During my 27 years of homeschooling, nothing has contributed more to our stability and success than the McGuffey Readers.
I am a great promoter of delight-directed learning and I believe it is the only way to allow the God-given genius in each child flourish and take flight. I try and make certain my children have ample time and opportunities to develop the passions which have been placed within there hearts.
However, there has to be a balance. Children need to have tools in their hands in order to read and find information. They also need to be able to communicate what they are learning in order to apply it and share it for the benefit of others.
The McGuffey’s make this process all so easy. They are graduated and systematic. They are interesting and engaging. They are excellent and challenging.
They are especially helpful for struggling readers and work wonderfully with an intense phonics training program.
As a learner progresses, the complexity of sentence structure, excellent vocabulary, and exceptional subject matter make these readers the perfect tool for preparation for college and life-long learning.
There are so many ways these can be used, since they are open-ended and adaptable to almost any learning style or situation.
Personally, I have had great success using these readers with the approaches suggested by Charlotte Mason:
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Copywork
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Narration
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Dictation
One of the cheapest ways I found to do this has been to grab a 50 cent composition book for each child. For beginning readers, I have plotted out specific places for each category, using a highlighter to help them with penmanship. For the middle-range readers, I have numbered and made spaces for each requirement. Older children who are learning mostly on their own have been given a list of requirements that they have been responsible for completing on their own.
While this method has been affordable and effective, it has also been time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially considering all of the other demands on my time.
This is why it occurred to me to create a series of notebooking pages which would streamline the process and make prep time shorter. Of course, after I had gone to all the trouble creating everything for my own family, I just knew I had to share it with others.
So, here are the pages I created so you can use them for your own children! I am including pages for each stage in the McGuffey learning process. There are areas on these pages for copywork, narration, and dictation.
In keeping with Mason’s ideas that younger learners should not be frustrated with written narration, I have included spaces for drawings instead. A learner can either draw directly on the page in the space provided, or can draw on a separate index card (either standard or large) and glue it in the proper place.
These are not meant to be workbook pages where there is only one “correct” answer and the learner becomes a slave to “fill in the blanks.” While children need structure, they also need to have the room to express the ideas and skills they are gathering as they see fit.
This encourages individual expression and creative thinking. It also helps keep children engaged and enthused as they make each lesson their own.
Don’t use McGuffey’s?
These pages could easily work with almost any reader, or with any novel, short story, or poetry selection, for that matter.
Keeping Track
I actually currently have five children using the McGuffey’s, all at different levels. This means I needed to have some system in place so in order to minimize confusion and streamline my preparation process.
First of all, I printed and copied multiple pages for each level and placed them behind dividers in a two-inch, three-ring binder.
Then I put these sheets together in lessons and placed them in the individual binders which I keep for each child. In this way I don’t have to try and search and assemble pages every time.
Here is a video that explains this further:
It is my prayer you will find these a great blessing!
Please note:
I created these pages with ink conservation in mind. That is why the colors are primarily pink and blue, since the yellow color is the one that is used the most and runs out first. I have also included pages in grayscale to make it easier to print them out using only black ink, which is usually the larger cartridge in a typical printer.
One could conceivably print out a set of sheets and then take them to an office store and have them copied to make it easier on the budget.
Click here for your free download.
If you’re crunched for time, you can always order the pre-printed version in book form from Amazon. Click the graphic below for more information:
Fantastic!! These will save so much time! And they look wonderful-I am just thrilled! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for us all -you’re the best (along with our beloved McGuffeys) I love posts on these since we love them over here, it’s fun to get new ideas without wasting my time online. You are a one stop shop for me 🙂
How sweet–I’m so glad you were blessed!
Just so you know, my 11 year old particularly loves these! She really enjoys doing them. She really loved Faith’s “doodles” on your examples and examined them to death! She was really really wishing you had more “Faith drawings” on there! She was dying to see more ☺ She’s a talented little thing 🙂
Faith will really, really be blessed to hear that! She and the other girls draw for hours each day. Thank you for taking the time to share that with us.
