The Elementary Spelling Book, being an Improvement on the American Spelling Book · Reading lesson · Part 9: Reading lessons and fables
117. Reading: the days, weeks and months, and the Sabbath
Goal: Your child reads a question-and-answer lesson about the calendar and answers the questions themselves.
You'll need
- The book, open to this reading lesson
- A slate or paper and pencil
What's in the book
A reading lesson in questions and answers about the number of days and weeks in a year, the days of the week, and day and night, followed by a paragraph about the Sabbath. No. 148 begins lower on the page.
The lesson, step by step
Before you read
Ask your child: How many days are in a week? Do you know how many are in a year? This lesson is a conversation between a teacher and a boy named Henry.
Read it aloud
Read the whole piece aloud while your child follows with a finger. Then your child reads it to you, a few sentences at a time. Help with hard words without fuss. Here is how it goes:
Henry, tell me the number of days in a year.
Three hundred and sixty-five.
How many weeks in a year?
The day is for labor, and the night is for sleep and repose.
Say the days and months
Your child says the days of the week and the months of the year in order. Write any that are hard to spell.
Talk about it
Read the questions only, and let your child answer from memory before reading Henry's answers. Then read the paragraph about the Sabbath together and talk about how your family spends its day of rest.
Tell it back
Your child asks you three of the questions, like a teacher, and checks your answers against the book.
Spell a few words
Pick a few words from the piece. Your child spells them aloud by syllables, then writes them: seven, twelve, Saturday, Sabbath.