What latin curric. for adults?

[urpedonmommy]

I want to add Latin to my "self-education" plans and wonder if anyone has advice. Should I start with a children's version like prima christiana, or jump in to the deep end of the pool with an adult/high school level program? If so, which one?
I have a fairly good grounding in English usage (BA in English lit.) and have a few years of French, but I am not fluent by any means. (ou est la W.C. s'il vous plait?).
Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Musicmom]

I want to add Latin to my "self-education" plans and wonder if anyone has advice. Should I start with a children's version like prima christiana, or jump in to the deep end of the pool with an adult/high school level program? If so, which one?
I have a fairly good grounding in English usage (BA in English lit.) and have a few years of French, but I am not fluent by any means. (ou est la W.C. s'il vous plait?).
Any suggestions? Thanks!

You might look into Oxford. I've been doing this one with my dc. It's high school level, but starts gently. It uses an inductive reading approach--very self-contained. And I find it interesting. Like you, I have a few years of French which I find helpful for figuring out vocabulary and understanding about conjugations, etc.

(By the way, I love your French question above! :lol: It was the first thing I asked when I went to France!)

[urpedonmommy]

Thanks for the recommendation Musicmom! I've not heard of an Oxford Latin before. I'm planning to go check it out.

It's good to know that four years of French in high school paid off--if I ever actually get to France, I'll know the important stuff, eh?:D

Thanks again!

[Therese]

Prima Latina is very basic, but you may want to look at Latina Christiana for a warm-up, especially if you have children who will be learning with you. I've learned the Latin I know from teaching my children. We began with Latina Christiana I and II, then moved on to Henle.

Like you, I started from scratch. It did help that I had learned German in high school; knowing another language helps in that you are familiar with inflected endings and a different sentence pattern.

The Latina Christiana series limit the vocabulary and do a good job of explaining the grammar. We haven't used the DVD's, but I've heard that they are very good. The LC program is designed as a pre-Henle program, so you can move on to that after finishing LCII.

We do Henle I over two years and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first year (it's been about seven years since I began - haven't done it for a while! :). Henle has a lot of exercises and if you do them all, you'll have a solid formation in Latin. I'd like it better if there were explanations for some of the answers, but now that my three older children have progressed far beyond me, I can ask them if I don't understand something.

Another option would be to start with Wheelock's, which is used in colleges. My two older children did Wheelock's after finishing Henle I, mostly because the college to which they went used Wheelock's.

It would really be best to do a hands-on perusal of each program before deciding. One of my friends wants to learn Latin and thought she'd like Wheelock's, but after comparing that with Henle, she decided that she'd do the Henle.

HTH!

[Mama Lynx]

I did a year of Henle for myself, and it was very, very helpful. I recommend it.

I also like Lingua Latina, for reading.

And, if you google "Latinum," you will find an entire Latin course in podcast format! it's pretty intense, and I recommend learning the basic grammar with Henle or something else first, but after that Latinum is great to just pop in your headphones and go.

[latinteach]

I want to add Latin to my "self-education" plans and wonder if anyone has advice. Should I start with a children's version like prima christiana, or jump in to the deep end of the pool with an adult/high school level program? If so, which one?
I have a fairly good grounding in English usage (BA in English lit.) and have a few years of French, but I am not fluent by any means. (ou est la W.C. s'il vous plait?).
Any suggestions? Thanks!

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata is wonderful! So is Latin for the New Millennium! Both have plenty of interesting reading and grammar to keep you busy!