As with all my other discoveries in the past two months, McGuffey’s took me completely by surprise. Since I have been researching curriculum, reading about Charlotte Mason, and spending time at Old Fashioned Education and Ambleside Online, I have come into contact with MANY old schoolbooks via the Internet. I happened upon the McGuffey Readers at GoogleBooks. What a find! In the past, the only actual READERS I have ever used are the Christian Liberty Press Kindergarten Phonics Readers. I actually still own an original set of these, with the black & white line drawn illustrations. My girls used these and we all loved them. They were allowed to color in the pictures when they completed a story. I bought the updated set when D1 was old enough to learn to read, and we love those too.

What I realized is that my girls aren’t real big readers. They read and comprehend just fine, but they don’t enjoy reading all that much. I have begun to suspect it was due to the fact that, outside of that one set of four reading books, they didn’t have anything they read REGULARLY to help them improve. I know, real books are best. Yes, they are. But when you don’t have a plan, sometimes it becomes hit and miss. With D1 and D2, things are different. I have downloaded all six of the McGuffey Readers, and we have been reading every day from them. D1 is in the First Reader (he actually could go into the Second Reader, but instead I’m having him read quickly…. 15 minutes a day rather than one story. He finishes 10 pages a day easily, in 15 minutes.) D2 is in the Primer, and also doing VERY well. He reads two stories a day. At this rate he will finish the Primer in about two more weeks!

I am impressed with the quality of language in these books. I am also impressed with the illustrations. And the good old fashioned Christian family values. I love them SO MUCH that I ordered the set from Amazon! I can’t wait for them to get here. The boys find it novel to read from my laptop, so I hope they still enjoy reading from the actual books, because they will be here to stay.

And why didn’t I ever look at these before? Just another forehead-slap I’ve given myself in recent months.