Straight from LL Familia Romana to LL Roma Aeterna?

[Munchie33]

I'm doing these books with my daughter who wants to learn Latin. We're only in the early chapters of Familia Romana at the moment, but so far she is rapt.

I've read several reviews which indicate the step from Familia Romana to Roma Aeterna to be quite substantial. Although we won't be there for a while yet, this does concern me a little.

Orberg's teaching style is great and I'd rather stick with it if possible. There are several other Orberg books out there--which (if any) can be read without too much strife after finishing the first LL book? I heard Caesar's the Gallic wars is quite simple, but would it be readable without having read any of the second LL? And would it help prepare anyway? Which other books would be good for this purpose? The last thing I want is for the gap to be too big and for my daughter to be turned off Latin because of it.

Which books are good as a transition from LL1 to LL2? And finally, in the far future, are there any books which would be good to look at after LL2?

[chodorov]

I'm currently working my way through Roma Aeterna, and I did dive straight in after I finished book 1. The grammar in book 2 is definitely a step (or two or three) above that in book 1. I was able to work through the first 5 chapters with considerable difficulty, but then I decided that it was getting too hard so I got Caesar's De Bello Gallico bilingual edition from Loeb Classical library. Being able to read the Latin text and then check my understanding against the English text paragraph-by-paragraph really improved my reading ability and comprehension. At first I really struggled and was missing significant points in each paragraph, but after about 25 paragraphs I was definitely understanding what Caesar was trying to say and was only messing up on a subtlety or two per paragraph at most. After 30 paragraphs, I went back to Roma Aeterna and I did notice a significant difference. I've been able to get through a few more chapters and I believe I'll be able to finish the book before too long.

So there is my experience and my advice. Good luck!.

[ragnar_deerslayer]

I have not progressed this far in Latin, but this is based on the research I've done to plan my own future Latin progress.

First, there are two readers designed to accompany LL1 and are keyed to the chapters in it:
Lingua Latina: Colloquia Personarum (keyed to first half of Familia Romana)
Lingua Latina: Fabulae Syrae (keyed to second half of Familia Romana)
In addition, there is a free downloadable supplement they put out called called Fabellae Latinae.

Second, the company that publishes LL also publishes readers and supplements to complement the student's progress in LL1:FR and LL2:RA.

Easy (for those who have finished FR):
Caesaris: Commentarii De Bello Gallico
Sermones Romani
Plautus: Amphitryo Comoedia

Intermediate (for those who are working through RA):
Ovid: Ars Amatoria
Vergilii Maronis: Aeneis
Petronius: Cena Trimalchionis

Hard (for those who have finished RA):
Sallustus & Cicero, Catilina

Hope this helps!

[wstevena]

I had major difficulties going from FR -> RA. In addition to the excellent suggestions about the supplementary books by Oerberg, I went back and used the CD-ROM for LL-FR to get a better handle on the grammar and to keep both the grammar and vocabulary in active memory. The CD-ROM has answers to the pensa in the book; in addition it includes tons of supplementary questions that go much deeper than the pensa.

I am now using the CD-ROM for LL-RA, which has the same features. Oh yeah, another thing I have done is to listen to the recordings on the LL-FR CD. If one can comprehend the language in real-time as it is being spoken, then he/she is more likely to really understand it. Each time I listened to the same chapter, I discovered more things I was not quite sure about.