The Original 1836 McGuffey readers~ and how we are using them

I am so excited! Our first week using The Original McGuffey 1836-1837 readers was a success!!!

I spent the weekend reading my Charlotte Mason Companion book by Karen Andreola to review teaching language arts the Charlotte Mason way. I then reviewed the posts and websites I collected on how others use the McGuffey readers. Next, I read through and looked at the lesson plans in The Original McGuffey's Reader Parent-Teacher guide from Mott Media written by Ruth Beechick, Ed.D. Finally, I wrote a weeks schedule.This is how I decided to use these wonderful readers. It may of course change.

I placed tabs at the top of the teachers guide so as I work with my children I can get to the book they are working in. Below is a picture of one of the books lesson suggestions so you can see an example. I do the lesson suggestions on Monday if they will work for the student. Extra projects like writing stories or researching a topic we may skip depending on the suggestions but anything that has to do with language arts we complete.

 After I spent the weekend researching & reading I came up with this as a weekly schedule for the kids to follow week after week. Since our homeschool coop start tomorrow our school week at home is cut down to 4 days a week. So I removed one day to adjust to the 4 day school week but when we are not doing the coop we will do all 5 days.
   I am amazed at the fruit for one week using these readers!!!! They were ok with the copywork, vocabulary words, answering questions, and even the dictation but when it came to the written narration they gave me a fight. To my surprise after we fought through it they actually enjoyed it!!! After we completed our dictation today everyone of them told me how the enjoyed do language arts this way. I have already seen fruit so I can't wait to compare thier work to the end of the year.
  Dictation is the joy for the teacher because that is their test without questions. I go over their mistakes with them and we end with encouragement practice makes perfect and next week we will try more so there are no grades but instead looking at the ways to improve themselves doing it all for Christ.Again, I look forward to comparing the dictation from the beginning of the year until the end.I will be able to see how their spelling & grammar has improved.
     The narration will show me how their writing skills and  the  use of vocabulary has improved over the school year. When my daughter was struggling with not wanting to narrate I explained to her this is how Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write.He read top quality literature..did written narration...compared ...and repeated until he had all the vocabulary, style, spelling, etc.  When she was done she could see the fruit which now gives her a purpose not just something mom wants her to do.

 Another important part of the McGuffey readers is reading out loud and saying the words properly. Here is a picture of Angel reading to me. After a weak of studying a lesson or story it imprints on you which is something that is very different than any other type of literature program I have used. The best part is not only quality literature imprinting on you but Christ centered character building stories.
   Here are some samples of this week. I love not having to print anything out for the next week. We simply open and go to the next lesson following the same routine. All they need is paper and a pencil :)

 I do not check the grammar, spelling, etc. for the narration this is just for me to see what they remember, vocabulary they use, writing style, etc. I do check the copywork & dictation. You don't need a teachers answer key all you need to do its compare it to the original. My highschool kids check their own while I check my younger students with them because this gives me a chance to teach them punctuation etc. I also write down words they have trouble spelling choosing the most common used words.If they have those down then we work on the higher spelling words. There is also a spelling book that comes with the Mott Media McGuffey set if you purchase it as a book set to assist you.

I just love this set of readers!!! I am still researching McGuffey himself & the other edition of  readers so I will be posting about them to compare and share.