1. Punctuation marks optional

The lesson, step by step

1. Why marks matter

   SayPunctuation marks are signals. They tell you where a sentence ends, when someone is asking or shouting, and whose words you are reading.

   This part of the book is for reference. You don't need to learn every mark today; the first seven are the ones your child will meet on every page.

2. Read the first seven

   Read numbers 1 to 7 together: the hyphen, the comma, semicolon and colon, the period, the interrogation point (question mark), the exclamation point, quotation marks and the apostrophe. The book gives an example for each:

   4. The Interrogation point (?) denotes a question; as, Has he come? Who are you?

   7. The Apostrophe ( ' ) denotes that a letter or letters are left out; as, O'er, for over;

   Have your child read each example aloud, letting the voice show the mark.

3. A note on pauses

   The book says something useful about commas and semicolons:

   Note.— These marks do not indicate the comparative length of the pauses to be made where they occur.

   SaySo we don't count a comma as one beat and a semicolon as two. We pause where the sense needs it.

4. The rarer marks

   Look quickly over the rest: the curves (parentheses), brackets, the dash, marks of ellipsis, the brace, the diaeresis, the section mark, the index, the paragraph mark and the caret. The book says words in curves should be read in a lower voice and a little faster. Try it with one made-up sentence.

5. Hunt for marks

   Open any storybook. Give your child one minute to find a question mark, an exclamation point, quotation marks and an apostrophe. For each one, your child reads that sentence aloud and says what the mark tells the reader.

6. Write them

   Your child writes one short sentence of their own for each of these: a question, an exclamation, someone's words in quotation marks, and a word with an apostrophe (like John's or it's).