Classic Curriculum Workbooks from Mott Media...?

[Greta]

I'm curious if anyone has experience with these. I'm intrigued with anything that is old/traditional/classic/classical, and my daughter really likes the McGuffey readers. I would love to hear any reviews or impressions, both positive and negative. I wish there was a way to view samples, but I'm not finding it. (If you know of such a thing, please enlighten me.)

 

Oh, and in case anyone is not familiar but is curious what I'm talking about: http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publications.asp?Pub=workbook

[Guest WeAreBlessed]

Hi. I realize your post is from February, and maybe you don't need a response by now. But just in case you are looking at these workbooks now, or in case anyone else is, you may find my comments useful.

 

I have been using the Reading Series 1 books 1 and 2 for my grade one daughter this year. So far, I am unsure if I will continue using them. The beginning of the Reading Series 1 book 1 has many pictures with words associated with them. My dd looked at the pictures to guess the words. So we skipped those pages. The first half of the book presents pre-reading exercises, like hearing and writing the beginning sound and the ending sound. We already did that in kindergarten. So we skipped that also. We decided to start at the middle of the book, where the short vowels are presented. One short vowel is studied at a time, and there are two pages full of words to trace and pronounce. The only flaw I see in this part is that they throw in words that have too many syllables or that have long vowel sounds too. This causes my beginning reader to stumble, and I have to sound it out for her and tell her she will learn those words later. For example, on the short e page, there will be words like egg, elm, and exit, PLUS excited and everyone.

 

The references to the McGuffey Readers don't start until midway through the second book in series 1. I would rather they start right away, but it looks like the writer felt a lot of review on phonics should be offered first. We have only used the first book so far, so I don't yet know how useful the references will be to the McGuffey Readers.

 

I also have Writing Series 1 book 1. I haven't used it because it is very similar to the reading books, with exercises in tracing and sounding out letters and letter combinations. I doubt I'll use the writing book because it would be redundant for my daughter.

 

If anyone else has used the Classic Curriculum Workbooks, I would like to hear their comments. I hope my comments are useful to someone. I have yet to decide if I want to purchase the rest of the Reading Series.

[Guest WeAreBlessed]

Hi. I realize your post is from February, and maybe you don't need a response by now. But just in case you are looking at these workbooks now, or in case anyone else is, you may find my comments useful.

 

I have been using the Reading Series 1 books 1 and 2 for my grade one daughter this year. So far, I am unsure if I will continue using them. The beginning of the Reading Series 1 book 1 has many pictures with words associated with them. My dd looked at the pictures to guess the words. So we skipped those pages. The first half of the book presents pre-reading exercises, like hearing and writing the beginning sound and the ending sound. We already did that in kindergarten. So we skipped that also. We decided to start at the middle of the book, where the short vowels are presented. One short vowel is studied at a time, and there are two pages full of words to trace and pronounce. The only flaw I see in this part is that they throw in words that have too many syllables or that have long vowel sounds too. This causes my beginning reader to stumble, and I have to sound it out for her and tell her she will learn those words later. For example, on the short e page, there will be words like egg, elm, and exit, PLUS excited and everyone.

 

The references to the McGuffey Readers don't start until midway through the second book in series 1. I would rather they start right away, but it looks like the writer felt a lot of review on phonics should be offered first. We have only used the first book so far, so I don't yet know how useful the references will be to the McGuffey Readers.

 

I also have Writing Series 1 book 1. I haven't used it because it is very similar to the reading books, with exercises in tracing and sounding out letters and letter combinations. I doubt I'll use the writing book because it would be redundant for my daughter.

 

If anyone else has used the Classic Curriculum Workbooks, I would like to hear their comments. I hope my comments are useful to someone. I have yet to decide if I want to purchase the rest of the Reading Series.

[Scuff]

We used these for 1st too. Well, half of first. I hated them so much we dumped them half way through and finished with A Beka phonics & BJU math, since that's what we used for K.

 

First of all, these are like R&S in philosophy of a gentle start with little to no K. So if your coming from something that's challenging and pushes kids in K, you're going to be taking a step back. We skipped the entire first book and most of the second because it was silly to practice letters with a boy who could read short words and beginning readers. The Ray's books were the same. Actually, for these I had thought ahead. I knew he was good at math and figured we'd sail through 1st and then move on to second grade. So I had bought the second already. Seeing the 1st, we skipped most of it. The days I tried to make first work were excruciating. Once we started second, it was a bit better. But the lessons start out in order, 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, ect. Day 1 DS figured out that he didn't actually have to do the work. So we dropped it completely.

 

I can't say about the higher grades. Sometimes I wonder if it'd work out now if we'd stuck to it; I've known people with older, smart kids who love it. And I really loved the idea of using "old" stuff. But in practice, I've hated nothing more. lol The days we did it were terrible and half the year we didn't even do school because I couldn't bring myself to use it.

 

ETA, I do still have the McGuffy's and Ray's sets. We read through them everyonce in awhile. They're great reading practice and math review.

 

ETA again, they are "American Classical" (I think that's what they call it) not the same kind of classical as WTM.

[MommyInTraining]

I am planning on using these. I would love to hear any more reviews before I take the plunge....

 

Thanks~

[dmrranch]

I'm reviving this very old thread since I haven't seen very many discussions regarding these workbooks.

 

Our family is involved in living history and I guess that is where I was first exposed to the books...or was it through homeschooling...I really do not remember. I do know I love the Original McGuffey Readers and I have tried to do some research on Mr. McGuffey which led into looking into teaching reading and spelling with this set. I would also like to clarify that I know you do not need a workbook to use this series. As a matter of fact, I would encourage you to purchase the Parent Teacher Guide by Ruth Beechick if you really want to use the series along with Michael Brunner's Phonics Made Plain flashcards.

 

I am looking at the Series IV, Book 1, Reading workbook. It is written to the student with explicit instructions. On page 2, the child is referred to the First Reader, Lesson XXXIII, pages 104 and 105 and the spelling textbook, Eclectic Progressive Spelling Book, Section IX, page 28, words odor through turtle. Basically, they are then instructed to study the words using the See-Say-Write method of study and review. They are then told to study the root word, prefixes, suffixes, etc and to refer to the wall chart that comes with the flashcards. By the end of book 1, the student is in the second reader. (First -second readers are elementary, 3rd is about middle school, and 4th is high school.)

 

Anyway, I thought I would share this in case anyone else comes along looking for information. HTH:001_smile:

[momma2three]

This website offers a ton of 19th century textbooks scanned in. You can get a sense of what's out there, and if there's something you really like, you can print it off.

 

http://digital.library.pitt.edu/n/nietz/