The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 191–193 · Part 1: Part First
57. Sentences tell your thought
Goal: Your child writes sentences that say something interesting about a thing, not just about themselves.
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 191 returns to the sentence: the statement or expression of a thought in words, with six sentences about a book. Section 192 asks for sentences about skating, bicycles, robins, bees and more, with a warning to write about the thing, not about yourself. Section 193 gives thirty words to make interesting sentences about.
The lesson, step by step
Look and think
Put a book on the table. Your child looks at it and says six different thoughts about it, as in Section 191.
Thought should always precede speech.
About the thing, not about you (Section 192)
Read the note at the bottom of Section 192.
"Skating is fine sport" tells about skating, but "I like skating" tells about you.
Try a few aloud: say a sentence about bees that tells about the bees.
Write (Section 192)
Your child writes sentences about six of the book's things (skating, firecrackers, bicycles, marbles, robins, bees, snakes, dolls, mice), each telling something about the thing itself.
Make them interesting (Section 193)
Say sentences aloud about some of the thirty words in Section 193. The book says: make your sentences as interesting as you can. Compare "The brook is wet." with "The brook chatters over the stones all summer."
Check it gently
Read the six sentences together. Mark any that are about "I" and let your child turn them around to be about the thing.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
A bicycle needs air in its tires to roll smoothly.
Robins pull worms out of wet lawns after a rain.
Mice can squeeze through a hole no bigger than a pencil.