Let the fingers create...
I spent a lot of time this weekend reviewing grammar that I was happy to forget a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Amy missed a lot of school the last few weeks and is trying to catch up on her grammar. She has this book which can put you to sleep faster than a minister when he starts his sermon. She was supposed to read and review it and learn the wonderous joys of predicates, prepositional phrases and interjectives. I took one look at the reading and knew it might as well be in Hebrew.
I had nothing better to do this weekend so I became intimately involved with direct objects and preposition nominatives. I did the conjunction junction and the adverb rhumba. I went head first into the deep waters of the object and subject in a prepositional phrase. Little did I know the mysteries and rumblings these things stirred within me. I had an orgasmic experience as I read the differences between a direct object and indirect object. The direct object always follows an "action verb" and boy was I getting the action from it.
Not wanting to expose an innocent young mind to such forbidden fruit, I decided to simplify and diagram the subject in my own terms. I didn't want to get her too excited about this stuff. It might tempt her to sneak a peek in Google looking for more of the titilating subject. So I got out the white board and the markers and we started in on a sentence. Verb, subject. Subject verb. Action verb. Preposition. Adverb. Adjective. Conjunctions. Interjections!
I calmly and patiently explained the differences. We worked our way through the pages and the sentences and the reviews and the questions. We learned and I told her what a precious and wonderful experience all this was. It was something to be cherished and nurtured. It was something to always remember because it will be useful to you your whole life.
I gave her the prepositional phrase that she will never forget. She now knows it. I make sure to use vivid and interesting sentences. I don't go for the mundane and ordinary. I go for the gusto. "Sarah laid a greasy fart which slipped through in deadly silence." There is no kid in the good old US of A that is gonna forget the essentials of this sentence.
God bless grammar and long may it wave.
Amy missed a lot of school the last few weeks and is trying to catch up on her grammar. She has this book which can put you to sleep faster than a minister when he starts his sermon. She was supposed to read and review it and learn the wonderous joys of predicates, prepositional phrases and interjectives. I took one look at the reading and knew it might as well be in Hebrew.
I had nothing better to do this weekend so I became intimately involved with direct objects and preposition nominatives. I did the conjunction junction and the adverb rhumba. I went head first into the deep waters of the object and subject in a prepositional phrase. Little did I know the mysteries and rumblings these things stirred within me. I had an orgasmic experience as I read the differences between a direct object and indirect object. The direct object always follows an "action verb" and boy was I getting the action from it.
Not wanting to expose an innocent young mind to such forbidden fruit, I decided to simplify and diagram the subject in my own terms. I didn't want to get her too excited about this stuff. It might tempt her to sneak a peek in Google looking for more of the titilating subject. So I got out the white board and the markers and we started in on a sentence. Verb, subject. Subject verb. Action verb. Preposition. Adverb. Adjective. Conjunctions. Interjections!
I calmly and patiently explained the differences. We worked our way through the pages and the sentences and the reviews and the questions. We learned and I told her what a precious and wonderful experience all this was. It was something to be cherished and nurtured. It was something to always remember because it will be useful to you your whole life.
I gave her the prepositional phrase that she will never forget. She now knows it. I make sure to use vivid and interesting sentences. I don't go for the mundane and ordinary. I go for the gusto. "Sarah laid a greasy fart which slipped through in deadly silence." There is no kid in the good old US of A that is gonna forget the essentials of this sentence.
God bless grammar and long may it wave.
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