Pretty much every day, I get the same email. Essentially, it goes like this:
“My kids are struggling with Henle Latin, and they are bored. Is there anything else we can do?”
I usually recommend switching to Lingua Latina by Hans Ørberg.
This mom chose another route. Here is her note:
I know that CC families contact you frequently. So I want to share how we used your program to redeem Latin for my son after Challenge 1 (9th grade). He absolutely despised Henle and we were about to give up on learning Latin altogether.
After pouring over your site and contacting you via email, we decided to try VL 1 paired with LL. This was actually against your advice. You thought he might be discouraged by basically starting over. You felt like LL alone would be the best choice. I get that. But I had no way to determine what he actually knew. And I felt like it might build his confidence by filling in gaps.
That proved to be true in his case. We did a lesson per day (A/B/C video and worksheets) until he reached the point where his test score dropped. He reviewed 23 weeks of Latin in a little over a month and he did have significant gaps in both English and Latin grammar. For the first time, he felt like a success. And Latin has become a subject he actually likes.
This quick review method worked very well and I suspect many CC kids could benefit from it. They would be able to make the switch to VL/LL and not lag behind the other students. It wasn’t any more cumbersome than the ridiculous number of problems assigned in Henle Latin.
Just thought I would share what we view as a total win. Besides, if we had only done LL, we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of watching you in action! And the bizarre feeling that we know you despite not actually knowing you…
Thanks again for making Latin accessible and entertaining.
– Jill
