McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XXXIII · Part 4: Lost Lucy, the Town Pump and the bobolink

39. The Discontented Pendulum, by Jane Taylor

Goal: Your child retells the fable of the pendulum that stopped the clock, and states its lesson about doing one day's work at a time.

⏱ About 35 minutes · 6 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook and pencil

What's in the book

A fable in which an old clock suddenly stops one morning because the pendulum, after counting all the ticks ahead of it, refuses to go on. A note about Jane Taylor comes first.

The lesson, step by step

  1. About the author

    The book says Jane Taylor was born in London. With her sister Ann she wrote books for children, among them "Original Poems" and "Hymns for Infant Minds." The book says:

    Her writings are graceful, and often contain a useful moral.

  2. Read aloud

    Take turns, giving the dial, the hands, the weights and the pendulum their own voices. The fable begins with an old clock that, one summer morning,

    suddenly stopped.

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhy did the pendulum stop? What had it been counting?

    SayHow did the dial answer it?

    SayWhat did the pendulum decide in the end?

    SayWhat is the moral for people? When do we feel like the pendulum?

  4. Try it

    Have your child swing a weight on a string, or watch a clock's second hand, for one minute. Count the ticks. Say: Was one tick hard? Is it hard to do one at a time?

  5. Tell it back

    Your child tells the fable as if telling it to a younger child.

  6. Write (optional)

    Write the moral of the fable in one sentence, then a time it applies to your own work.

Tip

The middle and end of this lesson could not be checked for this guide; read it yourself before teaching so you can check the details of the dial's answer.

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