familiar with Lingua Angelica. I recently found it and could kick for not doing the research and finding it sooner. Now, I do not want to overwhelm everyone with too many additions…“slow and steady win the raceY…”

Anyway, it does look like a wonderful supplementation to an actual latin curriculum. Have you any personal experience with it?

Yes, our family has used all of these programs we are discussing. Lingua Angelica is very flexible. You can simply play the CD and allow the children to become familiar with traditional Latin hymns. When they are more advanced/ ambitious, they can do translation exercises. If you wait until they are ready for this stage it won’t overwhelm them.

 

[Momofmyangels]

Not currently active Latin teacher here (don’t like to say “former”) - I have taught Latin to grades 3 through 10 in the past. I wholeheartedly recommend *Latina Christiana *- especially for the age range you want to teach. (And they don’t pay me to say all this!) Prima Latina is aimed at really young kids and I fear may bore your 6th grader.

Latina Christiana has unbeatable vocabulary sets (it gets students familiar with vocabulary that will be relevant if they continue to study Latin and that expand students’ English vocabulary) and great examples of Latin “in context” for beginners (sayings, songs and prayers.)

It is also a little light on grammar, but in such a way that you can supplement what the book gives very easily. (This is a virtue IMO, as some of these modern Latin pedagogical texts introduce grammar in such a way as to make it much harder to learn, and the less grammar-rich format of Latina Christiana allows for flexibility in using one text to teach multiple grades. You can require a 6th grader to do more grammar than is given or allow a 3rd grader to skip grammar that might be over his/her head.)

Hope that helps.

Yes, it does and thank you. I’ve placed the order for Latina Christiana and floresco, I took your advice and ordered Lingua Angelica as well. Thanks again for all the comments and advice!