by Donna | Apr 20, 2013
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| Would you take adviCe from this guy? Or do you like to have more sophisticated people adviSe you? |
Anybody out there tired of seeing people give other people adviSe (zuh–wrong one!) and trying to adviCe (suh–wrong one!) them? Yeah, me too.
Generally speaking, when you have two word choices with C and S as their options for spelling, it is because you need two completely different sounds:
-adviCe—The c is here because this word needs the soft sound of C (suh)
-adviSe–The s is here because this word needs the hard sound of s (zuh)
Remember: When a c is followed by an e, i, or y, it usually says its soft sound–suh.
Also remember that when a multi-syllable word has se in it as the end of a syllable, it often makes the zuh sound: please, wise, fuse, close, etc. (though certainly not always).
The real key is that there ARE two spellings–and one is the noun and is soft (adviCe) and one is the verb and is hard (adviSe).
When you set out to adviSe somebody, be sure you have enough wisdom to give sound adviCe….. 🙂
by Donna | Apr 17, 2013
I am an experiential writer. I like to write and speak about things only after I have experienced them for myself for a while. I have had the writing/speaking bug ever since our first born (now thirty) was two years old, and I headed up our children’s church department and taught teachers how to teach, manage the group, etc. (based on my credentials as an elementary education major). However, it wasn’t until I had homeschooled for many years, raised a few babies and toddlers, managed a busy household for a decade and a half, etc. , that I felt ready to talk to others about those things. As a learner, I also like to learn from those who have “been there” and “came out to tell about it”! Smile…
My husband and I began talking about raising and homeschooling teens about eight years ago–when our first born was twenty-two. Now I have seven children ages fourteen through thirty–three of whom are in college and living at home. Guess what? I am more than ready to tell the world what I have learned and continue to learn about raising/discipling teens and young adults in this heart-affecting way that we have chosen to live. If there are even a few things that we have found to work, I want to spread that vital info from shore to shore and sea to sea (okay, that’s a little dramatic, but have you ever had seven kids ages fourteen to thirty at various critical stages of life–let me tell you, it’s more than a little dramatic!).
So…with deep affection and emotion, I bring you a few things that we KNOW teens and young adults need from us as parents:
1. Safe place to talk
They need to know that it is safe to tell you whatever is going on in their hearts and lives. They need to know that you won’t completely freak out (even if you don’t agree)–and that you will love them regardless of what they say in these talks. Our oldest son and daughter (30 and 27) were raised in a pretty strict home. We had rules that did not have logical reasons (see our teen posts for Recipe for Rebellion beginning here: https://characterinkblog.com/day-sixty-eight-avoid-the-recipe-for-rebellion-ingredient-i-rules-without-reason/). We were oftentimes lost, exhausted caring for small children and emotionally drained trying to help young teenagers find their way. However, our son told us that he never wanted turn away from us–in spite of our many faults–because no matter what we made him do, wear, or say, we always gave him “intellectual freedom”–freedom to believe and think for himself (with our guidance but not with an iron fist). Fourteen to twenty-four year olds need a safe place to talk that should be found in their parents.
2. Availability
Are you tired of hearing me talk about this yet? One of the most unfortunate things to me in the whole “teen” thing is that parents sometimes think that they are done or at least almost done long before we really should be done. I have often said, and continue to believe, that children between the ages of sixteen and twenty need their parents more than ever. Why would we work so hard to instill in them our beliefs, to teach them character, to raise them with love and tenderness–just to leave them to peers alone during these ages? They need us. And they need for us to be available when they need us. For some of us, this means not going to our own things (shopping, golf, and, gasp, ballroom dancing) many a Saturday for much longer than we originally thought we would have to give up those things. Parents of teens and young adults–you are not done! There are still some more critical years to make yourself available to these amazing people in your life.
3. Time
This might seem like a repeat of number two, but it really isn’t. Yes, we need to clear our schedules not just to watch them play baseball or go to their concerts; we need to clear our schedules to provide times of availability. We also need to understand the amount of time that these ages take. We have had two of our kids get married so far. The amount of time that it took to counsel them, have fun and plan with them, encourage them, and help prepare them was probably more than my many long days of teaching that child to read or working on chores together! We have three college kids at home right now. They need the “normal” time things–help with college math, reviewing class schedules and seeing how they can squeeze in something that is only offered at a certain time during a certain semester, help changing a tire, and the “as-only-Mom-can-do” edits on their big papers. But they need long periods of time for #1 (safe talking place) and long periods of time of just being there—when they feel friend-less, when the stress of going to college and working is taking its toll on them, when they have a broken heart, when they are questioning something that they have always believed to be true, when they are disillusioned with people and this world….time….and lots of it.
