In my family, on a girl's 18th birthday, her mum and dad give her what we call a hopechest. My mother has hers, and I have mine. Now what is a hopechest? I'm glad you asked.
It's a wooden chest that a girl uses to hold things for when she gets married. Thus, the hope, part comes into play with the hopes of getting married and having children. Mine has some baby blankets that were mine as a baby, some of my old handmade baby clothes, a handmade quilt that belonged to my grandmother, some beautiful children's books, and now, added to my collection, recreated McGuffy Reader set. YAY!
The McGuffy Reader set is actually, mainly what this post is all about. Lookie lookie!
I've heard that old primers (first level books), and readers are a really good way to start children on reading. And since I plan to homeschool my children if I ever marry, these seemed like the perfect buy. Got the entire set of six books for $20 at a secondhand book store.
I looked at the last book, and frankly, it might be beyond me (and I have a college degree!). So, in order to not only test how good these books are, but also to see if I can expand my own reading and writing skills, as well as seeing if I can raise the bar on my own handwriting (since my mother says my cursive looks like that of a 10 year old).
I think I shall try to post my progress here as much as I can. Since this book is copyrighted in 1909...
the primer, at least, falls under the category of public domain. So, I can post pictures of what's in the book. YAY for old books!
Ok, first thing I did was try to copy their alphabet in print. Here's theirs:
Pretty formal and basic. You'd think I'd just try to make mine have the same shape, but, nope! The artist in me protested that, and wanted to recreate their letters. Good practice, I suppose.
Wooo! Ok, so I know you're all dying to see lessons. You've all missed school, the summer's been long, so here's some school work for you to help ease the pain of summer. You'll thank me for it later, I'm sure.
The artwork in lesson one is truly beautiful, and it seems to go throughout the whole book. For the artwork alone, the book is a good study.
Lessons 1-4 don't seem to have any writing practice so I just read them and moved on. Here are lessons two and three.
Followed by four and five...
Because there was writing at the end of five, I figured it was a good time to try practicing the writing, especially since they have cursive there, which is what I'm wanting to improve. Here is my attempt at their handwriting style, followed by my own handwriting.
It's definitely different. I find that my own style is less rounded and has more closed letters.
This is definitely going to be an interesting ride. I wonder if I can actually stick with it...
