McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXVIII · Part 8: Truth, wisdom and work
82. Living on a Farm
Goal: Your child reads a short poem of memories and describes farm life as the poem shows it.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook or lined paper and a pencil
What's in the book
A short poem in which a grown man remembers his happy childhood on a farm: his busy father and cheerful mother, the church bell, harvest, and the husking-bee in autumn. No author is named.
The lesson, step by step
Read it aloud
Read the poem aloud to your child first, then let your child read it. It begins:
How brightly through the mist of years,
My quiet country home appears!
Then have your child read it a second time, more smoothly: the first reading is for the meaning, the second for the sound and rhythm.
Talk about it
SayWho does the poet remember from his childhood home?
SayWhat happened at harvest time? What is a husking-bee?
SayEven after learning the ways of the world, what does the poet still love best?
SayHow is this poem like "The Old Oaken Bucket" (Lesson LXXII)?
Let your child look back at the page to find answers.
Tell it back
Your child describes, in prose, a year on the farm the poem remembers, season by season.
Copywork
Your child copies the opening lines as verse, then copies one more verse from the book.
How brightly through the mist of years,
My quiet country home appears!
Words to learn
No Definitions were found for this poem. Choose four words from it to learn, for example harvest, neighbors, husking and merriment.