When my daughters was six years old, she was afraid to watch movies. Any movie. All movies. They were all “too scary.” And while this flabbergasted a whole lot of people (including me, on certain days) it also made me realize how much kids’ media is actually very scary. As an adult, if I want to watch a movie, I can choose from a lot of options! I can watch a drama where the story arch is all about feelings, or a comedy, or a romantic movie, or, perhaps, an action movie. But with very few exceptions, kids’ movies are all action and adventure, and often the big conflict that drives the story is the risk of death. We take it for granted that kids won’t take it too seriously, but of course for a child who takes everything literally, even worrying about a cartoon character dying can be too much.
This was part of what was going on in my head when I created our homeschool block around The Hobbit! I wanted to invite her into the world of adventure, in a way that was gentle and not too overwhelming. For that, The Hobbit was perfect. For one thing, because I was reading it aloud to her we could always easily take a break, and it wasn’t visually overwhelming, and we could remind ourselves that it was a pretend story. For another thing, the main character was actually terrified. So much of the story was about Bilbo not feelin brave at all, but sort of stumbling through and then finding in the end that he had done the brave thing afterall, somehow. My kid deeply identified with this mixture of bravery and cowardice, and its a book that I really highly recommend to help kids get in touch with that part of themselves.
You can buy our block, A Journey Through the Hobbit, here!
But as you may know, The Hobbit has a pretty famous sequel. And since we finished that book, my daughter has been asking “When are we reading The Lord of the Rings?”
I put it off. For one thing, it’s a more serious, and more violent book, and I didn’t think age six was quite the time for it. But this year I decided to pick it up and give it a go. We have been very slowly (seriously, some of these chapters are freakishly long) been makin our way through The Fellowship of the Ring. Here are just a few things I have learned and realized from the experience.
Fantasy novels are mostly about hiking, actually.
This isn’t technically a totally new realization, I have vague memories of noticing before that “gosh all these books sure include a helluva lot of walking, eh?” But it takes on new significance reading it with a child! And while I may have found it exceedingly boring on my first read through (I mean, they are just walking!) I suppose it’s a little different for homeschooled kids who have most of their formative memories during covid times. Afterall, “let’s go for a hike” has been a major part of how she’s been able to socialize these last three and a half years.
Eight year olds freakin love “scary stories.”
Bring on the black riders and fear of death and destruction! Two years ago she may have shaken during the troll scene in The Hobbit, but kids grow and change and they do it fast.
It’s true that kids can handle “great literature,” but it’s also true that they can get bored.
We will get into this more when I finally publish all my research into Charlotte Mason, but there is this idea that reading “kids books” to kids isn’t necessary, and we should stop short changing them and give them the “good stuff” and they’ll figure it out. I happen to like a lot of things old Charlotte would definitely classify as twaddle, but I have been pleasantly surprised with how much joy my kid has taken in more serious and grown up books as well.
That said, don’t expect them to love the rouhly one million pages that are just Frodo and Gandolf talking, anymore than they love listening to their own grown ups talk endlessly.
Tom Bombadill is creepy, don’t @ me.
“Oh this old weird dude is shacked up with this hot very young seeming possible river spirit. He keeps her here by giving her flowers ha ha.”
It’s even worse when you try to explain it to your daughter, trust me.
Ok, you got me, it actually is lowky nice to just read a book to my kid.
After years of seeing nearly everything we do together as a possible educational opportunity, and even maybe as a part of “school” itself, it’s kind of relaxing to just read a novel, you know? There is a particular joy in sharin a book with your kid just because you like the book and not having to you know, come up with writin assignments or whatever.
Lol but I still totally want to build a main lesson block around it.
You better believe I have half written it in my own head. You can take the papa out of the homeschool but you know, he won’t stop thinking of cool educational activities every five minutes.
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I remember being bored when I was 14 reading Fellowship of the Ring for that reason. And I love hiking and at the time, loved Redwall. But I dunno - maybe it was just bad timing. As for classics, I just finished Watership Down with my 10 year old and it was perfect timing. Scary but he could handle it, real risk and stakes, gorgeous descriptions, great characters. Lacking on the female characters, but that’s the major plot point and once they do introduce them, they have personality. I was really happy that it was as good as I remembered.