Beginning Latin for 5th and 8th grades

[MelissaM]

I want to begin Latin with my older two girls. The older is very reluctant and struggles academically. The younger is a solid student. I am an impatient teacher who has no Latin experience.

Any suggestions on what to use to combine them? Are they too old for Lively Latin?

[sleepy]

I'm not familiar with Lively Latin, but for those ages I would suggest either Henle or Galore Park's Latin Prep (http://galorepark.co.uk/product/textbooks/127/latin-prep-book-1.html).

[MeganP]

I'm using LL for my 5th grader. I think it might be too easy for an 8th grader. I use Latin Prep for my 7th grader, and while it would be challenging for a 5th grader, if he is a solid student as you say, you could make it work if you were sure to take your time. I think it would probably be a better fit if you want one program to work for both dc.

[Beth in SW WA]

I suggest starting w/ Latina Chrisiana 1 & 2. The videos are great and the program is laid out nicely.

[abbeyej]

I love Latin Prep, but since your 8th grader is "reluctant", I'm somewhat hesitant to recommend it. It's meant to start with kids in the 9-11 age range, though it's pretty rigorous, so I would only recommend it for very strong students at the lower end of that range. My high school aged students (now doing LP2) certainly find it plenty challenging!

Maybe a year of Lively Latin first would be preferable... You could do LP next year with both kids... (and you could give 2 years of high school credit to your older child when she finished the 3 LP books...)

But take a look at the samples at Galore Park.

You could also just work through it and not worry about finishing the first book in one year. I highly recommend the workbooks for the extra practice.

[Heather in VA]

My 4th and 8th graders are doing Henle. They both love it. They are doing it at very different paces - one is doing nearly whole book this year and the other is using Memoria Press's guide to Unit I and II. It's challenging but it's going very well.

Heather