Getting Started in the Middle?
Drew and all,
I've read your book and I'm sold on the ideas. Now to implement. I have a lot of the materials I need already but am not sure how to schedule them. I'm starting in the middle with these grades: 2nd,5th,7th. I also have a baby and a high schooler, so I really like the idea of consolidating our school day.
We are already doing both Prima and LC1 daily. I expect my 7th grader to be starting LC2 after Christmas. My 2nd grader still needs a lot of phonics time so we are just doing prima and will take this whole school year to complete it. I'm not sure where my 5th grader will fall into the mix- we'll see how fast he picks it up. In your book you have Christian Studies scheduled once per week, and I'm not sure what you would include from the MP lesson plans in that one day. Would you suggest doing everything in the student book for that lesson? And really where do I jump in with older kids? Do you suggest starting at the beginning and do Christian Studies 1,2,3 with the 5th and 7th grader? And what about Classical Studies? I'm not worried about combining because they would both rather work alone part of the day and we'll do English and Modern Studies as family read alouds. They'll also hear me reading almost everything aloud with our 2nd grader.
Just wondering how other families are scheduling these subjects?
Another call to not panic :)
Cheryl,
Your kids won't be ready to translate anything in Latin this year. That's okay! Start where you are. The years of Latin you *can* do are better than not doing Latin at all. It all counts, for forming the mind.
Drew's plan is a plan, a guide. Take the principles and modify the plan for all it's worth, to fit your family.
One more thought
(I'm trying to reply to another comment but the system appears to have the hiccups!)
For students beginning "in the middle" who've had little or no Latin - don't panic! Start from where you - or they - are. If that's with LCI, fine. Remember, too, that Henle is a high school text, and it can be used by students with no previous Latin exposure.
Any Latin is better than no Latin!
-Drew
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"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
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Ideas
Hi, there!
Hope I can be of some help here. With Christian Studies, yes, you can do it all in one day, although you might want to have the kids read the material ahead of time as free reading. If the older kids haven't had a good grounding in the Bible, then the MP program would be fine for them. Same for Classical Studies. The goal is to have "literacy" in the Bible, Greek mythology, and Roman history (and I would add Norse myths) before tackling the high school literature selections. Your 7th grader could probably do much of the reading independently, with or without any further formal study.
You may already have seen this, but here's an article for people who are starting in the middle and need or want to catch up on the basics.
HTH!
-Drew
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"I wonder how far I shall carry any opinion with me when I plead for active effort to revive the general use of Latin?" - Hilaire Belloc
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