Name: Teach Them Diligently (Branson)
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-17T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Branson, MO

Tagged: essays, high school, literature, Tapestry of Grace

This topic has 26 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by Evergreen.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 27 total)

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Posts
May 11, 2012 at 1:16 am
deltagal
Member
I’m trying to decide between Lighting Lit, Smarr and Excellence in Literature. Does anyone have experience or opinions with any of these programs?
May 11, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Bookworm
Participant
I love Lightning Lit. I like the idea of Excellence in Literature, but do go over the booklists carefully. I decided they wouldn’t work well for my kids. Don’t know anythin gabout Smarr.
May 12, 2012 at 11:31 am
deltagal
Member
Bookworm, Could you say more about why you didn’t think EIL’s book list would work well for you children.
May 12, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Bookworm
Participant
Well, I wanted challenging, but these seemed uber-challenging, KWIM? I don’t intend to let my kids off easy, but the quantity and depth of the literature left me worried that my boys would really flounder. It seemed to me that the Lightning Lit guides were a better fit for us–the choices and pace seemed more comparable to a high school class. Some of the EiL courses were tougher than my college classes in literature. One has you doing, in one year, the Odyssey, Antigone, the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, Les Miserables, a Russian lit reader, Goethe’s Faust, then a couple of Dineson books. The thought sort of staggered me, to tell the truth. I wasn’t sure *I* could intelligently read and write on all of these in one school year, to be honest. In TWO college terms, I did the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Oedipus cycle. And I had a whole class on the Divine Comedy alone! Let alone the other books, some of them quite sizable and intense. I was afraid my sons would not be quite up to it. I’ve over my life read all the material here, excepting only the Russian material (I need flowcharts and name cheat-sheets to keep track of Russian novels and I often talk myself out of attempting one since I read in such small bites.) but that’s over a life of 44 years. LOL
May 12, 2012 at 3:05 pm
4myboys
Participant
I looked at all three courses listed in the original post in the last two days and had to agree with Bookworm on the EIL, the Smarr also looked way to intense with reading lists similar if not longer than EIL. I like the look of Lightning Lit, and we’ve read (and loved) many on the lists already, but I’m a little concerned about how well boys take to reading books like Jane Ayer, etc. I don’t think it’s possible to skip anything on the reading list of any of these. Can anyone comment on which Lightning Lit courses you’ve done with boys and how well your boys engaged with the books?

May 12, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Evergreen
Member
I’m really intrigued by EIL; I’d never heard of it before. Has anyone here used it and enjoyed it? I have one who really wants and needs a challenge and have been considering the Potter’s School English; I’m interested in what else might be out there!
Blessings,
Aimee
May 12, 2012 at 10:35 pm
HiddenJewel
Participant
I really like how Excellence in Literature is set up. It is better if your student has done a literary analysis course before starting. Dd scheduled for a unit included Week 1 Context resources, Week 2 Reading and Author profile; Week 3 Reading; Week 4 Essay.
Another option for high school literature is Epikardia.
http://epikardia.com/
May 13, 2012 at 4:56 pm
deltagal
Member
What should be the guideline for how many books a student should read and analyze in a semester? It seems to vary so much among courses. LLATL Gold only has the student reading 3 novels, plus a unit on poetry and one on short stories, while other courses have a plethora of books. EIL has 9 units of study. SMarr has so many its hard to count including short stores and poets. I don’t want to overwhelm my student, but I do want him to stretch and learn.
May 13, 2012 at 5:08 pm
HiddenJewel
Participant
For me, it has a lot to do with the student. My oldest dd is very strong in language arts so I require her to do a heavier load. Dd#2 is not as strong in lanaguage arts so I require a more moderate load but still one which will stretch her.
May 13, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Bookworm
Participant
I think it really depends on your individual children. Mine love to read, and read very well, but actually like nonfiction better than novels–they have a limited tolerance for novels, especially ones they are *told* they have to read. I can get them to do a number, but I can’t get them to totally throw themselves into a long list. So we compromise–as long as they keep reading, I keep the novels and poetry to a manageable level for them–just at the edge of annoyance, lol. LL seems to be at about the right level, since I can get them to do most of it without much trouble, but when I propose another novel, they are, um, less than best pleased. While they’ll happily devour another political or economics or science nonfiction read. I could have happily managed SOME of the EIL years, I think, but not the World lit year. But I adore novels. Except Russian ones. LOL
May 14, 2012 at 1:21 am
deltagal
Member
Does Lightning Lit. include writing instruction?
May 14, 2012 at 12:55 pm
4myboys
Participant
I’m curious as well if writing instruction is included in LL. I am considering LL for 7th and 8th grade — not sure beyond. What other LA topics would need to be covered? We would be continuing with Spelling Wisdom, but I’ve been looking at Apologia’s Jump In! or Write with the Best for writing (I think they cover different styles in diffrent ways, so I’ll make that choice a little later). I’ve also been looking at Our Mother Tongue for Grammar. Thankfully I’ve got one more year before Jr. High!
May 14, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Evergreen
Member
We really liked the writing instruction in the 8th grade LL we used during my son’s 7th grade year, though it wasn’t as indepth as something like Jump In or WWTB. We skipped a lot of the busywork in LL, but he really enjoyed the background on each author, the instruction, and the writing assignments, and we saw a lot of growth that year.
This year, for 8th grade, we chose to use 1 LL high school course spread through the year, as the pace would have been more intense and not really CM friendly (IMO) using two per year; plus, I have him reading a ton of historical fiction for history and didn’t want to overload him. There are literary lessons, but there’s less writing instruction, and there are lists of writing assignments to choose from. Neither of us were as satisfied with the American Literature course we chose; far less instruction, and according to him, less integration with the books.
May 14, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Bookworm
Participant
The Lightning Lit guides we have used have not really covered writing instruction; we do that separately, for the essay in junior high and later on for research papers. I did not use the 7th or 8th grade LL programs, and won’t with my third son either; we have a formula for middle school that works and we’re sticking with it. We have only used the high school level guides; they have excellent writing suggestions but little real instruction.
May 14, 2012 at 1:47 pm
deltagal
Member
So, here’s the question…I would like a literature program that uses writing instruction. Is there such a thing?