Excerpt from The Easy Road to Reading: Primer The subject matter in a beginning text book in reading should touch the child personally and be in keeping with his natural activities if it is to be of value in teaching him to read. It should appear for him in the form of action, rhythm, stories, plays, and games if the symbols of reading are to convey meaning. This Primer has been compiled with the foregoing in mind, the purpose being to offer an easy and natural course in reading for beginners. The vocabulary and subject matter have accordingly been chosen with special reference to the natural activities of children. Children are actors by nature and they therefore perform with pleasure the actions which words suggest. That which a child does involving self-activity makes a deep impression; thus the true meaning of words can be easily impressed upon him. It is, therefore, important that there shall be included in the early lessons a good list of action words which shall form the basis of interesting and thought-inspiring reading lessons and which can be easily demonstrated in class-room practice. The first nine lessons of The Easy Road to Reading Primer consist of simple reading matter compiled from a desirable list of action words. All these early lessons can be dramatized and the meaning of the words can thus be easily taught by having the children perform the actions suggested by them. Lessons 16-32 consist of interesting reading in which the new words are introduced in simple rhymes made up in part from the action words previously learned. These rhymes serve to fix the meaning of the words and sentences in the lessons and make the reading matter more interesting. Lessons 32-38 consist of short rhymes from that classic of childhood literature, Mother Goose. The lessons preserve the integrity of the rhymes, yet introduce a sufficient number of other sentences to emphasize the new words and fix by repetition those already presented. Lessons 38-68 are on nature. This section will be read in the fall of the year when the outside world is full of beauty and attractiveness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.