I received this comment:

We love your home school products! I have a question about Visual Latin. My children and I completed the first 25 lessons and did the worksheets as we completed each lesson. We even took a few days in between some of the episodes to memorize the content of the previous lessons. At the beginning of the summer I took a day to quiz my children on the first 25 lessons, I soon realized that they had forgotten much of the material we had worked so hard to memorize. We decided to re-watch the first 25 lessons. Months later I again decided to quiz them, once again finding that they had forgotten much of the content of the lessons. In the videos there is very little review of the previously-learned material–this is my only complaint of the course. My children feel like failures and at the mention of re-watching the lessons for a 3rd time all said they wanted to quit Latin. I am saddened by this because they have loved Latin until now. Can you recommend any resources we can use to review the material? Thank you!

Here is my reply:

Hi!

I am sorry to hear this, but, not really surprised. 

First of all, I’d be willing to bet they remember more than they think they do.  

But, second, and probably more significant, Latin is such a foreign subject that unless you are reviewing every day it is far too easy to lose all you have learned.  I wish this were not the case.  

I am studying Greek these days.  I try to study daily because I know I will lose so much if I take even a few days off.  It’s depressing.  

I agree.  This is one of the major weaknesses of Visual Latin.  I believe the best way to compensate is to start reading in Latin as soon as you can.  

There is a free book you can start with.  It is called Cornelia.  There is an audio version and a pdf version.

You could also order the book, Lingua Latina, by Hans Ørberg

http://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illustrata-Pars-Familia/dp/1585104205

It can be quite challenging, but if will provide you with more practice and repetition than you could ever ask for.  Plus, students are often excited to see that they can read a book in Latin.  

If Lingua Latina becomes too much of a challenge, I offer live online classes in the book.

There is one more thing you could do.  You could quit.  I am not kidding.  Take on French, Spanish, or Italian.  Do something else for a while.  You can always come back to Latin.  I didn’t start Latin until I was 23, or 24.  Your kids are way ahead of me.   

I have not read a German book in the longest time, but that’s okay.  I’ve gotten distracted.  I will be back.  You could leave Latin for a while if you like.  You can always come back.

Let me know if you need more help!

Dwane