Customer Reviews

McGuffey Series (McGuffeys Eclectic Readers Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This boxed set has two primers, a spelling book, and levels one through four. It does NOT contain levels five and above.

This old-fashioned reading series will increase your child's vocabulary. This is part of the Robinson curriculum. These books were before the dumbing down trend so the last book is at a high skill level. The program starts simply, gets progressively more difficult. Can be used as copy work as well. "Slate exercises" included! Learn a bit of history at the same time as practicing reading skills. Binding on these small books is fragile. Care is needed in handling them to last through the upbringing of a large family.

Great way to teach your children proper english, and the moral codes of yester years. I use for homeschooling my 4 children(4-10) in addition to there regular text books, and all are above average in reading and writing.

I received these today. The box is sturdy and the bindings and covers of the books also. The paper is a nice weight and the printing is very clear and sharp. I took a bunch of pics and will upload them. They did send me two of one book and not another, so I have to return and get another set. But the quality of the product is very nice. Pictoral Eclectic Primer - no pub date I could find in the book; original publisher was Winthrop B. Smith & Co.; Eclectic Primer - 1836; Eclectic First Reader - 1836; Eclectic Second Reader - 1836; Eclectic Third Reader 1837; Eclectic Fourth Reader - 1837. They did not send me the speller - but I got two copies of the pictoral primer. Hopefully I will get a complete set when I get the replacement. I will update this then.

I learned to read though these books and I highly recommend them. I'm buying a set because I am concerned about the way my daughter is being taught in school to read. These books place more of an emphasis on the letter sounds and the rules of grammar than on knowing the shape of the word. Which is much more helpful when you come across a word you don't know. I am an avid reader, I started reading through these books when I was 4 years old and I credit these books for giving me my love of reading. While they are a little old fashioned looking the content is superb.

We are thrilled with the McGuffey Eclectic ReadersSeries! We first heard of them while watching an interview with Jim Rogers (highly successful international investor & financial commentator) when he was answering a question about what his daughters read. Being that we share similar educational philosophies with Mr. Rogers, we thought we'd get a set and see what they're like. Our children love them! They are simple and basic and effective!!! There isn't any mumbo-jumbo about self-esteem or similar lessons, which can be found elsewhere (in a plethora of children's storybooks). This is old school learning at its best...what our grandparents and great-grandparents used, which certainly did them well. In short, this is a great series! We highly recommend it for those families wanting a basck-to-basics, no nonsense learning tool for their children!

For Reference:
About Jim Rogers:
Jim Rogers, a native of Demopolis, Alabama, is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Barron's, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and most publications dealing with the economy or finance.
After attending Yale and Oxford University, Jim Rogers co-founded the Quantum Fund, a global-investment partnership. During the next 10 years, the portfolio gained 4200%, while the S&P 500 rose less than 50%. Rogers then decided to retire - at age 37.
In 1990-1992, Jim Rogers fulfilled his lifelong dream: motorcycling 100,000 miles across six continents, a feat that landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records. As a private investor, he constantly analyzed the countries through which he traveled for investment ideas. He chronicled his one-of-a-kind journey in Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers. Jim also embarked on a Millennium Adventure. He traveled for 1101 days on his round-the-world, Guinness World Record journey. Passing through 116 countries, he covered more than 245,000 kilometers, which he recounted in his book Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip. His latest book "A Gift to My Children: A Father's Lessons for Life and Investing" was published in 2009.

I like the way this reader is divided by short, easy lessons. New words are added every lesson but old ones are repeated frequently for a built-in review. The grammar is a bit old fashioned but that's not a problem if you want to expose your child to quality written words. I have noticed my daughter using spoken language similar to what is written in the book.

Great set of books to "get back to the basics". Lessons are laid out for you; easy to follow; great basic set to have in your library.

These books contain many short stories and other readings full of morals and Christian instruction for children. We use them in homeschooling.

I have a boxed set of the Mott Media version and the Wiley and Sons version. The Mott reprint is from th 1830's and it has really rough graphics compared to the version from the 1870's or so. The content in more doomsday as well. Still in the 19th century style, the Wiley reprint is not dreary and dark, not only in print, but in content.
I showed the two sets to my K son and he said the Wiley was "grandpa's" (indeed his GF and GM used it in school!). Shown the Mott Media, he said "great-great-GREAT Grandpa" and turned back to the Wiley reprint.