Any tried a self-immersion weekend before starting a language with a child?

[kalanamak]

It is looking like it might be me and a Bassett Hound alone all day at a beach house for Memorial day weekend. I was thinking of getting a computer based program of Latin and immersing myself. I've never done this with language or computer based learning (I am fully capable of studying for 18 hours straight).

Is this of any benefit, do you think? I've been slowly picking here and there with Latin and have a couple hundred words down, easily, and understand the concept of the grammar, but will this all just be a waste, sort of like a crash diet when the weight all comes back on?

If you'd give it a shot, what program?

[OhElizabeth]

Well this is just my opinion and how I do things, but I wouldn't focus on vocab, only the grammar. I'd pick up whatever text you're going to use with your dc, maybe even the 2nd book of it as well, and work through the teacher's edition, teaching yourself the grammar and making charts till you can see the big picture. Once you get the grammar of a language, the vocab falls into place. I would open the tm, see what the first piece of grammar is taught, and start making notes. Write, rearrange those notes, use a chalkboard, until you've worked through all the lessons and see how the grammar for the year fits together. Then REWRITE those notes onto one big sheet of paper (very small print, hehe!) and put in a page protector. Now you have your cheat sheet for the year.

When my dd started LC, she was in a co-op class and I wasn't keeping up at all, didn't have a clue what was going on. About January of last year I realized I sure couldn't help her like that, lol. So the method I described to you is what I did. Like I said, I think after you piece together the grammar/conjugation/declension puzzle, everything else comes together. But I'm a big picture learner.

PS. It only took me 3-4 hours, a long evening, to work through LC1 that way. I think you could do LC1 and LC2 in a day, no problem. Haven't seen Henle, but you could probably take a big bite of it. Remember, if you make notes as you go and create charts of everything, that paper becomes your working brain, so you don't have to remember everything, just know where to find it and how it's organized. All this is going to cement more deeply as you TEACH it.

[Nan in Mass]

I'd get as far as possible reading the stories in Lingua Latina or in Cambridge Latin. I did this with French before I started speaking it with my children.

[Cadam]

What a cool idea! We are leaving for vacation in a week I think I will bring things to study when I want quiet time to myself. I wonder how much I could get through? It should be fun.

[kalanamak]

This went very well. I'm in like Flynn with the program and busting with confidence. I got through 5 Units and really, really like it. I usually hate "programmed learning" but this one moves along as needed, and you can hit that audio button over and over, if you need to.

P.S. If you are doing this for you, you don't need the test book etc, just the CD-ROM (which worked fine on a Mac) and later the reader. For a teen who has a teacher or a parent who is up on the course (taking it at the same time, or already fluent), fine. But otherwise, not needed.

[Colleen in NS]

This went very well. I'm in like Flynn with the program and busting with confidence. I got through 5 Units and really, really like it. I usually hate "programmed learning" but this one moves along as needed, and you can hit that audio button over and over, if you need to.

P.S. If you are doing this for you, you don't need the test book etc, just the CD-ROM (which worked fine on a Mac) and later the reader. For a teen who has a teacher or a parent who is up on the course (taking it at the same time, or already fluent), fine. But otherwise, not needed.

This is so cool, congratulations!

I just might take OhElizabeth's advice and learn LC2 this way. It seems so doable to learn the grammar and piece it all together first.