Course Length: Six weeks
2024 Schedule: Mondays with Ms. Mason at 9 am CST/3 pm UK
About Summer Courses at Dreaming Spires
Our summer classes are great for homeschoolers who are preparing for high school in the US or exams in the UK, a chance to sample a subject before doing a deep dive for the coming year.
All courses will meet an hour weekly for six weeks. There will be the usual reliance on living books and some homework to ensure good participation, and at the end a certificate will be awarded.
About Spotlight on History: Tolkien Legendarium
Join us on an exciting journey through Middle Earth, in which we discover the different cultures, languages, legends and personal experiences from which J.R.R Tolkien drew his ideas for the creation of his imaginary world. We’ll be learning to read and use Anglo-Saxon runes like Gandalf; read original Norse myths to find out how Tolkien named his dwarves; walk with Beowulf into Grendel’s cave to find Smaug’s origins and journey with other heroes of English literature to find many more of Tolkien’s characters.
We’ll look at Tolkien’s maps and discover how he created the geography of Middle Earth and journey from medieval Scandinavia, Iceland and Anglo-Saxon England to the battlefields of the Somme to understand how Tolkien’s world came into being. We’ll also read The Fellowship of the Ring together, alongside extracts from The Hobbit. Come and join the adventure!
Who Teaches Spotlight on History: The World of Tolkien?
Yvonne Mason took her undergraduate degree in English
Language and Literature, then an MA in Medieval Studies from
Royal Holloway in London while working as a costumed historical
interpreter at the Tower of London. She has been working as an
online tutor since 2001 in both English and History and is well
known to the UK Home Education community. Together with her
husband, Yvonne home educated her daughter for ten years, and
now works to support and teach home educated students. Yvonne
is a card carrying member of the Tolkien Society, and a committed
Tolkien nerd, as well as being an avid embroiderer, singer and
movie watcher in her spare time.