The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 131–133 · Part 1: Part First

38. The Baby, and capitals in quotations

Goal: Your child begins every direct quotation with a capital letter and writes sentences that report what someone said.

⏱ About 25 minutes · 6 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗ 🖨 Copywork sheet

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

Section 131 is George MacDonald's poem "The Baby", a string of questions to a baby and the baby's answers. Section 132 gives seven sentences with quotations and the rule for capitals. Section 133 asks the child to report the exact words of another person.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Read the poem together

    Read "The Baby" as questions and answers: you ask, your child answers.

    "Where did you come from, baby dear?"

    "Out of the everywhere into the here."

    Ask: Which answer do you like best? Why are the quotation marks there?

  2. Look at the first letters (Section 132)

    Read the seven sentences. Your child finds each quotation and looks at its first letter. What do they notice?

    The first word of every Direct Quotation should begin with a Capital Letter.

  3. Report what someone said (Section 133)

    Play a game: you say something ("I have lost my glasses."), and your child says it back as a report: Mother said, "I have lost my glasses." Do three or four.

  4. Write

    Your child writes five sentences reporting the exact words of people in the family today, like the book's examples:

    John said, "I have lost my knife."

    "I have found it," cried Robert.

  5. Check it gently

    Check two things only: quotation marks around the spoken words, and a capital at the start of each quotation. Your child fixes any slip.

  6. What a good result looks like

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

    Dad said, "Supper is ready."

    "Can I have more potatoes?" asked Lucy.

    Grandma said, "Wear your boots, because it's muddy."

Answers to the book's problems

Section 132, the quotations: 1. "While I have lived I have striven to live worthily." 2. "Where there's a will there's a way." 3. "Behold your king!" 4. "I have your ball." 5. "The grapes are sour." 6. "Lost time is never found again." 7. "Father, who makes it snow?" Each begins with a capital letter.

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

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