I'm using a Windows International keyboard, and right alt z = æ, right alt t =þ and right alt d = ð. I'm using the Icelandic keyboard for my android phone.
I hear there is an easy way on mac too. I wonder about Linux...
I'm starting Chapter 2 also. Everything isn't sticking at all yet, so I have been making anki cards. I wish I had all of the new reading passages from the new book, but I want to do cards fast. The deck is a mess, with repetition and messy parts, but it may help me...
I also do stupid stuff with anki cards, to make drilling the deck more fun. Right now I'm using a couple of fonts from the Lord of the Rings movies for the cards, and I'm using some pictures of Anglo Saxon artifacts to identify what type of card I am working with. A sort of a waste of time for learning, but sort of fun.
With a language like Old English, for someone that knows nothing of any other Germanic language, it is important for me to recognize cognates. I've found it useful to look at the sound changes in the Great Vowel Shift.
It's interesting that the speakers on the recordings don't trill R's, at least to my ears. Many people seem to think that they were all trilled. I've listened a lot to Michael Drout at
http://mdrout.webspace.wheatoncollege.edu/
, who trills everything.
I love it that there is variation and mystery to the whole thing. Every morning, before dawn, I go out and walk (and freeze) for a couple of miles. Lately, I have been listening to different history books about the Anglo-Saxon period. It's interesting how much of the details have been lost, even if the main points are obvioius.
Anyway, I'm chuggin along...