Artist & Author 2008-05-11
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
With all the reviews here, there isn't a need for another one lauding this series of readers. Our experience might prove helpful to some. Our oldest daughter completed reading the McGuffey Primer when she was three years and eight months old. She finished reading the First Eclectic Reader a couple of weeks before she turned four! [From there on she read at will and we didn't keep track of when she finished the rest of the books.]
The point is that this is a wonderful way for a parent to teach their son or daughter to read very early. You don't need to wait for an incompetent school system to teach reading; your bright child can already be reading and understanding what is read when he or she starts 'formal' education. As long as you make it fun, and show proper 'amazement' and pride when he or she sounds out a new word, your child will almost certainly want more lessons than you have time to give!
Finally, I can't say this will happen to your child, but when our daughter graduated from high school, Mensa (the group for people with IQs over 140) contacted her to join. She probably had a genetic marker for genius intelligence, but I am sure that part of the reason for her high IQ is due to the basics and discipline she learned by reading the McGuffey Readers before she started school.