Has anyone used Elson's readers for literature?

[OnTheBrink]

RR has them and judging by the TOC, they look good. I was just wanting to hear from anyone who's used them and if they liked the books.

Thanks.

[Susan in SoCal]

and I love them. We don't use the teacher guides (tho, I've heard they're nice). We just read aloud thru the stories aloud (and narrate some). We've used Book 1, 2, and part of 3. Anything in particular you'd like to know?

One quick note about Book 1. One thing I LOVED about this book was that each story was presented with one sentence on each line. This, in my opinion, is brilliant, because young kids tend to read a line and pause at the end of the line, whether the sentence is done or not. :o So this presentation kind of neatly leads to them learning to pause after a period.

Ok, another quick note. The selection/variety of stories is fabulous - fables, fairy tales, folk stories. A really nice variety. And not dumbed down, tho still using age-appropriate phonetic words.

[WendyK]

I just bought level 3 and so far I am really liking it (I bought and use the teacher guide, which I love too).

[Lenora in MD]

I am using the Primer for my 1st grader. I have and use the teacher guide as well. I really like the classic stories. The teacher guide provides a great language lessons introduction. My daughter likes the stories.

[EvergreenEclecticAcademy]

...Book 2 this year (2nd grade). It's a wonderful variety of stories, poems, etc. Love it! :)

BTW, they have samples at Lost Classic Books (http://www.lcbcbooks.com/elson_excerpts.htm) (each book, as well as teacher's guide). I have the teacher's manual for Book 2, but have rarely used it.

HTH!

[GretaLynne]

I just finished the Primer with my daughter and absolutely loved it. We'll be starting Book One today. Maybe this sounds funny, but in all seriousness, she felt very insulted by other leveled readers. Most of them really are "dumbed down" and she picked up on this, and felt very frustrated and disappointed because of it. But she did not feel that way about the Elson Primer at all. She really loved the sweet stories. Usually I sell our curriculum as soon as we're done with it, but she asked me if we could keep it. That's quite a testimony, IMO! :)

[OnTheBrink]

Thank you all for the info. I'm planning on getting Book 6 (she'll be in 6th grade next fall). I just don't have it in me to compile a reading program or literature program and I'm hoping this will fit the bill for that. I still plan to read aloud to her, but I won't necessarily hold her accountable for read aloud time, just the "lesson" time with these readers.

[Alana in Canada]

Ok, I'm an idiot, but I compiled two CD's with readings based on the Table of Contents from Books 2 and 3. Each run about an hour. I used I-Tunes.

If there any other free audio file sources I can use, please let me know! I used Story-Nory and Lit2Go.

As you can see, I made a couple of substitutions for Book 2.

Elson Book 2
Audio Files:

My Shadow-Robert Louis Stevenson--Lit2Go 3

Bed in Summer—R. L. Stevenson--Lit2Go 2

Lucky Hans—Old Tale--used Hans in Luck by Grimm, Lit2Go 6

The Ant and the Grasshopper--Aesop --Lit2Go 4

The Dog in the Manger--Lit2Go 4

The Cow—R. L. Stevenson--Lit2 Go 3

The Lad Who went to the North Wind--Norse--Lit2Go 3

Who Has Seen the Wind?—Christina Rossetti used The Wind—Christina Rossetti Lit2Go 1

Jack and the Beanstalk—Old English Tale Story Nory, parts 1 and 2



Elson Book 3
Audio Files

The Hare and the Hedgehog-Grimm
Lit2Go 2

The Miser--Aesop
Lit2Go 4

The Fox and the crow
Lit2Go 5

The Stone Cutter—Japanese Tale
Crimson Fairy Tale book; Lit2Go 6

The Jumblies—Edward Lear
Lit2Go 3

Farewell to the Farm—R. L. Stevenson
Lit2Go 3

A Good Play—R. L. Stevenson
Lit2Go 1

Nest Eggs—R. L. Stevenson
Lit2Go 3

The Sleeping Beauty
Story Nory or Lit2Go 5

The Ugly Duckling—Hans Christian Anderson
Lit2Go 3

hth

[Seeker]

I used both the Pathway Readers and the Elson Readers from the Primer to Grade 2, which put her into reading today's literature at 4th grade level. The Elson Reader was more demanding in the Primer than the Pathway, but they evened in the later levels.

I did not use the teacher books or workbooks with either because I was using First Language Lessons and felt it was too much for my child at 4yo and 5yo, but had I seen these first I might have used them instead.

The Pathway Readers were very basic with sweet, down home stories with most chapters relating to events and characters in previous chapters, like a story book. The Elson Readers readers are whimsical unrelated short stories having much more repetition and probably a better reader if one is using them as the core reader. However, the stories have talking animals and that is a turn off for some. What I really liked about the Elson Readers was the variety of formats, including speaking parts done as in a play and poems to teach meter and some simple enough for memorization. They were a nice change from the Pathway Readers for my daughter.

I think purchased my Elson Books two years ago at a very good discount from Buy.com before Amazon even carried them.

[PamInMN]

Hi Seeker!! :D


Here is a link to Elson Readers on Google Books..... http://books.google.com/books?id=FPUAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=elson+readers#PPA2,M1