PREFACE. THE FIRST READING BOOK is arranged so that it may be used either according to the synthetic or the analytic method of teaching reading. It is divided into three steps or stages. In STEP FIRST the letters both small and capital are gradually introduced, the capitals being used from the commencement. The lessons consist of exercises on the short sounds of the vowels, a very few of the common short words containing long vowels being admitted, on account of their utility in the construction of the lessons. Each lesson is an exercise on a particular class of words, and to a considerable extent a recapitulation of the words in the preceding lessons, while the lessons on each vowel are followed by an exercise forming a revisal of the whole. All words not readily intelligible to a child are omitted, and each exercise has been made a lesson on some subject, such as a cat, hen, pig, &c. with which every child is familiar, so as to render the first step in reading more interesting and pleasant to beginners than is generally the case. STEP SECOND Consists chiefly of exercises on the regular long sounds of the vowels. A few of the more common irregular sounds are, however, admitted, and more difficult words with the short vowel sound are introduced. This STEP also contains several simple and interesting Nursery Rhymes. STEP THIRD Consists of exercises on the irregular long vowel sounds, more difficult initial and terminal combinations, and words containing silent letters. In this, as in the previous STEPS, an attempt has been made to render the lessons as attractive as possible, while they are at the same time a graduated series of exercises on the different sounds in the language. Nursery Rhymes and easy Verses have been freely interspersed, and models of Figures, and of the small and capital alphabets in Script, arranged both in a graduated order and alphabetically, will be found at the end. |