We use Mcguffeys in our homeschool, and we enjoy them. Thank you for these worksheets, I can not wait to get them printed! Your website is such a blessing 🙂
I’m so happy you will be able to use them! Let me know how things go, if you have the time, of course 🙂
Love love love these. Thank you so much. I am very grateful! I echo the comments – love when you blog about McGuffey’s. Keep up the great work!
So glad I could bless you, Gigi, you are a great encouragement to me!
These are awesome. Thanks so much for sharing them. I’ve had my dd using the sheets the last two days along with her Mc Guffey reading. The next thing is to introduce my son to them too – he will enjoy the big drawing space. Thanks again.
I love it! Thanks for sharing how you are using them, it really means a lot when someone takes the time to comment :).
Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing these with other moms for free. I recently purchased the McGuffey’s Readers, but have been struggling with exactly how to use them to their fullest with my children. Your videos have been very helpful for me to watch, and I believe these worksheets will also be of great help to us. Thank you again! What a blessing you are.
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a sweet comment! Helping other moms like myself is what keeps me going on this blog.
These are so amazing! Thank you so much for sharing them!!!
Thanks for sharing these, they are great! I’m going to share the link to these with all my home school friends.
By the way, the chiring in the background made me think our smoke detector needed new batteries. But my family thought I was crazy when I asked if they heard it, because they weren’t hearing our detector chirp.
Funny! We have tried everything to fix those things–replaced the batteries a million times, etc. We don’t even notice it any more, so I didn’t even notice it in the video 🙂
I can not get these to open up.. Is there some way I can get them emailed to me??
I really love these.. Thank you so much for sharing these
I am sorry you are having trouble! I will look into it when I get on my pc perhaps tomorrow.
Hi Sherry,
Thank you so much for the pintables! I have been using the McGuffey readers with my 6 kids since reading about them on your blog a few years back. This is going to be such a blessing for our family . Could you please expand on how you spread the work out? You do homeschooling for four days a week with one lesson from the McGuffey readers per week. So do they read the story out loud to you on all four days? Copy work is on days 1,2,3 and dictation on day 4? What about the narration? What day do they do it on? Is it each day? If so, wouldn’t they just write the same narration each day since they are reading the same story?
It would be so helpful if you could answer my questions. Thank you in advance,
Tatyana
I’d love to answer your questions, Tatyana! I like to have the child read aloud to me on the first day. We begin by reading through any words lists included in the lesson. This is when I explain how words work, talk about syllables (we call them “claps”), compound words, long and short vowels, contractions, etc. Then the child reads the actual lesson aloud. The child then copies the words on the sheet (or in a composition book). The next day I assign a section of the lesson for copywork, usually a paragraph for an older child or a simple sentence for a younger child. The other things I assign are narrative drawings and/or writings and dictation. It is up to you how this will work best. Sometimes I assign other types of reading on the other days to supplement their McGuffey work, such as the Reading-Literature readers by Treadwell and Free (you can find them for free online).
I hope this helps give you a clearer picture–thanks for the great comment.
One more thing. Do you have a spelling test for the “words” at the end of the week?
That’s a great question, Tatyana. I have actually never, ever used spelling tests, not in the entire 28 years I have been homeschooling. The simple repetition of reading, copying, and writing, with some basic phonemic coaching, has been enough. The McGuffey readers have been my greatest tool in accomplishing this.
Thank you so much! I have currently have 4 kids in McGuffy’s readers and I’m looking forward to incorporating these as well
You are very welcome! It makes me so happy when someone is blessed here.
Thank you so much for sharing. These are wonderful helps.
