The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 116–128 · Part 1: Part First

36. Extra practice, part 2 (optional) optional

Goal: Your child writes short descriptions and notes for real purposes, using all the rules so far.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, open to this lesson
  • Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)

What's in the book

Sections 116 to 128, more "Miscellaneous Lessons": sentences with place names, practice envelopes, the walk to school, uses of common things, a visit to a blacksmith's shop, a picture in the reader, several notes and letters, describing a game, and fill-in-the-blank sentences about your home and country.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Choose two

    Pick two tasks. Good ones: Section 118 (describe your walk to school; or a walk you take often) and Section 127 (describe a game you like to play). Section 128 is a quick finish.

  2. Talk first

    For the description: walk it in your minds together. Where do you start? What do you pass? What do you see, hear, smell?

    For the game: How many players? What do you need? How do you win?

  3. Write

    Your child writes one description of 6 to 10 sentences.

  4. Check it gently

    Read it aloud. For a walk: is it in the order you'd pass things? For a game: could a new player follow it? Your child fixes one spot that is unclear.

  5. What a good result looks like

    Example (written for this guide, not from the book):

    To play tag you need at least three players and a yard. One player is "it" and tries to touch another. Whoever is touched becomes "it". Nobody may hide inside the house.

  6. Fill the blanks (Section 128)

    Your child fills the blanks in Section 128 about their own city, state and favorite poet, then gives a reason for every capital.

Answers to the book's problems

Section 128: 3. The capital of the United States is Washington. 7. Columbus discovered America. 8. Washington was the first President of the United States. The others depend on where you live and whom you choose. (Number 4 asks where the World's Fair was last held; in 1900 that was a recent event, so you can skip it or look up a recent world's fair together.)

Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.

@teddyrookbook GitHub