I'd like to hear from people who have used Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. At what age/grade did you successfully use the program? What do you think is the ideal grade level, and what is a reasonable range? Any other comments, info, or insight would be welcome. I've read lots of posts about the program, so I'm aware that lots of people skip the vocab/short answer portion and focus on the chapter notes and unit studies. I'm on the fence about using the program, vs. just reading and enjoying the books, and when these books are best read & discussed. Help me decide?

OK, so we have started LLLoTR. I heard so many great comments and was really excited. But I am not really "getting it", and my DS finds it a bit lame, so I am sure I am missing something, please help me out: 1. What is the purpose of the fill-in-the-blank questions? Just to make sure the student has read the assigned pages? It is not info the student is going to retain for the long term (what was the name of the tallest Hobbit?) or stuff that makes sense ("they rarely wear shoes on their _____" well, what else but FEET is going there? Don't need to read to answer this question). I really do not understand the purpose of this part. Especially since we are very familiar with the book. 2. The vocabulary study. Hm, nice, but DS knows more than half the words already and is not really thrilled about it. So, is it the writing assignments and the unit studies people are excited about?

Situation 1. DD13 wants to do LL LOTR next year for English. This is supposedly a year-long course, I looked at the samples, descriptions, schedule. However, it seems to include only one work, i.e. it deals only with Tolkien. I am outsourcing English and she will be supervised by a tutor, however, tutor being like-minded, she also feels this LOTR inadequate amount of reading for the whole academic year, particularly in light of the fact that DD pretty much read it all once already so we are looking into additional readings. What have you found to be good supplementary readings for this course, which would somehow "logically" fit in? I would like to keep it as "English" as possible as it makes little sense to have her go through the type of readings that I normally would / will group with the chronological order of Italian and world readings in Italian. DD13 is a strong reader with a good command of English, though literature is not one of her favorite subjects. ALSO, how much time weekly LL LOTR generally takes? Situation 2. This year DD14 had a relatively loose, mishmash year regarding English: she read fairly difficult and diverse readings, but not really structured by any particular logic (mostly British literature this year - two Shax plays, Byron's poetry and Childe Harold, one Dickens, Milton's Samson - and some Yiddish and German works in English translation, some poetry, as well as her own free readings which I allowed her to group with "school" readings as I did not want to sweat this particular area this year). This kid LOVES reading. I need some sort of general idea of what to do with her English next year. Neither she nor I function well without some sort of a structure and some organization of material. I do chronological literature tied to History for Italian (which includes non-Italian readings too, though whenever we stumble upon something English in the upper years we intend to read it in English), and now we are still "finding ourselves" as to how to organize English. For now, I think I should favor the approach of thematical readings or readings organized by national literature, i.e. the way it usually done (you know: British literature, American literature, Some-theme in literature with mostly English spine, etc.), rather than applying WTM approach to English too. So I have a question, being that she already pretty much started "British literature" and feels it would be fine to continue with that by "rounding" it into a course, and also to have a break from the 2-year Ancients cycle she is trapped in for history, classics and Italian, how do I go about organizing that into a reasonable unit which she can complete next year? What do you find are important works to cover and is there a good spine you can recommend (not that we absolutely need one, but just in case you do know something good)? I talked to her as to what she wants to do, but she is generally undecided, has no particular focus and would like some general structure that would be mostly chronological. So... suggestions, experiences? Her tutor has a "you decide, I teach it" policy. Thank you in advance. :)

Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings. Experiences? How did you use the course? What age did you use it with? We are planning on using it with our advanced 14 and 12 yr old sons. Did you still use a separate history? Ideas? Anything would be appreciated to prepare me for this.

I'd love to hear more experiences about the positives and negatives of this program from those who have used it. My dc who will be in the 9th and 7th grade are very interested in using this next year. (Note: my rising 7th grader works at a high school level).

I absolutely LOVE LL from LOTRs. I am/was planning on using it with my rising 6th grader next yr. However, as I went to order a new student book, she begged to do Narnia instead. I know that Further Up Further In is not written by Amelia Harper and is a unit study vs. just a lit course like LL. My only question is......is the content as good? I find LL to be inspiring. My 8th grader that used LL in 6th and 7th absolutely detested all things relating to English prior to LL. He has since started writing his own book and poetry and now loves to read. My dd is an excellent English student, so I am not looking for the same sort of inspiration for her. But, I would like to have a program that elevates the appreciation of allusions, linguistics, etc to some degree. TIA, Karen

I'm seriously considering using this with my ds next year (7th grade). I'd like to hear what others' experiences with this curriculum have been. Thanks, Wendi