just finished Hobbit-do we go on to Lord of the Rings??

[pjssully]

Hi,

My almost 13 year old boys just finished the Hobbit (and of course, went to see the movie!)  and I am considering going on to the Lord of the Rings with lit. guide.  I have mixed thoughts about this because if we do LOTR, that is about all we will get in this year.  And there are so many other good books out there !!!:)  But....this seems like a good time to do it since we are kinda "in the mood" 

 

I know they wouldn't be "thrilled" to do the LOTR, but they really wouldn't be thrilled with anything right now.  They are in the teen mode of not liking much of anything but computer.  But they are also very obedient and will do just about anything I put in front of them.

 

W ould love to hear peoples thoughts on this!!!

 

pj

[maize]

Do LotR!

[Lori D.]

Go for it! :) That's a great age to do it.

[merylvdm]

I agree - if they enjoyed the Hobbit keep going. I read the whole trilogy in 5 days! (Yes, that was in the days before I had kids)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, no harm in trying, but no harm in dropping it, either, if they aren't enjoying it.  My dd loved the Hobbit but found LOTR a bit of a slog.  It is much more of a grown-up book series than The Hobbit is.  It was sad for me, because I love those books, but I'd rather drop it now and have her pick it up later and love it than force the issue now and turn a series I love into one she dreads and dislikes, KWIM?  So she read Fellowship and started The Two Towers, but then put it aside for awhile, with my blessing.  Like you said, there are a ton of other books out there! So don't feel like you have to read something just because.

[Roadrunner]

Why not just read it without a lit guide? The guides can really lengthen the time it takes to read through the books. My DS gobbled up TLOTR last year. I don't think it would have been enjoyable for him to fill out chapter tests.

[Veritaserum]

I've been reading LOTR aloud for pleasure. We don't do any schoolwork in conjunction with it. We just finished The Fellowship of the Ring.  We read The Hobbit before that.  Next week we will start The Two Towers.

LOTR is much, much, much slower and denser than The Hobbit. Be prepared for that. It took us 8 months or so to get through The Fellowship of the Ring.  Most of the time we only read once a week, though. 

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've been reading LOTR aloud for pleasure. We don't do any schoolwork in conjunction with it. We just finished The Fellowship of the Ring.  We read The Hobbit before that.  Next week we will start The Two Towers.

 

LOTR is much, much, much slower and denser than The Hobbit. Be prepared for that. It took us 8 months or so to get through The Fellowship of the Ring.  Most of the time we only read once a week, though. 

 

Bingo.  Hence, doing it "for school" with the expectation that there would be end of chapter discussions and we'd be on a schedule to "get through" it so we could move on and read something else was a disaster.  I can see using something like LLLOTR with a kid who has already read and loved the books and wants to dig deeper, but it wasn't a good fit for us for a first read.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

DH read aloud The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the oldest two kids and finished this spring.  They loved it, especially oldest dd.  She has had many interesting discussions about it with dh.  I would be afraid that using a literature guide would ruin the books.