by Donna | Mar 27, 2011
I don’t want to re-invent the wheel–and I also want to be sure to keep LL 365 short….or I might lose my privileges (or so my family says!)…so while I am going to spend a little time on helping your struggling reader in this month’s Homework Help, I am not going to spend too much time on reading in general.
So…I will direct you to our sister blog, Positive Parenting, a weekday parenting blog for Christian families. The link below will lead you to the first of three entries about creating a reading environment in your home for new readers. There are so many things that parents can do to create a learning environment–and build a love for reading, whether your children go to school or homeschool.
Blessings to your family as you seek to help your children in the areas of language arts, reading, and writing!
https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/09/day-244-creating-environment-conducive.html
by Donna | Mar 27, 2011
Welcome to Homework Help Week at Language Lady 365! We are going to interrupt our regular posts to provide help to parents (and teachers) in helping their children/students with language arts, reading, writing, and grammar homework.
Roadmap for the week:
1. Starting with some reading help! Reading is the inverse of spelling in the same way that addition is the inverse of subtraction. Build a strong reading background, helping your student to reach “reading fluency,” and a love for learning, and you will go a long way way in helping him or her in language arts in general–and all learning eventually.
2. Then sentence writing, including…
a. Penmanship vs writing
b. Beginning sentence writing
c. Copy work
d. Reading and writing connection
e. Writing “from his brain” and from a source for little ones
Thanks for joining us!
by Donna | Mar 25, 2011
We have talked at length about what a sentence contains:
C apital
A ll makes sense
V erb
E nd mark
S ubject
CAVES!
Again, most people have trouble witht the A one–All makes sense. When a “sentence” doesn’t make sense, it is often because it is not a sentence at all, but it is a phrase or a clause.
We are going to talk in detail about phrases and clauses in the upcoming weeks because we are going to talk a lot about sentence structure–openers, simple sentences, compound sentences, etc.
So…a little “phrase and clause” lesson is in order first:
1. Phrase–
a. Group of words
b. Group of words that is not a sentence
c. Group of words that is not a sentence and does not usually contain a subject and a verb (though may seem to have one or the other)
d. There are various types of phrases–the one that people are most familiar with is the prepositional phrase–begins with a preposition and ends with the object of the preposition:
i. over the clouds
ii. into the clouds
iii. around the clouds
iv. within the clouds
v. under the clouds
2. Clause
a. Group of words
b. Group of words that might or might not be a sentence
c. Group of words that contains a subject and a verb
d. Two kinds of clauses
i. Independent clause–also called a sentence
ii. Dependent clause–also called a subordinate clause
Don’t despair! These are not as complicated as they sound! You write with them all the time–but I hope to help you recognize them and punctuate them correctly in sentences–over the next few weeks!
Happy writing!
by Donna | Mar 17, 2011
Beside each of the phrases provided, write an I if each is an
infinitive; write PP if it is a prepositional phrase.
1. to go I
2. to sing I
3. to the government PP
4. to a boy PP
5. to walk I
6. to be I
7. to see I
8. to France PP
9. to John Adams PP
10. to crush I
11. to believe I
12. to his belief PP
13. to write I
14. to the sun PP
15. to confess I
by Donna | Mar 17, 2011
Capitalization can be so tricky! Capitalize Susan in black-eyed Susan but not geraniums. Capitalize Mom in Tomorrow Mom is taking us to town. But not mom in Tomorrow my mom is taking us to town. Capitalize President when referring to a certain president but not mayor unless his or her name is with the word….agghgh…..
And so it is with compass directions!
Here’s the run-down:
1. Capitalize a direction when it is referring to a specific location or place:
a.We are going out West for vacation.
b. My daughter is in South Carolina.
c. She is moving out East.
2. Do not capitalize a direction when it is referrig to a compass direction:
a. Turn west at the light.
b. We live on the south side of the road.
Tricky huh? I’ll give you a few more in days to come. Study hard! 🙂
by Donna | Mar 15, 2011
This tricky plural rule is probably misused more than it is used correctly!
The key to making hyphenated words plural is to pluralize the first part–the noun part.
Thus, the following words are pluraled as listed:
1. Brother-in-law—brothers-in-law
2. Sister-in-law—sisters-in-law
3. Mother-in-law—mothers-in-law
4. Father-in-law—fathers-in-law
You are making the brother, sister, mother, and father plural–not the law part!
Exceptions are when an adjective comes first:
1. Great-grandma—great grandmas (you are not making great plural)
2. Great-nephew—great nephews
