The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 203–206 · Part 1: Part First

60. Questions, commands, and naming the kind

Goal: Your child writes questions and commands correctly and names the kind of any sentence.

⏱ 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

Sections 203 and 204 ask for written questions about people's work and about things in the schoolroom. Section 205 asks for ten commands or entreaties from the reader and gives the rule for their end mark. Section 206 gives twenty sentences (proverbs and lines of poetry) to name as interrogative, declarative, imperative or exclamatory.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Questions about work (Section 203)

    Your child writes five questions, each about a different job: shepherd, carpenter, baker, doctor, postman ...

  2. Commands (Section 205)

    Find five commands or entreaties in a book you are reading and copy them.

    Imperative Sentences are usually followed by a Period.

  3. Name the kind (Section 206)

    Read the twenty sentences aloud together. For each, your child says which kind it is and why. Number 1 has two sentences in it.

  4. Check against the answers

    Look at the Answers together. Where your child disagreed, talk it over; the book's point is to think about what the sentence does.

  5. Check the written work gently

    In the questions, check for the interrogation point. In the copied commands, check that the end mark is the same as the book's. Fix one or two.

  6. What a good result looks like

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

    How does a carpenter keep his saw sharp?

    What time does the baker start work in the morning?

Answers to the book's problems

Section 206: 1. "Dost thou love life?" interrogative; "Then do not squander time ..." imperative. 2. imperative. 3. declarative. 4. imperative (an entreaty, a prayer). 5. declarative. 6. declarative. 7. exclamatory. 8. imperative. 9. imperative. 10. imperative. 11. exclamatory. 12. declarative. 13. exclamatory. 14. interrogative. 15. declarative. 16. declarative. 17. exclamatory. 18. declarative. 19. declarative. 20. interrogative.

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

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