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  1. These three boys and I have all read the Hobbit at least once, so I'm not worried about that. My DS16 might want to read the Silmarillion, but I haven't even checked yet to see how that fits into everything. I appreciate your perspective on how you used the program. DS16 and DS14 have seen the movies several times but have read only about halfway through the books, and DS11 has read only the Hobbit (and not seen any of the movies but has heard rave reviews from his brothers). So we will need to discuss the books more than you have, I would imagine, but I don't want analysis to ruin the books, so we will cut things if needed. But I am really looking forward to making those connections you mentioned and appreciating Tolkien's genius. We're all excited to dive in.
  2. Agreed. I do look at them to understand the intent, but then I make my own to do whatever I want. Thank you!
  3. This is all so very helpful, Lori. I am getting a much better sense of how this works now. I agree that this won't be enough for my DS16, and I think I have a better idea now of some options. A couple more questions about scheduling: 1) To clarify, you did LLfLotR only 2 school days per week, right (plus the actual LotR reading another evening)? 2) Did you do a little bit of the unit studies one day each week, not just when the publisher schedules them between books? Is this how you spread them out to cover them for as long as you wanted?
  4. Thanks, Lori. I don't know the trilogy, as I have read only the first book and part of the second many years ago. It is good to hear that it probably won't matter if I can't find the matching edition. That and my inability to contact the publisher were my biggest concerns. Do you think option 1 below is better, then? 1) finish LLfLotR before adding the other literature (speed up the entire LLfLotR program and then move on). 2) read other books at other times of the day or week. E.g., Read the 2 chapters of LOTR on Sun/Mon, do the discussions/unit studies on Tues-Fri, read a Shakespeare play or Beowulf on Tues-Fri. (approx 2 hrs literature/day, some independent reading or read-aloud and some discussion together). 3) Between each of the 6 LOTR books, when there is a break for unit studies, take a longer break and read other literature. I did find a little about scheduling you used in an older thread: "We also took 1 to 3 weeks to spread out and do one of the 12 additional units, which, in addition to the chapter notes, are the real "meat" of the program." When I get my copy of LLfLotR, I'm hoping I'll be able to understand scheduling better, but I won't get it for a while. The sample schedule on the publisher website, which is for the 1st edition, shows unit studies taking 1-2 days each and usually coming back-to-back with 2-3 unit studies between each LOTR book. Am I right in understanding that you paused your LOTR reading for 1-3 weeks instead of the 1-2 days on the sample schedule? Did you read other literature at this time that corresponded to the the unit studies? Is this extension of unit studies possible just by cutting out the fill-in-the-blank, comprehension questions, vocabulary, and tests. I do plan to cut those out and use other writing. I'm really looking forward to the unit studies. My 16-year-old just returned from a literature study abroad to England and wants to read Tolkien, Lewis, and more Shakespeare. I want to capitalize on his excitement and energy for him and for his younger brothers. I also need to be realistic, and I don't want to overburden them or myself. We'll be moving yet again sometime in the next few months (we've homeschooled through many moves, but this time will also require extensive home renovations at the beginning), and I have health problems that sometimes shut me down, so we'll miss some days of me leading things. This is why I am trying to get as much of a loose schedule ready as I can. i appreciate all of your insights and suggestions.
  5. Yes, I had thought about that, but you're right that I should plan for it. I'll probably try to do the discussions around lunch time, so they can plan to read at night but still have time in the morning if it doesn't happen. Thank you for the ideas and clarifications.
  6. Thank you, SilverMoon. I got interrupted during my previous post and didn't see yours. That's helpful information about the book version. Do you have any advice about scheduling? I don't imagine most people actually follow the schedule provided by the publisher, since most use the curriculum differently.
