The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 242–253 · Part 1: Part First
72. Extra dictation and conversations (optional) optional
Goal: Your child writes short wise sayings from dictation and writes a practical conversation.
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 242 to 249 are short verses and sayings for dictation (including "Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours ..."). Sections 250 to 253 ask for written conversations: buying a plant at a florist's, a boy offering to cut your grass, buying strawberries, buying a watch. The book says these may be skipped.
The lesson, step by step
Read the sayings
Read Sections 242 to 249 aloud and talk about two or three.
Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes.
Ask: What were the golden hours and diamond minutes?
Dictation
Your child studies two of the sayings, then writes them from dictation, and checks against the book.
A conversation (Sections 250 to 253)
Choose one situation. Act it out, then your child writes it with quotation marks, 6 to 10 lines.
Check it gently
Check one thing in each piece: the commas and marks in the dictation, the quotation marks in the conversation.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
"Do you want your grass cut?" asked the boy at the door.
"How much do you charge?" I asked.
"Fifty cents for the front and back," he said.
Answers to the book's problems
Section 246: the "golden hours" and "diamond minutes" are time wasted in a day; they can never be found again.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.