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

58. Robinson Crusoe's Dress, by Daniel DeFoe

Goal: Your child reads Crusoe's description of his goat-skin clothes and draws or describes how he looked.

⏱ About 30 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

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

What's in the book

Crusoe describes his strange outfit: a tall goat-skin cap, jacket and breeches, home-made buskins, a belt with saw and hatchet, pouches and an umbrella of goat-skin. Definitions and Notes follow.

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:

    Buskins, coverings for the feet coming some distance up the leg, and fit for a defense against thorns, etc.

    Thongs, strips of leather.

    Pouches, bags.

    The book also has Notes. One says Yorkshire was the district of England where, in the story, Crusoe was born. Another says it was not the custom in DeFoe's time to wear a full beard.

  2. Read it aloud

    Your child reads it aloud. Crusoe pictures meeting someone at home in England:

    But had any man in England met such a man as I was, it must either have frightened him

  3. Talk about it

    SayWhat was Crusoe's cap like? His jacket?

    SayWhat did he wear instead of stockings and shoes?

    SayWhat hung from his belt?

    SayWhy did he smile when he looked at himself?

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

  4. Draw him

    Your child draws Robinson Crusoe in his full outfit, reading back over the lesson to get every detail right, and labels each part.

  5. Tell it back

    Using the drawing, your child describes Crusoe's outfit from head to foot.

  6. Copywork

    Your child copies this from the book, slowly and neatly, minding every capital letter and mark of punctuation:

    I had a great, high, shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flap hanging down behind,

  7. Words to learn

    Learn: buskins, spatterdashes, barbarous, thongs, frog, pouches, monstrous. Spell each aloud, then write it with its meaning.

Afterwards

If your child enjoyed these two lessons, look for a children's edition of Robinson Crusoe at the library.

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