Quiver0f10 Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 (edited) I am looking to put my 11th and maybe 9th grader in a literature curriculum next year. The 11th grader will be doing US government & economics and the 9th grader will most likely be using Notgrass US History. I was thinking of Lightning Lit American early to mid and then mid to 19th for both of them. The other option I thought of BJU Lit for both. Or I could do BJU with both and have my 9th grader read the Notgrass books and maybe do a few study guides to go with them? I appreciate any comments or ideas. Thanks! Edited November 25, 2008 by Quiver0f10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 (edited) Here's what we've done, fwiw-- I've liked the Progeny Press guides we used this year--Frankenstein and Poetry (those are separate, lol). They seemed a little busy, but the Poetry one in particular worked well for us. One other thing we did this year was go thru the book 50 Greatest Short Stories. I wanted to cover a whole year in one semester and part of the summer, so we made one quarter Poetry studies, one Short Stories, and the rest Great Books. We did 50 Stories in a month in the summer, and we are doing Poetry simultaneously with the GB's. We read Frankenstein (with PP guide), Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Lord of the Flies, several Poe stories not in the 50, and we are finishing with 2 Shakespeare plays (because we've never done any! Gasp!). We are going for exposure, which means not really deep but at least he knows the plot, characters, major conflicts, symbols, and general significance, and has "experienced" directly the rich language and imagery each book contains. Our "theme" for these books was The Noble Savage--is Man naturally good or naturally corrupt, and what influence does Civilization have upon the human heart? (Sounds grander than it is) If you are sticking to the American authors, I'd go for Moby, Scarlet Letter, a few sermons, a few poems, and some Twain. You can go deeper the next year, or just with your younger son after the other has graduated. Boys seem to like Moby! Scarlet Letter has rich symbols (even the names are cool) but the language can be a little hard. I would definitely add in some short stories of the time, too--and find a theme to tie things up so you can compare the books you choose--makes for pretty cool discussions. Any help for you? Edited November 25, 2008 by Chris in VA added advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 Yes, very helpful. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Elliot Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Jean, We used both those Lightning Lit guides and thought they were terrific. The dc were able to complete them independently for the most part and produced some great papers from the writing assignments. I tried to read the books they were reading but didn't get to all of them. 19yodd still talks about Lightning Lit as one of the better choices we made. I would consider skipping Scarlet Letter with your younger one, but you'll know better how your particular child will handle it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 Thanks, Luann, for the nice review. Sounds like it might be a good fit for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tami in CA Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Jean I PM'd you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted November 26, 2008 Author Share Posted November 26, 2008 PMed you back. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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