Sunday, February 14, 2010

Eclectic Education Series


TOS Crew Review

Product: Eclectic Education Series

Publisher: Dollar Homeschool

Price: $159 for the complete collection on CD

Description from the website:

The Eclectic Education Series (EES) is a set of textbooks which from roughly 1865 to 1915 WAS education in the United States, almost exclusively. They were the standard textbooks in many states and were chosen independently by over 10,000 school boards as their standard textbooks.

The EES covered every topic. Some of the series are still household names almost a hundred years after they ceased being used. These include McGuffey's Readers and Ray's Arithmetics. There were many other extraordinary series in the EES such as Pinneo's Grammars, Thalheimer's Histories and Norton's Sciences that were used by countless students.


My observation:

I have to tell you, I am amazed with this resource. Personally, I own a set of McGuffey Readers, a set of Ray’s Arithmetic, and a set of Harvey’s Grammar. I had no idea there were more books used during the 1800’s. I was thrilled and delighted to view such an incredible amount of classic textbooks on this CD.

There are five files. They include Grammar, History, Science, McGuffey and Ray’s . Each file contains a tremendous amount of valuable documents.

The Grammar File contains 12 books. Here is an example of what you’ll find in In Longs Language 1st Reader (1889):

“These Exercises are based upon these principles… (1). That the child learns by example and practice: not by rules or theory. (2). That the habits of utterance which a child begins to form at the very outset, will cling to him through life.”

Here is Lesson 2 from this textbook:

-Copy these statements.

My name is Charles Jones.
I am eight years of age.
I live on Fourth Street.
I live in the city of Dayton.
I go to the Third District School.
Miss Smith is my teacher.

Here is Lesson 4 from this textbook:

- Copy these sentences. Place a period after each.

The boy is here.
The girl is happy.

The boys are here.
The girls are happy.

We use is when we speak of one.

We use are when we speak of more than one.

In the History File, there are 22 books, including American Poems (1776- 1900), Thalheimer’s History series, Progressive Course in Reading, Good Morals and Gentle Manners, and more.

In the Science File, there are 16 books including Intro to Botany (Published in 1914 and 382 pages), Nature Study (Published in 1910 and 154 pages), and Successful Teaching in Rural Schools (published in 1922, and 304 pages).

This file also contains a fascinating book, Manual of Methods, published in 1885, with 271 pages. It covers teaching Reading, Spelling, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, History, and Physiology. Here is a quote from the beginning of this book:

"This manual is the outgrowth of numerous requests from young and inexperienced teachers of country district schools in nearly every part of the United States for assistance in their work. While it is therefore addressed particularly to this class, it is hoped that it contains many suggestions which will prove useful, also, to teachers generally."


In the McGuffey File, you will find 19 books, including books on Spelling and Speaking. There is even an 1857 High School Reader, though I have to tell you I have always considered the fourth reader to be college level.

[For an efficient way to use the McGuffey readers, see my post on how we use them in our homeschool.]

In the Ray’s File, there are 38 books, including Book Keeping, Logic, Algebra, All the Ray’s Arithmetic books, Norton’s Elements of Physics, White’s Arithmetic and more.

You could easily come up with teaching ideas from these books, or print out whatever you like to use in your homeschool. The publisher even offers a 30-day money back guarantee!

If someone would be willing to publish this entire set of books in hardcover, I would be the first to buy this valuable library.




To find out more about my reviews, please visit "Introduction to our Homeschool Parlor"

*I received this item from this company (for free), for the purpose of sharing my opinion.*

2 comments:

Anita said...

I have a question about how you use the McGuffey readers. You said you had your daughter copy the ENTIRE lesson for copywork. Was this only in the first couple of books. I have my 10 year old in the second reader, my 13 yo in the third and my 17 yo in the fourth. I can't see copying the entire reading. They are long!! I am selecting one paragraph for copy work. Just wanted some clarification on the level of copy work you were doing. Thanks.

Mrs. White said...

Anita, you as the teacher/ mother should do this any way you think is best. My oldest copied the entire lesson, even in the fourth reader. It took her forever. But she did it. She is now almost 22 years old. But this was basically her only work with literature and writing assignments for that day. She took her time, and did it neatly. She did not do this in one sitting, she took breaks.

Some of my younger children have done a section or paragraph depending on what was going on.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Mrs. White