How You Can Teach Your Children Reading with the Revised McGuffey Readers

One room school-house

Someone on the CMOMB (Christian Moms of Many Blessings) message group recently asked me to give some examples of how a typical schedule or routine of someone using the revised McGuffey series could look like, so I thought I would post a few ideas here so that others might gain some insight from them as well.

Here is how we typically go about things:

Each child is assigned a McGuffey's Reader. I have chosen these, not only according to their reading abilities, but their writing, spelling and grammar abilities as well. Some of my children are actually reading a bit better than their McGuffey's level, but are not as confident when they are creating original sentences, etc.

I do not feel strange about starting a child in the middle of a reader, if that is his/her level.

Those that are at the middle of the second  reader level and above are required to read their lessons to themselves. Next, they are required to copy one paragraph from a prose lesson, and each lesson that includes poetry in its entirety (very often these will not include words lists, hence the extra work). They also must write the gist of the lesson in their own words (narration). When all of these tasks are completed, I might ask them to extend their lessons by creating a notebooking page suggested by a subject from their lesson, such as a biography of the author or a page on a bird mentioned in a poem, etc. (when they complete these assignments they are to hand their work to me and I then go over them for neatness, accuracy, interest, and correctness).

 

While these older children are working independently, I take time with the pre-readers. I try and keep their lessons as short and sweet as possible, and we usually sit on a couch together and snuggle a bit. This is precious time that I really enjoy.

I like to use the alphabets printed at the beginning of the Primer and the 1st reader for some general practice, just to get my youngster familiar with all of the symbols and what they are supposed to do for us. I might sing the "ABC Song" while I touch each letter, then hold her finger and help her to touch each letter while we sing together. I might continue this practice off-and-on for many days, or even weeks if the child is very immature.

A sample of my flashcards

I also love to introduce the sounds of each letter using phonics flash cards ( I have created my own set, which can be bought along with my entire guide for a minimal fee, downloaded and printed on card stock). At first I will use the whole deck and rely on the pictures to add clues as to the sound of each letter, but after a time I will cover up the pictures and concentrate on about four of these at a time until they are mastered.  Also during this time I might play "find it" with the different alphabet symbols on the first pages of the Primer.

Also, especially with those who are very new to reading, I will go over at least the first few lessons in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This usually breaks them into the idea of "sounding out." But I have also learned over the years that total reliance on sounding out each and every word is not only cumbersome, but it is also unnatural. Most of us sound out some, anticipate (make a guess based on context) some, and memorize some of the words when we are beginning to read. I allow the use of all these three strategies when I am teaching a beginner.

This is how a typical week might look:

Day one--sing the alphabet song while pointing to the letters. Have the tiny one sing with me as I point.

Day two--repeat the same lesson--keep it short but fun.

Day three--the same, only this time ask if the tiny one would like to sing along.

Day four--this time we are both singing, and I am helping my child point to each word.

Repeat the same for a few more days.

Day ten or so--take out the phonics flash cards and lay them all on the floor in a "train" fashion. Walk along the train and sing the ABC song. Have the child pick up the cards as you sing the name.

Day 11--lay the cards out in a train, only this time call out the name of a letter and have the child pick it up and hand it to you.

Play this game for a few more days.

Day 13--Begin to use the flash cards to practice the sounds. You can use or omit the "ch," "sh" and "th" cards as you wish.

* If you are not well-acquainted with the sounds yourself, try watching this series of videos with your child from Super Simple Songs (there is one instance of a which on a broom, so be prepared to explain). 

Days 13 through 20--continue to use the flash cards each of these days. This may sound too simple, but the simple repetition of this exercise in its consistency will help the child more than drills that take an excessive amount of time and tend to burn you both out.

Of course, throughout this process have your child color with color crayons, paint, sculpt with play dough, cut with scissors, etc. so that she can build the skills necessary to eventually be able to write, which makes reading fun, too.

Here it may be good to insert a few lessons, I would try and go through at least until lesson 10, from the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book.

* A word of caution here; not all children are automatically ready to take the next step. Some, especially boys, are just not capable of processing for reading yet. Don't push if you sense a lot of resistance, or if he/she does not seem to be able to remember sounds and words from one day to the next. The best remedy for this is not "therapy," but time! You can either give the child a break for a few months, or continue with your simple lessons until he/she is more mature (be careful not to leave a bitter taste in your child's mouth through prodding and scolding, or you might be postponing reading for longer than you realize--keep things light and happy and trust God).

If your child is eager and capable, then it is time to continue with the first lesson in the Primer.

First, take time to examine the book together. Discuss how it is bound, how old it is, how nice the pictures are, etc. Show her how the lessons are set up.

 

The first lesson is about a rat, which is a common creature which can be fascinating, distasteful or even scary to some children. Nevertheless, it is an easy word to understand. Take time to go over each of the sound presented. If you have used the "100 Lessons" book mentioned earlier, these sounds should not be foreign at all.

For the first days, I would read the letter sounds and the words while pointing to them in front of the child. At the second or third day, I would have the child read them after me. On about the fourth day, I would expect the child to be able to pick out the different sounds or words as I called them out.

I would also have a chalkboard or whiteboard handy, on which we could practice drawing rats and the child could watch me write the letters and the words as I said them. She should also be given the opportunity to practice these things on the board for herself. This is a method that was highly recommended in the McGuffey's teachers manuals I found on the Dollar Homeschool collection for the EES.

On the fourth day, I would have the child attempt to read the lesson for him/herself, with help, of course.

To keep things fresh, I would then move on to the next lesson, and proceed much in the same fashion as for the first lesson.

As the lessons progress, I would encourage lively discussions about the illustrations. Language arts is about communicating with language, and oral expression is one of the ways we communicate with each other. Instead of asking questions such as, "Do you like this picture," I would ask questions like, "What are the children in this picture doing?" and, "What do you think will happen next?"

Having the child create a notebooking page with their own drawing of the illustration in the book and a few letters underneath may be another way to reinforce what is being learned. 

* When you come to the review lesson V, you may notice some cursive writing at the bottom of the page. This is included because children were taught to write in cursive script from the very beginning. There are those that still swear by it, but we must keep in mind that most of the students of the past did not enter formal schooling until the ages of seven or eight. The find motor control necessary to produce script might be beyond most 5-7 year-old of today. However, it may be of great benefit to your child to teach him/her how to read simple script from the beginning, and if a child wanted to practice copying such writing you could definitely help him/her. 

It is very important to keep in mind that mastery is more important than progress. In other words, if a child is having difficulty with a lesson, it is better to take the time to master that lesson than to move on. Keeping the lessons short and sweet will help you to keep the frustration level down for both of you. Don't fall into the temptation to "drill 'til you drop"--this can prove disastrous! Don't let your pride or frustration get in the way of ministering to your child's heart.

I hope this helps, and I hope that it will give someone a leg-up. I have gleaned these ideas mostly from my own experience teaching 13 of my children to read so far (two more to go!).

If you are interested in finding out more, you can purchase my book, Homeschool Sanity, and/or go to my other blog, Large Family Mothering. 

The McGuffey readers and more can be found on DVD from Dollar Homeschool.