Doll Sized Spelling Printables - 1841

"Do you see these two fine girls? They can 
read,and spell, and sew."

       Spelling is the rendering of speech sound into writing. For many generations of American children, spelling was a ordinary subject taught in public school.

       I received a spelling workbook every year that I attended public elementary school as a child. Our workbook was used in combination with a simple reader or primer that remained in the classroom for daily study.

        At the end of each week, students then took a spelling test based upon our exercises in the workbook and reading assignments from the spelling textbook.

       This is how students learned to read and spell for over one hundred years in this country. 

       If you would like to teach spelling to your dolls, you may print the alphabet and primer, spelling clip art below for their old-fashioned classroom. You can cut out the pictures to make flash cards or include them inside a small doll sized spelling book for your dolls to study from.

       This particular set of spelling printables comes from The Pictorial Spelling Book of 1841. It is a Pre-Civil War Era text. 

       Because, most public schools in America could not afford to replace primers or spelling books often, it would not have been unusual to find a speller written with similar content from 1841 to 1865, or perhaps even later, inside a primary classroom. It was not until after the second world war that American public schools began to replace and update textbooks aggressively from year to year. Historical American Girl Dolls like: Addy, Kirsten or Samantha or even Laura and Mary Ingalls dolls from alternative collections might use this set of printables for their historic schoolrooms.

"The Alphabet rendered familiar by Pictures. It is generally believed that children will commit
 the alphabet to memory when it is illustrated combined with pictures." Cut this alphabet 
into pages of identical size and then staple them together to make a small spelling book 
for your dolls or, print them out on heavy card stock and cut them apart to make doll 
sized flashcards.