McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book Hardcover – November 11, 1997

We love this inexpensive, effective Spelling Book! I appreciate that the diacritical marks are the same as those used in the McGuffey Readers, and also Webster's Dictionary from the same era.Here's how we use the  McGuffey's Eclectic Readers/Boxed  and McGuffey's Spelling Book for Spelling in our home:K - 1st sem. of 3rd Grade: Words from McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, Primer-3rd. The spelling words end half-way through the 3rd Reader (replaced by vocabulary words).At this point, switch to using the Spelling-Book for weekly spelling words.3rd, 2nd semester: 1 section (not lesson) per week. #1-8. (One section being, for example "Short Sound of O" in Lesson 2, or the top half of the lesson of Lesson 5, etc.)4th: #9-35 (skip 26). Schedule 1/2 lesson per week #9-22. From #23 forward, schedule 1 lesson per week.5th: #36-87 (skip 59, 60, 62, 67, 68, 73, 78, 79, 81, 84, 85, 86)6th: #88-144 (skip 89, 91, 94, 96, 100, 104, 108, 111, 113, 118, 119, 123, 125, 126, 128, 134, 135)7th: # 145-191 (skip 154, 155, 171, 172, 173, 188, 189)8th: #192-end (skip 200, 202, 205, 206, 209, 210)We skip the "homophonous words" and "dictation" exercises in McGuffey's, as we cover those topics with R&S English and  The Dictation Treasury: A Course Of Graded Passages For Prepared Dictation, Spelling & Copywork  in our home. The above schedule is for a 40 week school year.Here's our Method, 3rd (2nd sem.) -8th:Day 1: Copy spelling with diacritical marks.Day 2: Copy spelling words, arranging each column in alphabetical order.Day 3: Look up and define [grade number*] words. Then copy all spelling words. *i.e. *A 3rd grader looks up 3 words, an 8th grader, 8 words. (I don't have them write the full definition, but, of course, you could do as you like.)Day 4: Write all words in sentences. (Younger children could use each word in a sentence, orally.)Day 5: Spelling bee/test.

The McGuffey speller goes from 1st grade through High School. This is the only spelling book you will need for your child.

Great book.

Wierd.

I ordered this book because my son, who is going into third grade, hadn't been taught about "long" and "short" vowel sounds in school and was having trouble in spelling. (they have a new spelling program there that I honestly can't figure out-- it seems very random to me.) I looked through the book and it really helped me organize a way to teach him some spelling rules and techniques over the summer that have helped him a lot. (It is old fashioned, though, and I didn't try to teach straight from the book-- It was more to help me remember how I was taught in the 1970's and 80's! I don't think it had changed much since this book was written, though the way he is being taught now seems to have changed a lot.)

1. Short review: :-P (Amazon rating: 1 out of 5 stars -- I hate it. If I could give it 0 stars, I would.)2. Long review:2.1. What I liked: Nothing.Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park? Should be a walk in the park but it is a mugging in an alley.2.2. What I did not like: The lack of illustrations. The original had illustrations. In place of each is now a barren statement of [Figure].The terrible formatting. The formatting was so bad that it made the book unreadable.2.3. Who I think is the audience: For the original, the audience is esoteric historians and homeschoolers. For this version, only masochists need download it.2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read? No. A thousand times "NO!"2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book? No.2.6. The plot in a nutshell: There is no plot. McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book was used as a grammar school textbook in the 19th century in the US.2.7. Other: I also downloaded and perused the following:McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition;McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader;McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader;McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader;McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader; andMcGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader. One and all suffer from the same faults as the Spelling Book: They lack illustrations and the formatting is so bad as to render the book unusable. In spite of this, I highly recommend McGuffey's books -- just not the Amazon Kindle versions. Instead, go to the Gutenberg Project and download the PDF versions. Do not waste your time downloading another version. Get the PDF versions.

McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book will pretty much take you from elementary grades through high school compacted all in one little book! Adults can learn new words from this book too. I know I have. Several homeschool parents/teacher who have already placed much of the spelling lists on the Spelling City website. We use this words for spelling and vocabulary. It seems to me this older type of education has a a higher level of quality. You will definitely get your money's worth with this spelling book.

I'm really digging this. I love how the lists are arranged by word families. Lots and lots of words. I feel like I will be able to use this well into highschool. Will probably provide some good history lessons as well, as some words are no longer used in everyday conversation.

É um texto sem pontuação, colunas, ou palavras destacadas. É uma sopa de letras. E em se tratando de texto didático que ensina a soletrar é absolutamente inadequado.

No good for me I have dyslexia

Too elecetic & illogical. Little use for teaching. Too difficult to check on a spelling.It just seems like lists of words.

Can't argue with free....

Very good