McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson II · Part 2: The good reader and the gentle hand
8. The Bluebell
Goal: Your child follows the little parable of the white flower that became blue, and states its lesson in their own words.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook and pencil
What's in the book
A short poem, with no author named, about a little white flower in a dim ravine that looks up at a strip of blue sky until it turns blue itself, ending with a lesson for a patient child. Definitions follow.
The lesson, step by step
Words and meanings
Read a few definitions from the end of the lesson:
Rift, a narrow opening, a cleft.
Swayed, swung.
Chalice, a cup or bowl.
Bonny, beautiful.
SayWhere would you see a rift of sky?
Read aloud
Read the poem to your child first, slowly, with a slight pause at the end of each line. Then your child reads it.
With one blue rift of sky between;
Swayed in the silence to and fro.
Day after day, with longing eye,
Talk about it
SayWhere did the little flower grow, and what could it see?
SayWhat happened to the flower after watching the sky so long?
SayThe poem ends with a patient child. What is the lesson?
SayWhy do you think the poet called it a little white flower at first?
Tell it back
Your child tells the story of the flower in plain prose, then says the lesson in one sentence.
Memorize
Learn the closing stanza, the one about the patient child, which begins:
The patient child whose watchful eye
Say it a few lines at a time, then all together. Copy it neatly once.
Write (optional)
Write two or three sentences: What do you look at often, and how might it change you?
Afterwards
Say the memorized stanza each day this week.