The Lord of the Rings…as an English Curriculum

As the school year draws to a close (if some areas of the country can claim to have had a school year), many students are looking forward to shutting the textbooks and opening the pages or tablet screen of a breezy summer read. And many parents are looking forward to not dealing with the stress that naturally occurs when finagling their children’s school schedules.

But there’s a segment of the parent population (a growing number after 2020) that can’t yet fully relax, as they’ve decided to attempt or continue homeschooling their children. Which requires, in some cases, that they pick out next fall’s academic curriculum sooner rather than later.

As of the 2020-21 school year, I became one of those parents. And while I encountered frustrations and learning curves, especially as a first-timer, there’s something energizing about picking out curriculum based on your child’s age, personality, and interests. Yes, even when it comes to algebra. (If you have a child struggling with this, as do I, you might check out Painless Algebra.)

But since this blog is about writing and books, I want to share with you the English curriculum my oldest daughter chose for her high school junior year. 

First, a confession: I have never read The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. I know, I know. Some of you are gasping in revulsion, and others have already written me off. 🙂 Perhaps at one point in my life, I would have immersed myself in J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, but I was into Piers Anthony’s Xanth series when this might have been the case. And let’s face it: not everyone is going to like a classic, even if it’s a good classic.

My oldest daughter, on the other hand, loves Tolkien’s works, going so far as to devour his other books, even those half-published and later finished by his son. If you’re homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling a high-schooler who loves to read, loves the beauty of language, loves to learn, and is self-motivated, the following curriculum might be just what you didn’t know you’re looking for. 😉

You can find the curriculum here. We bought the HomeScholar Book Set, which includes the entire triology in one volume. The pages referenced in the curriculum reflect the pages in this volume, so it comes in handy.

Okay, ready for another confession? I can’t be my children’s teacher.

But! I can be their facilitator. So, I look for books and curriculum that teaches them in my stead, and either grades their progress as well (such as an online curriculum), or at least guides me through the process of when to give them which assignment/quiz/test, followed by the answers to those assignments, etc. This English curriculum does the latter, and it’s mapped out in a full 180-day schedule in the teacher’s edition. 

You’ll notice that along with daily reading, there are lessons, vocab quizzes, tests, projects, unit studies, and more. The quizzes, tests, and answers are found in the teacher’s edition, while the lessons and everything else required for the class are in the student’s edition.

Fun fact: In correcting my daughter’s comprehension answers, I was floored by how applicable some of the lessons are to what is currently going on in our society!

Along with diving deep into The Lord of the Rings, the student is introduced to Beowulf, the Arthurian Romances, and the epic conventions. S/he learns the basics of linguistics, poetic meter, composition, and how to create a marvelous setting. 

“By the end of this study, your students will be acquainted with over 130 literary terms and over 600 new vocabulary words. They will be introduced to several of the great literary sources that provided the background for Tolkien’s incredible world. They will have practice identifying literary elements and in picking out a theme. They will learn more about the thought processes of an author and of how that author chose material to create a story. Hopefully, your students will also learn better how to create for themselves.” [Excerpt from the Teacher’s Introduction]

The one drawback—as you can imagine—is the wealth of information and amount of reading packed into this curriculum. If you follow the schedule to a “T,” you will quickly realize that some days are loaded with pages and pages of reading, and others offer very little time to complete unit studies and projects.

This is when I remind myself that even though I grew up in the public school system of 180 school days per year, rarely did any class finish an entire textbook in a year, and plenty of days and/or classes were given over to field days, field trips, assemblies, school plays, etc. In other words, don’t stress about completing everything in any one curriculum. My daughter and I picked which projects she’d focus on, and honestly, because her calculus and chemistry classes were taught by teachers with hard deadlines (she did half-and-half public and homeschool this year), sometimes English took a backseat. Thus, she’ll be continuing some English and history work after her public school classes finish up next week. But that’s the beauty of homeschooling your children: it’s flexible and forgiving, and in many cases far more educational. 

So, if you’re taking the homeschool plunge but don’t know what his/her high school English class will look like next year, consider this LOTR course as an option.