Duh moments... we're 3/4 through LITCC, dd's made straight A's so far...

[Robin in Tx]

She is taking this class outside of the home, I might add, so it's not like she has been given inflated grades from her mom :)...

And yesterday, while doing her homework, she asked me, "What's a declension? What do they want me to do here?" (the instructions were to write the declensions for the following nouns).

She had NO. Idea. Within days/weeks of making 95's & 100's on study sheets and tests that drill her on first and second declension nouns!

AAACKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Preteen brains on the freeze around here... I mean, is she just memorizing this stuff and not truly *learning* it? Once I explained it, she said, "Oh yeah!"... but it did take her a while to snap out of the fog. It was as though she'd forgotten everything...

Please tell me this is normal!

Robin

[LisaNY]

She may very well be memorizing the "hows" without knowing the "whys" yet. I don't think it's all that big a deal that she didn't know the term. It's more important that she can decline the nouns according to their cases with a general understanding of their function. Does she realize that nouns are given endings based upon their function in the sentence? If she doesn't, then that would be cause for concern.

Is she able to read and translate the material? If reading Latin is your goal, and she is able to read/translate fairly well, then she is doing fine. :)

I do think that the age is a factor here. You should've been at my house yesterday when my 13yo. dd and I were arguing about why Latin verbs DO NOT have a nominative case. :rolleyes:

[Robin in Tx]

You're right. She understands exactly what is going on, she had just forgotten the definition of the term "declension" (even though that definition has been on her previous tests, and she has been asked to decline nouns every single week now... lol!).

Her reading/translation is good, but a little iffy. Her main problem is that she doesn't take time to clearly identify the nominative case/subject of the sentence. You know what our biggest problem is? Most of this stuff comes so easy to her that she doesn't fully apply herself. She doesn't think she has to work very hard at any of this, so laziness sets in. When I think about the potential being wasted here... yowzers... but what can I do?

Sounds like both of our dd's had a latin brain freeze yesterday! LOL

Thanks,
Robin

[Jackie in AR]

I have found that my just-turned-13-yo boys have the same trouble.

But you know what?

So does their mom. I can't tell you the memory lapses I've begun to have. (Really, I literally can't tell you since I can't remember the specifics about them. :D)

Even my 6yo dd said to me recently, "Mom, I think you suffer from short term memory loss. You know, like Dorie." (from Finding Nemo)

Those nasty hormones get us on both ends of the age spectrum, don't they? :D

[CookieMonster]

Around that age, I would have bouts of total incompetence when it came to spelling. Spelling was something I just never had probelms with. But there I would be, sitting in front of a paper I was writing, and all of a sudden I couldn't remember how to spell the word "name". N-A-M-E I would write, after wracking my brain for several minutes. "No, that doesn't look right," I would say.

This happened way more frequently than I care to admit. I think it's the age.

[Robin in Tx]

Thanks, everyone!

I'll mark it up to hormones and quit stressing. At least she doesn't ask me what a verb is anymore :). I guess it could be worse!

Thanks again,
Robin