Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings

Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings is a literature study of the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s designed for grades 7-12 and makes a very complete one year course in literature. Each of the books is further divided into sections within each book.

For each of the sections in Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings there is:

• A fill in the blank outline to do after reading the chapter aloud
• vocabulary exercises
• essay questions
• essay challenge questions
• Every three or more lessons there is a vocabulary practice sheet followed the next day by a vocabulary quiz
• unit test- at the end of every section
• unit studies- three of them which come between the books. The unit studies relate to the study of literature as a whole. For example there are studies on authors, English early literature, setting and mapping in fantasy works, etc.

Some things we love about Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings:

• It’s a very thorough look at the literature, its context, and its author.
• Provides great practice at good essay answer construction
• Gives a good overview of vocabulary– kids who read a lot will have no problem with these and it provides a good review
• Unit studies are excellent tools in learning something new on a topic related to the books in some way and they are enjoyable.
• Quizzes for each unit study– if you don’t want to dive deeply into the topic, you can still do an overview and use the quiz.
• Gave us a great reason to spend time together and read and discuss story.

What could be improved in Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings:

• It’s not a hands on study– this is a literature study and with the words unit study popping up from time to time you might expect there to be lots of projects. If that is something you are looking for, the main opportunity will be during the unit study breaks from the routine of the literature study portion.
• Cost for the workbook– although there are consumable parts of the workbook, much of it is not. There is a large amount of bonus material and appendices which are more text in nature. I’d like to see permission for fair use among family members, rather than buying more than one workbook at a premium cost.
• Page and chapter numbering– differs between the student and teacher’s workbook and it makes things more difficult to keep track of than necessary.

What is the cost of the program?

• Teacher’s Manual $65.00
• Student Manual $55.00
• The Lord of the Rings anniversary edition $18.00 (this is the one they use in the manuals and it makes it a lot easier to keep track of where we need to be- especially since the student and teacher book are not easily in synch with the names vs numbers of the chapters.
• Bundle of the two manuals $110.00
• Bundle of all three listed above $125.00

Overall we have really enjoyed Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings. It’s a solid literature course with a sprinkling of whimsy. My favorite part is enjoying a good story together as a family. While my three oldest children have all read the books many times, this has been my first time through and it was lovely to enjoy it with them. It’s a program which allows you to invest in reading together while having independent work that is robust.

Heather W blogs at Blog, She Wrote where you can read about her family’s adventures using unit studies with a sprinkling of unschooling and Charlotte Mason style homeschooling. This year they are homeschooling 10th, 8th, 6th, and 3rd grades.