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So...I've been reading The Hobbit aloud to my 3 year old, with some selective editing (nothing actually gets killed). Every night we read a couple of picture books, then a few pages...as much as a whole chapter...of The Hobbit. When we finished the first time through we started over again the next night. We're back to where Dwalin has just said, "Where's Thorin?"

(The book is permeating the rest of his day as well. He likes saying "Lots or none at all", reciting the dwarves' names, pretending he has a magic ring, breathing like Smaug, etc. He saw a green 'O' the other day and said, "That's like Bilbo's door.")

Anyway, yesterday we cracked open Hobbit Tales and started playing a variant of the game: he picks random cards and puts them down face up, and I have to keep the tale going with the cards he picks. He LOVES it. I think it's great because he's not just absorbing stories but seeing how they can be invented.

I've yet to actually play a game of Hobbit Tales as it's written, but this new use of it is great.

If your 3-years old son can listen to a whole chapter from The Hobbit, he's really smart and/or you're a shakespearian reader!

It's great too hear from other dads how they introduce the Tolkien passion into their sons and daughters.

Eventually, tolkienites will rule the world with an White Iron Hand and a flaming Eye.

Falenthal wrote:If your 3-years old son can listen to a whole chapter from The Hobbit...

What's not to love from a little kid's point of view? Dwarves and dragons and swords and magic rings and secret doors and elves and and and and....

Oh, I wasn't refering to the theme (my daughter also loved the story), but to the book-language. I told her the story myself, summarizing each chapter for each night.
We've read the comic-book adaptation by Chuck Dixon and played many of The Hobbit based boardgames (Hobbit Tales, Enchanted Gold, Knizia's The Hobbit,...). But I still have pending reading the book itself.

As I side note, I'm keeping everything related to LotR out of her knowledge (games, films,...). For some reason, I don't want to spoil anything from it (the Nazgûl, the Ring, throwing the Ring to the fires of Mt. Doom,...). I want her to read the books for herself and to be surprised at every turn of the story and at each new person or location that appears.
She just knows that Bilbo had a nephew, and that they both shared the birthday. But Bilbo's nephew story is another story...

Falenthal wrote: As I side note, I'm keeping everything related to LotR out of her knowledge (games, films,...). For some reason, I don't want to spoil anything from it (the Nazgûl, the Ring, throwing the Ring to the fires of Mt. Doom,...). I want her to read the books for herself and to be surprised at every turn of the story and at each new person or location that appears.
She just knows that Bilbo had a nephew, and that they both shared the birthday. But Bilbo's nephew story is another story...

My hope/plan is that by the time he is ready to read Lord of the Rings he'll have totally absorbed the Hobbit, so that as the various references emerge he'll have all these epiphany moments.

Wonderful stuff. My kids grew up playing different, simple card games (matching cards, Go Fish, etc.) with Lord of the Rings trading cards.

Long ago I used to read the Hobbit to the entire family.

My oldest son had an entire curriculum (home-schooled) based on Tolkien for awhile.

And my oldest daughter has introduced young men to the family by having them come over and play LotR trivia with the rest of us (they tend to be quite intimidated; one bragged of how much he knew, but didn't impress).

Introducing the stories to your kids is a gift that they will always treasure.

Wonderful!
My wife and I are adopting two children (they do not live with us yet, but very soon they will move to our home) and one of the main objective of ours is to introduve Tolkien
The eldest is 4 years old and youngest is 3 years old. . . They love dragons, so I use to show them pictures of dragons (from RPG books and from "Hobbit"), so we can draw together and tell tales. But we are thinking about try some kind of game. . . Very good to hear your experiences.

By the way, does anybody know of any "official" (or very good, anyway) tunes that the various songs can be sung to? He keeps making me go back and re-read/sing the various songs (the Dwarves' song from Unexpected Party is his favorite) and I'm afraid I'm pretty repetitive and dull in my ad hoc tunes.

Glorelendil wrote:By the way, does anybody know of any "official" (or very good, anyway) tunes that the various songs can be sung to? He keeps making me go back and re-read/sing the various songs (the Dwarves' song from Unexpected Party is his favorite) and I'm afraid I'm pretty repetitive and dull in my ad hoc tunes.

The music from the 1977 cartoon is pretty great, we sing The Greatest Adventure as a bedtime song, and my husband has a bunch of the other ones memorized and our kids (3 and 5) love them. (And unlike Frozen, they're in a range us mere mortals can sing easily).

Rue wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:The music from the 1977 cartoon is pretty great, we sing The Greatest Adventure as a bedtime song, and my husband has a bunch of the other ones memorized and our kids (3 and 5) love them. (And unlike Frozen, they're in a range us mere mortals can sing easily).

I also like the musical arrangements for the songs in the Mind's Eye's full-cast audio drama of The Hobbit that was broadcast years ago on NPR.