Can I realistically keep all my dc studying Latina Chr. together?

[bkpan]

We just started Prima Latina. Dc are 10, 8, 7,7, and 4 (7mo old is just crawling around during lessons :).
Anyhow, the older two are doing the Wkbks, while the others are doing it orally. My hope is to go on with the Latina Christiana program all the way - keeping us all together. Is this realistic? (I realize that the 4yo will not do the writing) Thanks!

Kim in TN (used to be in NV)

[Beth in Central TX]

I think you will be able to do PL and LCI with all of your children. You may even be able to do LCII. There are many people here who move through the Memoria Press series at very young ages.

I've kept my older two boys together for Latin and Greek. However, I got to LCII too early for middle son when he was in 4th grade. The different cases and declensions started to confuse him, so I took a year off and we went through Basic Language with Latin Background. I started my boys in LCII this year when they were in 5th gand 6th grade, and they've had no trouble at all. I probably could have worked with my middle son in 4th grade and made it through LCII, but I saw that he was getting extremely frustrated, and since I have long-term goals of reading Latin literature in high school, I thought it was best to back off a little and move forward when he was ready.

You may or may not have this problem, but I wanted to let you know our experience.

HTH!

[TengoFive]

I don't think your 4 year old will be able to keep up, unless you substantially hold back the older ones. My then 5 year old (very bright, reading at a 3rd-4th grade level) couldn't move on with my then 7 and 9 year old in Prima Latina. We're in LC I now, and she's still in PL. I think the vocabulary would be fine. She could probably keep up with that, but once you get into grammar more I don't think she'll "get it".

[cajun.classical]

We just started Prima Latina. Dc are 10, 8, 7,7, and 4 (7mo old is just crawling around during lessons :).
Anyhow, the older two are doing the Wkbks, while the others are doing it orally. My hope is to go on with the Latina Christiana program all the way - keeping us all together. Is this realistic? (I realize that the 4yo will not do the writing) Thanks!

Kim in TN (used to be in NV)

I think that you could keep the 8,7,7 together, but I would let the 10 year old move ahead. I have an 11 in LC2 and a just-turned-9 in LC 1. The ability to grasp the language is markedly stronger in the 11 year old. You could keep them together but here's the risk you run: the older child will move too slow and be bored and lose interest; or the youngers will feel frustrated because they don't get it as quickly as the older.

For encouragement, I will say that my older child worked through LC1 when he was 10 almost independently. One day a week I taught the lesson and the rest of the week he worked in Ludere Latine and in the LC workbook and reviewed his flashcards. The youngers will need more repetition and hand-holding in LC1. My dd9 (8 when she started) needed lots of help and I had to sit with her and talk her through the exercises. Now that she's 9 and has half of LC1 under her belt, she can do it independently. I teach the lesson and then she works the rest of the week on her own. I say all that to point out that you won't really lose anything timewise to have them in different Latin classes. Another possibility is to use the dvds if you need the extra help to manage them all. Just be sure to check all written work to make sure they that are mastering the material. You can keep them all together for daily Latin Recitation time and then separate them after that.

That was one of my main motivations for separating my dc. I didn't want the younger, who is naturally a perfectionist, to feel discouraged and frustrated because she wasn't getting it as quickly as her older brother.

Hope that helps.

[Wendy in ME]

I also chose to separate my 11yo and 9yo to avoid frustration for the 9yo. My 11yo is just seems gifted with learning Latin. My 9yo felt like he wasn't as smart and my 11yo felt like he was being held back. With 2 boys only a grade level apart, my first intention was to combine as much as possible but what I have realized is that it creates a whole different set of issues and sometimes keeping track of an extra curriculum is easier than trying to meet everyone's needs with the same curriculum. I guess what I'm saying is that as long as it is working then go with it but I wouldn't bend over backwards to make it fit.

[cajun.classical]

I also chose to separate my 11yo and 9yo to avoid frustration for the 9yo. My 11yo is just seems gifted with learning Latin. My 9yo felt like he wasn't as smart and my 11yo felt like he was being held back. With 2 boys only a grade level apart, my first intention was to combine as much as possible but what I have realized is that it creates a whole different set of issues and sometimes keeping track of an extra curriculum is easier than trying to meet everyone's needs with the same curriculum. I guess what I'm saying is that as long as it is working then go with it but I wouldn't bend over backwards to make it fit.

Wendy,

There we go again...

[Beth in Central TX]

Yes, I agree that the 4-year old will not be able to keep up. I read your last sentence as "I realize that the 4yo will not do the WORK" instead of the word writing. Therefore, my response was for keeping your 10, 8, 7, and 7 year old children together.

PL will be very basic for you 10-year old, but I assumed that no one had a Latin background. I know I couldn't start out with different levels of Latin for my kids because I had no Latin experience myself.

[Tara]

This was a helpful thread to me, as well. I've just started Prima Latina and my 5, 7, 9 dc(all just turned or turning these ages) are all sitting in for it together. So far the 5 yr old is having a blast just learning the vocabulary and pronunciations orally. I'm hoping for at least this year to stick together. We're all new to Latin, though their Daddy had to study it for his music degree and is helpful in pronunciation.

Thanks for all the good insight!