William Holmes McGuffeyMcGuffey's Eclectic Readers: Primer Through The Sixth

To most these would seem outdated and even archaic or maybe reserved only for those ultra-conservative "girls aren't allowed to wear pants" type of homeschooled folks (not hating, you all are great) or something to just sit on the shelf and look cute.However... even given the yesteryear feel of these books, they've been my favorite BY FAR for teaching my children how to read. We've tried all the things and our children do best with these books and LOVE them, they actually ask to read "McGuffey's".One negative reviewer commented on sexism and some other crap. The traditional, conservative, "old-fashioned" moral stories provided in these readers is one of the reasons we love them so much. My children are intelligent enough to understand that these books were written a long time ago and show society as it was at the time they were written and they STILL ask to read them over all the other books at their disposal.These books illustrate an era of balance and normality that is all but lost and has been replaced with mental illness and an increasingly dystopic nightmare. Although we consider ourselves a "secular" homeschool family, our values are very traditional. While I don't find any of the contents to be "sexist", you can expect to be exposed to traditional gender roles, a whole 2 genders (!!), kindness/compassion, good manners, hard work, right and wrong... basically, how to be a decent human being and create a happy, fulfilling life - radical, right?LOVE these books, highly recommended.

Today, I ordered my fifth boxed set of McGuffey's Eclectic Reader. The first set I purchased was for my son, now 24, and the other sets for the children of relatives and friends.From the primer's opening- word captioned pictures of a cat and a rat- to the Poe, Addison, Shakespeare, Parkman, Longfellow, Sappho, St.Paul, Dr.Johnson, and their brethren of Volume 6, this method imparts the love of reading and its tradition to those who follow its well defined path.McGuffey is a graduated comprehensive collection which includes spelling drills, vocabulary, phonetics, and elocution. McGuffey is the unsung road back to the future. Expressed through the stories, fables, and poems, of traditional writing,the magic of McGuffey, is its untarnished embrace of humanity; Words have power, stories express truth, and there is a right and a wrong. One who learns to read from this set of seven books embraces words as filled with delight and history.Of course,one can teach reading in many ways using Doctor Suess, Dick and Jane, or rented Jesuits. And while a miscellany of material and methods may get the job done,and done well, few parents have the time or expertise to sort through the thousands of options the modern printing press provides. If you have the time to develop and individualize a life time curiculum wonderful. If not McGuffey, has done it all for you.Virtue is a habit and convenience faciliates habits. Having one set of books to turn to every day works. In our house, McGuffey became an incantation which still resonates. Some might be concerned about the moral tone of many of the Reader's selections. Fear not, at its core the Reader provides tools for independent thinking not the grist for goose stepping or dogma.If you want great things for your child's future, read one McGuffey lesson a day, out loud and together. When you reach the last page, your child will have a love for reading, and the written and spoken word.

We had owned the 1836 McGuffey's Readers (the brown books, published by Mott Media) for years, but although I knew they were considered classics and had a great deal of excellent material in them, we never read them. The pictures were unattractive and the tone of the readings often was too. It was heavy-handed, and lacking in the joy which I believe should always be present in some way in children's literature. Labored, uninteresting moral lessons are no true reflection of the joy of faith in Christ and not the way to attract anyone, child or adult, to a virtuous life. Only recently I became aware that a later edition existed, with much better illustrations and better-quality reading selections. In addition to the better quality of the literature and aesthetics, these books are slightly smaller than the Mott Media versions, printed on thinner paper, which makes them feel more satisfying to hold, and easier for smaller hands to handle. My third grader finds reading these an enjoyable experience, and he's rather thrilled to find a "school book" (from schools light-years away from those of 2014 America!) which unabashedly talks about love of God, gratitude, service, and the rewards of striving for virtue.Another reviewer mentioned that the set only contained up to the fourth reader, but the complete set does contain seven volumes, from the primer through the sixth reader. It might be worth contacting the seller to verify that if buying used.I'm so glad we found these. Highly recommended!