How to use a McGuffey's, Part 4 # Homeschool Sanity

Illustration from the 5th revised reader

Here are some additional specifics about using the McGuffey's Readers.

The lessons in these readers are raw material--but not crude material such as concrete meant for sidewalks. The elements are comparable to finest gold, to be used in the formation of a precious life’s character! This is how I look at each portion--I try and use it up, not letting even a drop of it fall to the ground!

The suggestions I make here are only that; suggestions. Every child, every parent, every situation is different, and sometimes my ideas are not as creative as yours might be! Or perhaps you don’t have as much time to devote to the subject presented, or one or more may not even appeal to you, for various reasons. Any alterations you make are perfectly fine, encouraged, even.

I will try and explain how I come up with my ideas by using the first lesson of the third reader (revised).

Lesson I

First of all, it is important to read aloud the vocabulary words

provided. “Imprinting” can be practiced here; having the child study the word, then close his eyes until he sees it, then write it from memory. Or, the words can be spelled out loud.

I see that this is a poem. Poetry, especially for those still unsure of themselves, can be difficult. I believe it is important to teach a child how to look at a poem, how it is arranged differently from prose and the different sorts of words that are used. After he/she attempts to read it aloud, I may read it aloud as well--attempting to better convey meaning through correct inflection, etc.

I hope that, with all this, the child will be better able to “retell” what the poem means, but sometimes there may still be some misunderstanding. I attempt to point them to different parts of the poem that will aid them in their understanding.

This particular poem is about a boy who is "pretending" while stuck inside on a rainy day. This may be hard for a young child to grasp at first, so it may take a little pointing out

The Shepherd Boy

1. Little Roy led his sheep down to pasture,

And his cows, by the side of the brook;

But his cows never drank any water,

And his sheep never needed a crook.

2. For the pasture was gay as a garden,

And it glowed with a flowery red;

But the meadows had never a grass blade,

And the brooklet--it slept in its bed:

3. And it lay without sparkle or murmur,

Nor reflected the blue of the skies;

But the music was made by the shepherd,

And the sparkle was all in his eyes.

4. Oh, he sang like a bird in the summer!

And, if sometimes you fancied a bleat,

That, too, was the voice of the shepherd,

And not of the lambs at his feet.

5. And the glossy brown cows were so gentle

That they moved at the touch of his hand

O'er the wonderful, rosy-red meadow,

And they stood at the word of command.

6. So he led all his sheep to the pasture,

And his cows, by the side of the brook;

Though it rained, yet the rain never pattered

O'er the beautiful way that they took.

7. And it was n't in Fairyland either,

But a house in the midst of the town,

Where Roy, as he looked from the window,

Saw the silvery drops trickle down.

8. For his pasture was only a table,

With its cover so flowery fair,

And his brooklet was just a green ribbon,

That his sister had lost from her hair.

9. And his cows were but glossy horse-chestnuts,

That had grown on his grandfather's tree;

And his sheep only snowy-white pebbles,

He had brought from the shore of the sea.

10. And at length when the shepherd was weary,

And had taken his milk and his bread,

And his mother had kissed him and tucked him,

And had bid him "good night" in his bed;

11. Then there entered his big brother Walter,

While the shepherd was soundly asleep,

And he cut up the cows into baskets,

And to jackstones turned all of the sheep.

Emily S . Oakey

The assignments from this lesson are meant take a number of days. First, the vocabulary words could be copied, then checked for neatness and accuracy. For some children, especially young boys, the correct penmanship may need to be modeled by the correct pre-writing of the words--or even using a school-type font (found for free all over the Internet) and printing them out with adequate lined spaces provided for the copying to be done.

Another exercise should be the copying of the poem itself. For some, a stanza or two is all that can be expected, if exactness is required (and it should be). For others, more stanzas, and even the whole poem, should be expected.

The memorization of this poem, for me, is not as important as many others in this book. I have not assigned this as memory work for this reason--leaving room in time and “mind space” for more significant works of poetry. However, it would be helpful, especially for the halting reader, to practice this out loud until fluency is reached and have the child read it aloud before his/her siblings and even his father. The sooner a child gets used to this sort of thing, in front of people who appreciate and love him (no critical remarks allowed--only encouragement), the sooner he will get over his fear of this sort of thing.

As for a Bible extension--this one seems hard at first. But Psalm 50:10 comes to mind:

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”

A notebook page could be created, with a place for a drawing (my children love, love to draw!). I would make sure and explain why this verse is so significant (this is one of my husband’s favorites--God doesn’t need us to give Him things--He already owns it all!).

John 10:14 is another verse

Or even a common copybook could be used--a drawing could be created on a separate piece of paper, cut out, and then added with a bit of glue.

I suppose one could go even farther and have the child recreate the play described by the boy--but I do not find this necessary. Many times I find the children doing these things on their own!

Lesson II

As with the first lesson, the beginning words should be gone over, then they should be copied.

This one is written in prose and is about snow. There are many possible extensions for this lesson, if desired. The study of snowflakes is delightful, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be pursued, other than to mention a few facts you may have gathered along the way yourself.

I would assign paragraph no. 11 as copy work--noting the use of commas and quotation marks in written conversation.

Psalm 147:16 is a good verse for this lesson: