Free McGuffey Reader Worksheets

Did you know that the textbooks which have been used for over a century can still teach children how to read and write? In fact, the gentle repetition given in the McGuffey Readers is having a sort of revolution among homeschooling families.

Original McGuffey Reader (Image Source: Wikipedia)

When we came into the public homeschool program, I fully expected to teach my child reading and writing in the same methods with which I was learning as a child. I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and many of my elementary teachers were nearing retirement and had an “old school” approach. We were taught with spelling lists, sight words, and repetition, while my younger cousins were closer to the modern methods of phonics and phonograms.

Coming into private homeschooling after four years using a modern, common core public school curriculum, I was surprised to learn that not every child being currently homeschooled is learning with “phonograms”, and with “The Science of Reading.”

Revised Ecelctic Reacer, first published in 1900. (Image Source: Amazon)

While I now understand some of the benefits of the phonetic approach, it may surprise you to know that the Revised McGuffey Readers had a similar approach- which began over a century ago. And the textbooks are available online for free since they are in public domain!

From my understanding, the earlier, 19th century, versions rely a lot on rule memorization. The newer, revised editions from the early 20th century have a more modern approach, including the separation of syllables and markings for long, short, and broad sounds when learning new words. Many families seem to prefer the older, original versions because of their moral lessons, stories, and images. We, personally, are planning on using the Revised Editions, which I have bought physical copies of, but may add in some of the original text using the free online versions.

Adding on to our basics learned from the Logic of English program, I plan to implement this tried-and-true approach to our own homeschooling journey for my struggling speller. When I was a child, repetition was the only thing which worked to get my reading speed faster and my spelling at a higher level. Since my child learns like I did, I expect doing this for just fifteen minutes a day will help her gain more confidence with both reading and spelling literacy.

We plan on continuing with another Language Arts curriculum, but the McGuffey will be an add-on for us.

Free PDF McGuffey Reader Worksheets

I have created these worksheets which can be used with the McGuffey readers (or really, any other readers or text). It should work fine with both the original version and the revised editions.

Work on one section of text per week, re-reading the passage once each day, and then do the accompanying practice sheets. Thank goodness we can now print-at-home rather than rely on personal slate chalkboards!