Prima Latina: with or without the dvd?

[Jennifer in NH]

I'm looking at the packages for PL and wondering if the dvd is useful..what do all of you PL users use? should I go for the whole thing, or just part? I've never been near anything Latin except maybe a statue! So, I am leaning toward all the help I can get! TIA
Jenny

[Beth in Central TX]

You are going to get a mixed review on whether or not you need the DVDs. Here is my experience:

I started off learning and teaching Latin at the same time with Prima Latina. I wanted to give my boys a classical education which included Latin, but I was extremely intimidated. Prima Latina was a great start for me. I used the DVDs which helped me with Latin pronunciation; it also taught me how to chant Latin declensions and how to set up a Latin lesson. I found them invaluable and credit them with my desire to continue Latin. I continued using the LCI DVDs just because it made teaching Latin easier. I didn't really need them at that point, but it was a cheap option to having someone else teach. I followed up each lesson to make sure they understood and helped them with their workbook exercises. Now that we are doing LCII, I don't use the DVDs because I'm more confident of my ablility to teach Latin.

HTH!

[Alenee]

and a friend of mine bought them and said it was pointless (for her). I replied to someone else just this morning about this. The lessons are very user friendly and come with a cd for pronunciation. That's all I use and we're almost finished with PL. DD9 enjoys her Latin lessons and has taken to doing them w/o me now.

[Gretchen in NJ]

I just complete my first lesson on Wednesday and find the CD for PL to be invaluable for pronunciation. I have never taken Latin myself, so I was definitely in need of the CD. I am not sure that it would be worth buying the DVD just for pronunciation and I think the CD covers Latin declensions. We just haven't gotten that far yet.

Gretchen

[pixelroper]

No real Latin prior experience here either. I didn't use the DVD with PL just the CD. It went very well. When we were half way through LCI I ran into problems- I decided to borrow the DVD from another mom- I was falling behind my dd- using the DVD has been good for both of us. For LCI I used an older version of the program- might have been some of my problems, the TM is very minimal. I 'm using the new ed. of LCII, which has a much better layout and I got the DVD. I'm not needing to watch along with dd nearly as much now, it still makes things a little easier.