Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: McGuffey's

This topic has 13 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 5 months ago by johnnyyvette.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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January 5, 2013 at 1:25 am
ServingwithJoy
Participant
I have noticed that many of you use McGuffey readers for daily practice after your kids have progressed beyond phonics lessons. But SCM recommends the Pathways readers…
I am just wondering what the difference is? What do you specifically like about each of them? Or what have you had trouble with? Do they both qualify as ‘living’ books – considering the reading level they are aiming for?
Thanks!
January 5, 2013 at 1:41 am
Rachel White
Participant
I wouldn’t consider Pathway’s living books exactly, but not as bad as Dick and Jane, either. They are wholesome, however. Pathways aren’t as good as McGuffey’s in quality of language and literary writings within the books themselves for the children to become familiar with. Also, there’s the teaching of patriotism that McGuffey’s help to develop in additon to character development.
What I consider living books, other than Mcguffey’s for that age group, is the Elson Readers. Definitely living book reading.
Mine used all three series; but Elson and McGuffey’s held their interest for the longest over the years, but Pathways was a good contribution to wholesome, albeit simplistic, reading.
January 5, 2013 at 2:49 am
TailorMade
Participant
I cannot compare the two as we’ve only used McGuffey’s. But, I will tell you this much. My almost 21 year old son told his great grandmother that his children will learn to read with McGuffey’s because they are such special memory to him. Our youngest just started McGuffey’s this year and looks forward to reading, copywork, and learning punctuation, etc. every time we study a lesson.
I’d think that Pathway readers are suggested because that’s what was used and worked for the families that contributed the resource to the Bookfinder.
Becca<><
January 5, 2013 at 3:39 am
HollyS
Participant
We started using the McGuffey readers because they were free (at gutenberg.org). DH was in school at the time and I didn’t have money for an expensive phonics program. After seeing how well they worked for her, I kept using them with my younger DC (and picked up a set of printed books).
We have a couple of the Pathway readers and I will probably use them with DD5 as well, but I love that the McGuffey readers go through high school level. The material in the upper levels is really good! It isn’t just a reader, but a collection of great literature! There are many well known writers included. I can also have them use it for copywork, dictation, grammar, or memory work.
I’ve heard good things about the Pathway readers as well, so I don’t think you’d go wrong with either one!
January 5, 2013 at 2:33 pm
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Thank you ladies! You have definitely made me consider McGuffeys….
One concern I have with the beginning readers is all the phonetic symbols I see. If you don’t use those particular phonetic symbols to teach phonics to your kids is it a stumbling block to using McGuffeys? Or is it something that is easily passed over?
Also, do any of you find the fact that it was written so long ago (and about the realities of life so long ago) a bit daunting? For example, the sample I read was about a typical evening at home…Mother mending by the lamp and father by the fire, etc…
It’s not that I am not nostalgic for days gone by, but I am just wondering if I would spend more time explaining the daily life of 100 years ago to my 6yo than concentrating on the reading lesson :)? He easily gets off on a ‘tangent’…
Thank you!
January 5, 2013 at 5:13 pm
HollyS
Participant
I’m not sure if this is “okay”, but we just skip over the symbols. I’ve never used the symbols at all, and my older two are reading just fine. I point out new words in the passage itself (where there are no symbols) before reading or just wait and let her sound out new words on her own, correcting her as needed. Usually I only point out a new word if it isn’t easily read phonetically.
We have discussed how old the books are and I sometimes explain things further as they come up. It doesn’t take more than a minute and they’ve gotten a bit of history as well! We’ve read quite a few Little House books, so they have a pretty good grasp of those days and usually don’t have questions…I think I bring things up more than them.
We actually just read the passage about the mending and reading last fall. We had a fun time compairing it to our evening!
January 5, 2013 at 5:21 pm
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Thanks HollyS!
January 5, 2013 at 5:51 pm
my3boys
Participant
Where have you all purchased McGuffey’s at a reasonble price? I think I have them on my Kindle but not sure.
Thanks!
January 5, 2013 at 6:00 pm
my3boys
Participant
Ok, it looks like I have 3 of the readers on my Kindle (and my iphone, can’t wait to get an ipad, hopefully this month, cause they look great on my phone!!) but I’m assuming there are more than 3 if they go through highschool, lol.
We are using Pathway’s right now, which are great, but I know my little guy would like these as well. And my middle would love them, too.
January 5, 2013 at 9:22 pm
ibkim2
Participant
My3boys, I just got an ipad this week. Last night I downloaded the files of several McGuffey readers into my iBooks app from the Gutenburg site. There are more than 3, if you search McGuffey on the book search they will all show up, maybe it is 6 readers. I wasn’t planning to use them, but after reading this thread I’ve decided to try them after we finish the Reading Made Easy with Blend Phonics program. I think having dc read off the ipad screen will be easier than on the smaller kindle.
January 6, 2013 at 12:42 am
ibkim2
Participant
FYI…..just noticed from the Gutenburg site that the PDF download vs. the ePub is the one with illustrations and with the words set up better on each page.
January 6, 2013 at 3:50 am
Mysterious Lady in Pink
Participant
tbkim2 — are you saying that the PDF or the ePub is the better edition, visually?
On the topc as a whole, I admit that even though I own a lovely set of McGuffey’s and use them with my littlest guy learning to read, I never used the higher levels because it seemed like it was a lot of excerpts and I kept feeling like I wanted my older kids to connect with entire works rather than an excerpt (although I did like the elocution focus points). No disrespect to anyone who loves them 🙂 and maybe I will end up using the higher levels with some of my younger crew. But just thought I’d share an alternate opinion on it.
We also did use Pathway readers through More Days Gone By or the level after that, but that was it. It is hard to find reasonably interesting stories for those young readers, expecially stories that are completely new to their eyes, so I really appreciate Pathway for that. Once they are more fluent, there always seems to be plenty of regular literature to keep them busy.
January 6, 2013 at 3:36 pm
ibkim2
Participant
The PDF shows the illustrations. The ePub had in brackets the description of the illustrations w/o the actual picture.
January 6, 2013 at 8:26 pm
johnnyyvette
Participant
I agree that the children will move into literature, but I think it’s always good to have a book (whether a reader, literature, or poetry) for them to practice reading aloud from so that they don’t lose pronunciation, enunciation, and elocution.