Latin Road to English Grammar - anyone use it?

[Plaid Dad]

In light of the recent threads about English grammar instruction in the context of Latin, I'm interested in hearing your experiences with "The Latin Road to English Grammar." TIA!

[Melissa in CA]

I used this with two high schoolers. I can not tell you what happened, or why it happened, but we got completely lost and finally had to quit.

I know it is supposed to be for the beginner with no Latin knowledge, but I don't know how a person could complete this program without some outside help, or some understanding of Latin. I knew zero Latin. My boys knew zero Latin. We got hopelessly lost mid-year and no amount of backing up helped.

I bought every item a person can buy to go with the program, including the DVDs, and it was a huge waste of money for us. We learned some great vocabulary, and got some understanding of declensions, etc., but when it came to putting our knowledge to the test in translation exercises, we all bombed.

I also felt, at least in the first volume, that the course did not have adequate amounts of English Grammar to constitute a a full credit. That is my personal opinion though.

So all in all, it did not work for us Latin illiterates and it has caused me to hesitate giving Latin another try with my youngest. I must admit though that Lively Latin looks quite good, and easily understandable. I may give that a try next school year.

I don't want to dissuade anyone from using Latin Road, but I know that I am not alone in my struggle with it. When we were floundering I sent out many an SOS on various message boards. I got some help from those who totally understood the program (most also had some Latin or other foreign language under their belts), and got many replies from others who gave up on the program as well. It will not work for everyone that's for sure, so buyer beware. If you, or your dc, have already completed some elementary Latin, then you will probably be fine with Latin Road. We came in cold turkey. I don't recommend that. :o

Blessings,
Melissa

[Susan M in WA]

I did this program with a co-op group of late middle school/early high school students.

The students had a great deal of trouble in the beginning with basic identificationn of sentence parts. We started with a wide variety of basic grammar knowledge. I used some exercises from Rod & Staff 5 or 6 to get them comfortable with direct and indirect objects (in English).

I thought the students did great. I was their "teacher" but I was learning Latin for the first time. I do have a fairly good grasp of English grammar.

The entire group of seven girls got through the first year and most did pretty well. Three students continued with the second year. Only one student finished the third year. The one student who finished all three parts was given three years of Latin credit when she entered a charter high school - because they took a look at the syllabus for each year. When she went on to take Spanish in high school, she found it wonderful to have the Latin background.

One student who went through 2 years went on to take Italian at a community college. Even though her Latin is several years behind her now, it is helping her tremendously in the Italian courses.

The work load for the girls was heavy on writing. Some balked at the work load, but once they found a routine and did a little each day things went smoother. I made up some online flashcard games for them (these are no longer free). We played Bingo with the vocabulary and this really helped all of the girls. I searched for and found some supplementary easy translation exercises and these were popular but somewhat difficult in the first year.

If the student enjoys (or tolerates) the teaching method used in this program, I think it can be very successful. It was defintely a bonus to compare translations as a group.

One other thing I did for the kids was to make a colored "cheat sheet". This really helped to make the exercises go quickly and ultimately seemed to have a positive effect for the tests.

[Plaid Dad]

Thank you - this helps!