You are so very welcome, thank you for leaving such a sweet compliment 🙂
I can’t thank you enough! I believe the Lord led me to your blog! You have greatly blessed me. I am just learning about the Charlotte Mason method of teaching and just bought the McGuffey readers. I have no idea what I’m doing and really needed something/someone to hold my hand along the way as I start this journey. I can see your blog will be a great help to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to share what you know and for making it free.
May the Lord bless you!
In Christ,
Diane
You are so welcome, Diane. Helping other moms is such a “delight” to me 🙂 I am more than happy to field any other questions you might have as well.
You’ve made me a McGuffy convert! I took a break from using an effective but involved phonics program last spring for our beginning reader and was hoping to find something simpler. Looking forward to using these with our two boys. I think they’ll enjoy the chance to draw! Thanks so much for sharing.
I’m so glad you have found these helpful. My whole idea was to make things simpler for everyone!
I am using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We are just passed halfway done. Last night I started looking through my McGuffey Readers disc from Dollar Homeschool to figure out which one I should print off for my daughter. While looking at the Primer she started reading it off the computer screen. She begged me to print it so I did. Once it was printed and bound she read through the first 7 lessons. I’ll let her read the rest of the Primer at her own pace. When she’s ready for the First Reader I plan to use your lesson sheets. Thank you for providing these. I wasn’t sure how to use the Readers, but now I do and am confident in this approach.
Thanks for letting me know, Crystal! That was my goal; to help others feel confident using the McGuffey readers. I was lost when I first picked one up in the late ’80s, so I tossed it to my children and it ended up at the bottom of the toys’ box with color crayon scribbles all over it (can you imagine?). Now I own three sets of these books and they are counted with our best homeschool treasures.
This is such a blessing! Thank you!
You are so welcome! I hope to have more resources available soon.
Thank you so much for posting this! I believe that God places things in our path at the right time for the right reason. I had my 6th baby in March and it’s been quite a crazy year! We have homeschooled since the beginning with my oldest, who is now 13, and all children since. Recently I have felt overwhelmed trying to homeschool so many different ages at the same time with little ones underfoot as well. My oldest used the McGuffey Readers when she was learning and I went through them with my other two readers as well. Somehow I never stumbled into your blog! I am so excited to read and watch more of what you have put together. You are a blessing!
Aww, that makes me so happy! I do remember many years such as you are describing and starting blogging to be the help and encouragement I so greatly desired for myself 🙂 Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to leave me such a sweet note.
Copywork and dictation should be through all of their schooling. I still do copywork as an adult by copying scripture into a journal. If you want the copywork and dictation pages either print pages 27-30 or 44-47. I believe those are the correct page numbers.
Thank you–that is what I meant 🙂
Thank you so much for these pages and the Gentle Grammar downloads. It was a pretty random path that led me here but now I see what I need for my kiddos. Your work is wonderful. I want to express my appreciation for your generosity in offering these downloads free of charge. You are a blessing!
You are so welcome! It gives me great pleasure to help moms homeschool their children with good materials that make the operation affordable. Thank you for taking the time to leave me such a sweet comment.
I am anxious to create a hybrid Charlotte Mason course for children who live in orphanages in Third World Countries, especially for those in Africa. These children have suffered greatly, and need a kinder approach to learning, and this is perfect.
Do you have any suggestions that would be appropriate.
Sure! Check your email.
My children and I have loved these copywork sheets. We are getting ready to transition from level 2 to level 3. I have noticed though that the sheets only include word lists and not copywork or dictation. Is this intentional? Should they still be doing copywork and dictation just in a notebook? I really liked that level 2 had all of them in one place. I also see level 4 brings them back.
If they are left out, this is not intentional. I’ll have to check that out…
I believe my intention was to use the same dictation/copywork pages for both the third and fourth levels, hope that helps!
How do I know what level I need for each child? I’m fairly new at homeschooling.
I think you will be blessed by my YouTube videos where I give more information in detail on using the lesson sheets, McGuffey readers, etc. The channel is Mom Delights.