McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XCVII · Part 10: Elephants, the sea and a happy life
103. A Home Scene (D. G. Mitchell)
Goal: Your child describes the evening at home in this piece and explains why the writer says boyhood home "passes away."
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook or lined paper and a pencil
What's in the book
From "Dream Life" by Donald Grant Mitchell. A gentle picture of a New England evening at home: father in his big chair, mother speaking tenderly, the cat, the ticking clock, and the Family Bible with its record of births, marriages and deaths, including little Charlie's. The writer reflects that childhood's home soon passes away. Definitions follow.
The lesson, step by step
About the author
The book says Donald Grant Mitchell was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1822, graduated from Yale in 1841, wrote under the pen name "Ik. Marvel," and is best known for "The Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream Life." He was United States consul at Venice and later settled on a farm near New Haven.
Words and meanings
The words and meanings are printed at the end of the lesson. Read a few together before the reading, so they don't trip your child up:
Wonted, accustomed.
Admonition, counseling against fault or error.
Quaint, odd and antique.
Doting, loving to excess.
Your child reads each meaning aloud, then uses the word in a sentence of their own.
Read aloud
Read the piece aloud slowly, in a quiet voice. It begins:
Little does the boy know, as the tide of years drifts by, floating him out insensibly from the harbor of his home,
Notice this detail about the clock:
the clock that ticked so plainly when Charlie died is ticking on the mantel still.
Talk about it
SayThe writer speaks to "you," the boy. Why might he write that way instead of "he"?
SayWhich details make the room feel warm and safe? Which make it feel sad?
SayWhat does he mean when he says boyhood home "passes away forever"?
Tell it back
Close the book.
SayDescribe the room and the people in it, as if you were painting a picture with words.
Older children can write their narration in a short paragraph instead. Don't correct while they talk; just listen.
Optional writing
Your child writes a short paragraph describing an evening in their own home, with three small details (a sound, a smell, something someone says).