4. To Be Treated Like Adults
If you have been to our parenting seminars or read our parenting book (The Well-Trained Heart), you have likely heard us emphasize the strong link between responsibility and privileges. This point, to be treated like adults, is not to de-emphasize that. We believe that children (and adults!) who show themselves responsible and mature get more and more privileges (hmmm…parable of the talents????). However, many of us treat our sixteen year olds like little kids–micromanaging their school work and homework, following them around to check on each step of their chores, not “expanding the boundaries” of responsibility/privilege in a way that is commensurate with the responsibility and maturity level they are showing. If your teens are still working on that whole responsibility thing and really aren’t ready to have the boundaries widened like you had hoped they would be, at the very least, don’t continue to treat them like little kids in other areas. Give them opportunities to please you and do good things. Set them up for success so that you can expand their boundaries and treat them more adult-like. Quit giving them money for nonsense and toys that keep them playing all the time, and instead provide them with tools–books, computer for school, gas cards, work desk, handy tools, car wash passes, and even fast food gift certificates so that when they are out doing those adult things, they can get gas and a bite to eat. Stop giving them video games, ipods, and individual sports things that twelve and fourteen year olds want/get. Talk to them like adults–don’t ask them where they are going or what they are doing in an accusatory way, but ask them in the same way you would ask your spouse–in order to determine the schedule and plan for family time. Say, “When will you be home from class–I was hoping we would have some talk time tonight” not “And what time will you be rolling in tonight?” I have so much more to say about treating our teens and young adults like adults, and I will try to address this even more as Ray and I are speaking about some teen topics this summer at some conferences, but I will leave you with this word of advice: The tone in which you speak to your kids tells them right away whether they are being treated in a condescending, child-like way or an adult way. Tone is where I would start.
That’s all for today. I am crying as I finish this article. I have had a couple of weeks of intense parenting of teens and young adults. I truly have the most amazing eighteen, twenty, and twenty-two year old living in my home right now. But their hearts are vulnerable, and they are facing a big scary world. And they need me and Ray to help them finish becoming who and what they are going to become. The needs are so much bigger than getting them to finish their peas and pick up their toys.
Our teens and young adults need us! They need our support. They need our advice. They need our encouragement. They need our faith in them. They need our time. They need for us to be available to them. They need for us to treat them with respect. They need us.
by Donna | Apr 17, 2013
The other day I looked down on my steering wheel to find these two abbreviations: accel and decel. I am sure that these are the formal abbreviations, and I also assume that the two are abbreviations for acceleration and deceleration.
The two words are perfect words for working on two of my favorite “wordy” sub-lessons: spelling and prefix/root studies.
As a self-declared bi-phonic woman, I love to point out spelling rules any time there is the slightest bit of phonetic consistency to them. And, it just so happens, that acceleration and deceleration have a little bit of consistency to their spellings:
1. Hard and soft c
a. ac/cel/er/a/tion
i. The first c says kuh because it is followed by a c. (When a c or g is followed by a, o, u, or most consonants, it says its hard sound—kuh or guh.)
ii. The second c says suh because it is followed by an e. (When a c or g is followed by e, i, or y, it says its soft sound–suh or juh.)
b. de/cel/er/a/tion–This word only contains one c, and that c makes its soft sound (suh) because it is followed by an e.
2. Both spelled the same from then on–syllable by syllable
a. After our cel phonemes, the remainder of each word is spelled the same.
b. Both can be spelled syllable by syllable at that point
i. er
ii. a
iii. tion
3. Thus, you can easily remember how to spell both words.
a. ac/cel and d/cel
b. er/a/tion (for both)
+Note: If acceleration only had one c, the first two syllables would look (“sound”) like this: a/sell (ay/sell).
+Note: If deceleration had two c’s, the first two syllables would look (“sound”) like this: dek/sell.
If you are not a lover of phonics or you learned to read and spell through sight words and memorization, you might be bored by now, so I will give you something you can take with you from this “wordy” lesson–deciphering meaning from roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes).
First of all, remember this: You know more than you think you know!
Applying that to our two words: What do you already know about their meanings:
1. They have something to do with movement (on the steering wheel of a car; you hear them association with physics, etc.).
2. De is a prefix you are familiar with–it usually means the opposite.
a. de-frost–unfrost
b. de-value–not to value
3. tion–Tion (and sion words) words are usually nouns
a. nation
b. hypertension
c. limitation
If you already knew those things (and now you do!), take what you already know and add it to what else you might learn about these two words:
1. ac–Prefix meaning toward
2. In physics, these two words have much more technical meanings that we do not need to concern ourselves with for this lesson. (A part of learning is knowing what you do not need to know!)
3. In medical terms, these two words have to do with getting hurt via a collision (still retaining the general meaning of movement).
4. The suffix cel can have something to do with movement or an action
a. cancel
b. excel
Okay, you have all of the information to unlock the definitions (and the spellings, thank-you very much!) of these two words.
Acceleration/Deceleration
A. They have something to do with movement (cel)
B. They are nouns (tion)
C. One means forward (ac–toward)
D. The other means backwards or not or undo (de).
E. Acceleration means to move forward.
F. Deceleration means to move backwards (de) or not to move.
Wasn’t that fun? 🙂
*For complete steps on “dissecting” words, see the posts about Character Ink’s teaching methods we call Definition Dissection. Here is a list of prefixes to get you started: https://languagelady365.blogspot.com/2011/01/days-13-14-roots-and-affixes-list.html
by Donna | Apr 10, 2013
. Fill in each blank provided with the correct Wacky Word—their, there, they’re, wander,
wonder, scent, sent, farther, further, bear, or bare.