  7. I'm glad you saw my post, 8filltheheart, as I know you have used LLfLotR a lot. I want the program mostly for the discussions and unit studies, like you and mlktwins and most of the people I've read have used it. I'm not planning to use the fill-in-the blank pages or vocabulary exercises. I'm more concerned about whether I'll need a matching version to learn the literary terms. Does the TE give page numbers with examples of the literary devices that will be difficult to find otherwise? Maybe if I just review these lessons before I read the chapters, I will be able to find them more easily. An entirely new question (scheduling): In reviewing the sample daily schedule on the website, I wondered whether we could speed it up a little. Before I saw the schedule, I assumed we would read a chapter and discuss it on the same day, but these two tasks seem to be divided into two days most of the time. My oldest son, especially, wants time to read more this year, especially Shakespeare and Lewis (my 10th- and 12th-graders have already read most of the other related works, such as Beowulf, Gawain, Iliad, some Shakespeare, Narnia, etc.) Do you think it would work better to speed up the LOTR a little to fit other books into breaks along with unit studies, or would you read the other works at the same time?
  8. Thanks, mlktwins. I have read a lot about the program and appreciate your further review. I had considered using the 1st edition TE since I plan to do most of this as a group with my sons and plan to avoid the worksheets, but even used copies of the curriculum are hard to find (ether edition). When you used the LOTR book that matched your 1st edition, did you find it important that it matched? Do you think it would have been difficult to teach with another version of the Tolkien books?
  9. For years, I have seen posts about Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. Now that I am finally wanting to use it with my three youngest boys, I don't see many comments that aren't 5-10 years old. That wouldn't deter me from using it, but I can't contact the publisher (homescholar.org) via phone or email or their website comment form. I do see the Student and Teacher's editions are available from Rainbow Resource, but I'd like to ask the publisher questions. Does anyone know whether HomeScholar Books is still the publisher of LLfLotR? I'm also wondering about the one-volume LOTR and which edition works best with the curriculum, since I can't seem to buy directly from the publisher. The HomeScholar website has conflicting, confusing information about this, and ISBN searches on amazon don't necessarily work. From an ISBN search, I think I can use the 50th Anniversary edition I see on amazon: 1178 pages, published by William Morrow. But since I can't look inside that version, it's had to know. I'd appreciate any help you can give. TC
  10. My son finally got his PSAT scores in the mail yesterday. His first set. He started getting emails from colleges in January, which is when I thought scores would be out. So I came on here and realized they'd been out for a long time. I looked online and linked his college board account with our home address. Last week, my son started getting physical mail from colleges. And then he got his paper scores yesterday. I'm wondering if he didn't write his mailing address clearly on the PSAT and that caused the delay. I'm really glad to have the paper scores, as there is a lot more information than just the three numbers you get by looking online.
  11. That's a great idea. I think I'll do this with my next children. It was a struggle to find a school for my oldest to take the PSAT. Per the College Board website, I started early. Local high school told me in May that I'd have to wait until August to sign him up, so I worried all summer about whether they would let him. Late August, they finally gave us an answer: No. We found a public school in the next town that said he could sign up after Sept. 14. On the phone, someone said we could. In person, another person said we couldn't. Luckily we got in because we had the first person's name, she was there at the time, and she remembered talking to us in the phone.
  12. Thank you all! My 10th-grade son started at our local CC last week, and he suddenly decided he wants to get an AA before he graduates from high school. I had already heard that a semester at CC = a year in high school, but the Spanish classes at the CC are 101A, 101B, 102A, 102B. This made me stop to come here to look for answers as to whether I could treat each semester course as a year of high school. Considering they are 5 credits each at the CC, I think he can get 1 high-school credit out of each one! Taking just 2 of the 4 semesters will save him a lot of time. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge.
  13. Yikes! Now I'm kicking myself even harder for not pushing more for my son to take the PSAT this month. We made an initial attempt to sign him up, got knocked aside by the local high school, went home to double check my facts (yes he could take it as a 10th grader, yes he needed to sign up at the school and not online), and never made it back to the school to try again. Thanks for posting, so I can add these things to a list of prep items.
  14. My son did this two years ago with zero preparation. We were in the middle of a cross-country move, so it was great for him to have any kind of educational goal. He met it, but we didn't realize until too late that he could have had his book published. This year, I discovered the workbook, and he has gone through some of it over the past few months. He hasn't visited the web site yet, though I did see there were some webinars, which we missed. My son loves to write, do he does this for fun. I won't be assigning much other writing during November, though. And we will try to pay more attention to what is going on in nanowrimo besides my son's writing in a vacuum.
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