One of the things that drew me to Visual Latin was that it leads into my favorite Latin program, Lingua Latina
. Visual Latin and Lingua Latina, together, are high school credit worthy. But I’m not teaching high schoolers, my two Latin students are 9 and 11 years old. And we came back from the break to lesson 11 and both kids stalled out when asked to translate several Latin sentences. I’m sure our break didn’t help, they did their ANKI decks a few times, but less than I would have preferred. But it brought to a head an issue I’d been mulling over: my kids would not be able to do one Visual Latin lesson and half a capitulum of Lingua Latina each week (because we do more than just Latin). Let’s face it: it is good to master things, to feel that they are effortless. That takes time. And I want them to have that feeling of mastery. So, here’s the semi-tested plan. (Note the kids haven’t gotten to Lingua Latina yet, I’ve been up to about the 22nd capitulum.)
Oral Drill and Recitation
We will be using my second favorite Latin program, Henle Latin
, for oral drill. About 10 minutes a day, which will hopefully work out to around 4 exercises per week. And I’m ordering the Latin recitation CD/DVD from Memoria Press to supplement as well.
If anyone is curious there are 303 exercise in the first seven units of Henle I (required for the first year of Latin in a school), and 467 in the entire book. So we should have a pretty good grasp of Latin grammar by the time we finish Lingua Latina. I do not plan to make any attempt to match the topic in Henle with the topic in Visual Latin. Because I desire to both have less work and remain sane.
Visual Latin and Lingua Latina
4th Grade: Visual Latin lessons 1-20. In the third term capituli 1-3 from Lingua Latina. (We will use the reader, Colloquia Personarum
, with capituli 1-24.)
5th Grade: Visual Latin lessons 21-40, capituli 4-12 (3/term) from Lingua Latina.
6th Grade: Finish Visual Latin with lessons 41-60, capituli 13-24 (4/term) from Lingua Latina.
7th Grade: Finish Lingua Latina with capituli 25-35. Also read mythology in Latin with Fabulae Syrae
. The child will hopefully be in good shape to meet Charlotte Mason’s attainment for a 12 year old in Latin “(i) Of Elementary Latin Grammar; should read fables and easy tales, and, say, one or two books of ‘Caesar.'”
8th Grade and Up: Probably take a bit of time with Epitome Historiae Sacrae
(a reader based on the Old and New Testaments) or Sermones Romani
(lightly altered Latin texts) before delving into Roma Aeterna
(which I’ve heard is a tough text) or just reading various authors in Latin. I try not to plan that far in advance, but we have plenty of options.
My elder son will follow the above progression, so he will finish Visual Latin around 8th grade and Lingua Latina around 9th grade, which is still phenomenal in my book. He’s my budding engineer, and my 9yo is my language guy, and they work well together (usually, haha).
Related
Well, you sound like me! A year or two ago, I, too, slowed down VL and added in Henle. I haven’t added in Lingua Latina yet, though. Should I??
I was mainly commenting to tell you how pretty I think your new look is! I usually read in my reader, and so I don’t see the design. I clicked over here from Jen’s blog and POOF! So pretty! I had to say something. 🙂 ♥
ps. I was just re-reading CM and noticed that she required narration for Latin. I don’t know how I missed this, and though we do discuss, I would not say that we narrate. Do you? And, if you do, can you describe how you go about it? I’m specifically wondering *when* you do it…
For example, if I do a Henle lesson, and then send him to do some of the exercises (written), would you have him narrate before or after the exercises?
I don’t narrate (never thought about it), but it seems we should. 🙂 We’d have to narrate in English though, at least for Henle and probably Visual Latin. I’m assuming they just retell what they learned in their own words? I think we’ll try after the lesson but before the written work – that will be a good way to check understanding before I send them off. And hopefully avoid those blank looks I get sometimes.
Lingua Latina will be easier to narrate in Latin I think – the Pensum C style exercises should provide a good framework if needed. I love Lingua Latina – I actually *started* my Latin journey with / because of Lingua Latina.
It’s funny to me that two opposite approaches (Henle & LL) would work so well for me.