I received an entire set of the Eclectic Education Series from Dollar Homeschool.  Remember the McGuffey Readers?  Well, I don’t actually remember them personally (I’m not that old yet), however, these books were the standard in education from 1865 to 1915.  These readers as well as other materials, such as Ray’s Arithmetic, were designed so thoroughly, to teach that generation as much as possible in the short amount of time they would be in school.

In Shortly after World War II John Dewey, then the head of the Teachers College at Columbia University, launched a campaign to reform education.  He believed the school system should be the “state established church” and thus made it his mission to remove God, patriotism, and traditional values out of the school system.  As you can see from our schools today, he was the beginning of a very successful campaign.  Not only have these important values been removed from our schools, but our kids have been gradually “dumbed down”.  I was particularly aware of this fact as I began to read “Harvey’s First Lessons in the English Language.”  This very first lesson had words and concepts throughout that I’m not sure kids in upper elementary grades today could answer.

I realized, in reading through some of this material (I have not gotten through even half of it, there is so much here!) that what our grandparents and great-grandparents were capable of learning then, our kids are capable of learning now!  We have been so conditioned not to think, not to process or retain information, that I am embarrassed about how little I actually know.

This material truly is for the eclectic style homeschooler.  If you are following a traditional formal curriculum, you may not know where to even incorporate this material.  However, if you want to challenge your child this would be a great way to do it!  Also, this type of material is a teacher to student style, so it does require one-on-one teaching, which I enjoy, but not everyone has time to do this every day.  It is for K-12, so if you are looking for an inexpensive option to homeschool your family, with a greater challenge to your learners, you really should check out this material.

The disappointing aspect is that the material, of course, is in black and white, so the McGuffey Readers in particular are not aesthetically pleasing to the child and spacing not that great.  The original pictures were beautiful but over time no longer very clear.  However, if you have time to devote to the material, it may be just what you are looking for.

You can purchase the Eclectic Education Series right now in its entirety for only $159.  This includes Ray’s Arithmetic, Science, History, Grammer, and the famous McGuffey’s Readers.  This is an astounding amount of material!  Check out Dollar Homeschool to learn more, or to watch the video for more information.

I was given the above curriculum in exchange for my honest opinion only.