Roman Roads: Visual Latin II {A Review}

Roman Roads Media sent us Visual Latin II (regularly $100, on sale now for $85) for ages 10 and up to review. 

What's Included
Visual Latin II comes with 3 DVDs. The set of DVDs includes 30 video lessons (31-60) and pdfs of instructions, worksheets, and answers. On a typical schedule, each lesson would run 3 times a week for an entire year. 

We printed off the worksheets from the DVDs and we would recommend that you would as well; as they accompany the video lessons and are truly part of the lesson (not in addition to it). We put them on a clipboard to make it easier for Ceesa to follow along while watching the DVDs and to keep them organized. There are generally 2 or more worksheets per session, so at least 6 per lesson.

Lesson Format
Each lesson is set up into 3 parts: Part A. Grammar, Part B. Sentences, and Part C. Reading and Translation. Each part generally runs 5-10 minutes. 

Part A. Grammar introduces the new grammar rule to learn with samples for application. The teacher teaches the grammar rules from the board and the student follows along with charts and their worksheets.

Part B. Sentences has the teacher reading sentences from the board and translating the sentences that are there. Then students are asked to translate their own sentences from the worksheets provided. We'd recommend translating your sentences as the teacher goes over his sentences. While most are not the exact same, they do help to translate. Additionally the Grammar section worksheet information helps students translate as well. 

Part C. Reading and Translation is set up with the teacher reading from a book while the student is expected to follow along with the worksheets. Once the student is finished reading, she is suppose to translate the text. Some of the vocabulary is provided for the student to translate in a chart with both Latin and English provided.

Our Conclusions
We generally start new programs at the beginning, especially language programs because they build on one another. With differences in programs, what one deems important instruction another does not. 

Ceesa has been studying Latin for 2 years, so we thought we would be able to use Visual Latin II; however, I would definitely recommend starting with Visual Latin I. The lessons begin with things she was unfamiliar with to start off with which made it difficult to weed through initially. The program builds off of previous lessons as one would suspect with the first 30 being on the Visual Latin I DVDs and Visual Latin II starts at the end of a lesson in Declensions. Instead of starting a new course with Visual Latin II it is more of a continuation of Visual Latin I. 

Although Visual Latin is recommended for 10 and up, it is also suggested that I and II be used for High School credit and is based on a college level book. We found that this would be a better fit for 14 and up. If you are using Visual Latin with children under 14, we would recommend parental support throughout. Ceesa was not able to complete the work independently as a sixth grader.

Recommendation
Is Visual Latin for you? You can see sample videos of Visual Latin I here to determine if the teaching style presented will work for your family.

Wishing you homeschool blessings,


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