Lightning Lit questions

I didn’t even know there was a teacher guide, so.  I’ve never used it.  I also have not used the two middle school courses.  I would discuss with your child whether he would mind re-reading them.  If not, it’d be OK, but some might find it a bit boring and oh, there are so many books to get to, to spend a whole year doing ones you’ve already read!  LOL

For the 7th and 8th grade LL you need the Teacher Guide. They don’t have a Teacher Guide for the high school versions. Have you looked at the website to see if he has learned all the English elements and writing information that is taught in the 7th grade workbook? I thought that the 7th grade work was very foundational to all the rest of the courses in the older years. I wouldn’t have wanted my daughter to miss it. In fact I even just today in my college English class used things that I learned from teaching that course five years ago.

O.k., all this LL talk has gotten me interested.  Are any of you familar with both LL and Teaching the Classics?  I’ve been planning on buying TTC, but am really liking the look of LL and don’t want to overdo it.  Thanks for any tips!  :)Gina

I wouldn’t start with the 7th grade.  I never used the 7th or 8th grades and don’t plan to.  The site recommends beginning with one of the American Literature guides for a first time user or a 9th grader, and what I’ve seen of them supports that.  There really isn’t an ancients LL guide.  Janice Campbell’s more classically-based Excellence in Literature (have not used this myself) has a module covering ancients but only back to Greeks, and it’s the fifth and most challenging-looking of the programs.  Not a lot of uplifting Egyptian lit I’m afraid. 

Thanks, Melissa.  Did you listen to TtC?  I’ve heard it’s helpful for early years on (my kids are 9 and 12).  But I prefer open and go and LL looks great.  Are they basically covering the same things….just different formats?  Do you see any advantage in starting earlier with something like TtC?  I don’t want another thing on my plate if I don’t need to.  Hope that was clear!  Thanks for the input:) Gina

That’s wierd – my post seemed to go to the wrong thread!

We used Lightning Lit 8 for my 7th grader last year, and he liked it so well that he asked to use more LL for LA this year. We never used the LL 7 program – someone had loaned it to me, and it looked a bit easy for this particular student, and he had read most of the books already, so we went straight to 8 with no difficulty. The teacher’s guide was necessary, but we skipped a lot of the busywork in the student book. My son loved the writing exercises and background information in the student pages. I think it was a very worthwhile course and loved watching the development of his writing skills through the year. I plan on using it with my other boys when they’re old enough.

This year he’s using one of the LL high school packs, and they’re MUCH different – walks you through much less, no busywork. They’re appropriate for him now, but I’m glad he got to enjoy LL8 last year. If your son is young for the LL8 guide, perhaps you could choose something else for the coming year, and then use LL8 for 7th or 8th grade? My son loved Intermediate Language Lessons in conjunction with lots of good books to read as his LA program from 4-6.