1. ________________ meeting us for lunch.
2. We are going to ________________ the nursing home to sing.
3. ________________ rarely on time.
4. ________________ lake is just ahead.
5. When we get ________________, we will eat.
6. We do not know what ________________ going to sing.
7. Ray and Donna parked ________________ car in the parking garage.
8. We should be ________________ after lunch.
9. Maelynn thinks she left her keys ________________.
10. ________________ going to drop off the food at noon.
11. I ________________ what time it is.
12. Please don’t ________________ around the woods too far.
13. We could ________________ all day without a map.
14. Jonathan ________________ what time it is.
15. I ________________ if the Reishes are coming.
16. Donna ________________ the card in the mail.
17. Jonathan ________________ Maelynn flowers for Valentine’s Day.
18. The dogs picked up the ________________ of the drugs.
19. Did she get the email I ________________ her?
20. The ________________ of the candle filled the room.
21. After church, he explained that concept ________________ .
22. The ________________ we go, the more lost we are!
23. We can discuss the matter ________________ when everyone gets here.
24. I believe the store is ________________ down the street.
25. That restaurant is ________________ than this one.
26. I hope we don’t see a ________________ while walking the trails.
27. She gave her sister a stuffed ________________ for Christmas.
28. You should put sunscreen on your ________________ skin.
29. The ________________ slept in the warm sun after his hibernation.
30. My ________________ feet are dirty from walking in the strawberry patch.
Answer Key:
1. They’re meeting us for lunch.
2. We are going to wander to the nursing home to sing.
3. They’re rarely on time.
4. Their lake is just ahead.
5. When we get there , we will eat.
6. We do not know what they’re going to sing.
7. Ray and Donna parked their car in the parking garage.
8. We should be there after lunch.
9. Maelynn thinks she left her keys there .
10. They’re going to drop off the food at noon.
11. I wonder what time it is.
12. Please don’t wander around the woods too far.
13. We could wander all day without a map.
14. Jonathan wonder what time it is.
15. I wonder if the Reishes are coming.
16. Donna sent the card in the mail.
17. Jonathan sent Maelynn flowers for Valentine’s Day.
18. The dogs picked up the scent of the drugs.
19. Did she get the email I sent her?
20. The scent of the candle filled the room.
21. After church, he explained that concept further .
22. The farther we go, the more lost we are!
23. We can discuss the matter further when everyone gets here.
24. I believe the store is farther down the street.
25. That restaurant is farther than this one.
26. I hope we don’t see a bear while walking the trails.
27. She gave her sister a stuffed bear for Christmas.
28. You should put sunscreen on your bare skin.
29. The bear slept in the warm sun after his hibernation.
30. My bare feet are dirty from walking in the strawberry patch.
by Donna | Apr 10, 2013
“Homophone, homophones, homophones…homophones!” (Veggie Tales)
Adults and children alike make homophone errors. They are probably some of the most common grammatical errors. We like to teach our students little tricks to help them remember which word to use in which situation. Below you will find some tricks–followed by a quiz! Smile…
Here are some serious and some funny tips to help you remember some homophones:
a. their—heir is in it; their shows ownership; heir shows ownership too
b. there—here is in it; here and there; use for there are and there is
c. they’re—contraction they are; say contracted words uncontracted to be sure that you are
using the correct word for the job
d. wandering—you wander in an area; you wander around
e. wonder—you ponder when you wonder
f. scent—cats have a certain scent when their litter box needs cleaned
g. sent—envelopes are sent
h. farther—farther refers to area (has root far)
i. further—further refers to understanding
j. bear—a bear is a creature
k. bare—ends in an e; when we bare something, we expose it
Part of being a good learner and a good student is knowing how you learn—and working in those areas. For example, the author of CQLA loves mnemonics and tricks. (Can you tell?) Other people are distracted by that type of learning.
What kind of learner are you? What helps you learn homophones the best? What helps you learn to spell difficult words? Work in those areas to help you learn better, faster, and more thoroughly.
by Donna | Mar 19, 2013
Is Five Guys only ONE Reader’s Pick? If many readers picked it, it should say Readers’ Pick…..wish I had, had my purple editing pen with me!
P.S. Don’t second guess on possessives all the time:
1. Write the word you want to make possessive first without even thinking about the possessive part {Readers}
2. Then ask yourself, “Does it end in an s?” {Don’t overthink this step and start asking yourself if it’s plural, etc….just focus on the final letter in the word.}.
3. If it ends in an s, simply put an apostrophe on the outside of the s. If it does NOT end in an s, put an ‘s.
Examples:
1. One reader picked it–the pick belongs to the one reader: reader’s pick
2. Many readers picked it–the pick belongs to many readers: readers’ pick
3. One dog owns the yard–the yard belongs to one dog: dog’s yard
4. Two dogs own the yard–the yard belongs to two dogs: dogs’ yard
