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Free Books for 1st Grade Reading

Introduction to McGuffey Readers

What is outstanding about the McGuffey Readers? Is there a difference between the 1836 and the 1879 versions? Who is McGuffey? Did you know the Laura Ingalls Wilder of the "Little House in the Prairie" used these books?

These are good questions to ponder when planning the reading curriculum for the early grades. You want your students to have a solid foundation in reading but yet the choices before you are too wide and diverse all claiming some worth.

McGuffey Readers Series are available for free online. You just have to invest on a ream of copy paper to get an amazing reading program in the elementary grades.

When the McGuffey Readers were used in the US, the United States garnered the top spot in the "Countries with the Highest Literacy Rates" in the world. (See who is on the top spot now - read Top 7 Countries with 100% Literacy Rates.)

So who is Mr. McGuffey?

McGuffey (full name is Rev. William Homes McGuffey) is an eminent educator in the 1800s. He was hired by a Cincinnati-based publishing company called Truman and Smith for a series of readers.

McGuffey Readers are characterized by a certain standard: both ethical and moral. The characters found in the McGuffey Readers are industrious, conscientious, charitable and honest. The characters also exhibited Christian values.

The McGuffey books contain reading, spelling, print and cursive handwriting copy work. The topics encompassed the subjects of history, biology, astronomy, zoology, and botany.

Topics also covered table manners, appropriate family behaviors, the right attitudes toward God and teachers, charity towards the poor, and obligations of the youth to society. The importance of religious values and allegiance to country are highlighted. The natural curiosity of children are exemplified. The McGuffey readers taught children to seek an education and continue to learn throughout their lives.

On a hindsight, the McGuffey Readers exhibited a profound influence on the great American leaders in history. It created gifted orators. This was the textbook used by American history players in the turn of the 19th century.

Children learn to read using The McGuffey First Readers phonetically. Letters are identified and sounded out. The McGuffey Readers use word repetition (gradual introduction of new words and then carefully repeating) in the text as a learning tool building strong reading skills not by easy words but challenging phonetic words.

The lessons in the McGuffey Readers are short. Each lesson has its own vocabulary list. From the second McGuffey Reader to the last in the series, the lessons can be excellent choice for Copy work exercise.

The repulsion that I can foresee for most parents in using the McGuffey Readers is that it seems "outdated" and "boring" with the black-and-white text and artwork. However, the 19th century illustrations in the McGuffey readers are superior.

Guide to Using McGuffey Readers

The best way to start these books is to alternate reading a page with your child. Your child attempts the first page while you read the second page and so forth. With a younger child, you can probably start one sentence and the next sentence goes to your child. Then, if the child is becoming confident in his or her reading ability, you allow your child to read the first chapter and you read the second chapter. This gradual approach to independent reading is helpful in the initial stages of the self-teaching approach.

Parents will be tempted to give the modern literature characterized by modern language and plot depicted in shiny, glossy, colorful graphics. Though the modern works are naturally palatable to young children, we want to acclimatize them with older works in literature where the sentence structure and word usage have outstanding literary value.

The McGuffey readers not only have superior 19th century artworks, but also tried and tested for a century. Any parent who embarks on this reading series will have children that have excellent reading comprehension skills and may well be advanced among his peers. It is an amazingly excellent Language Arts program. Unlike modern reading curriculum that separates subtopics in Language arts, the McGuffey Readers is one book containing all what you need.

It is best to have the 1836 version of the reader. However, the 1879 version is not far behind. The difference is the 1879 version removed some excerpts from Scriptures. The 1836 version is available at the Robinson Curriculum CD.

These books can be conveniently read in a wireless, e-reader device for free. Amazon Kindle continues to provide a good deal.

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