McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LIII · Part 6: Honesty, Crusoe and good-will

57. Robinson Crusoe's House, by Daniel DeFoe

Goal: Your child reads Crusoe's account of building his home and tells how he made a table and chair with no experience.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

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You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • A notebook or lined paper and a pencil

What's in the book

Part of "Robinson Crusoe": shipwrecked alone on an island, Crusoe enlarges his cave, makes a back door, and teaches himself to make boards, a table, a chair and shelves. A note about DeFoe, Definitions and Exercises are included.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    The new words are at the end of the lesson, under Definitions. The small number in front of each word is the paragraph or verse where it is used. Read them together before the lesson. A few of them:

    Habitation, a dwelling place.

    Fortification, a place built for defense against attack.

    Egress, going out.

    Magazine, a store-house.

    Ask your child to find two of these words in the lesson and read the sentence each one is in.

  2. About the author

    The book's note says Daniel DeFoe, the author of "Robinson Crusoe" (from which these selections are adapted), was born in London, England, in 1661, and died in 1731. He wrote a number of books, but "Robinson Crusoe" is the only one that became really famous.

  3. Read it aloud

    Tell your child that Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked and lived alone on an island for many years. Then your child reads the lesson aloud. It begins:

    I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock,

  4. Talk about it

    SayHow did Robinson Crusoe make a house?

    SayOf what did he make a chair and table?

    SayHow did he obtain boards? Why didn't he mind that it took a whole tree for one board?

    SayWhat does this lesson teach us in regard to perseverance?

    Let your child look back at the page to find answers.

  5. Tell it back

    Close the book.

    SayPretend you are Crusoe. Tell me how you built your home and furniture.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies this part of Crusoe's sentence exactly. Then look in the book to see how it ends.

    I had never handled a tool in my life; and yet in time by labor, application, and contrivance,

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: habitation, pale, cables, turf, fortification, egress, regress, stow, prodigious, magazine. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

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