The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 264–267 · Part 2: Part Second
75. Every word has work to do
Goal: Your child asks questions to find what work each word does in a short sentence.
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 264 takes the sentence "Sue saw six slender saplings" and asks a question for each word (Who saw? How many? What kind?). Section 265 gives five proverbs with questions to answer; Section 266 ten more sentences to study. Section 267 is the old "Weather Song" to learn.
The lesson, step by step
Sue and the saplings
Read Section 264 together: you ask the questions, your child answers from the sentence.
Sue saw six slender saplings.
Ask the book's last question: What have you learned? (Each word tells something different: who, what she did, what, how many, what kind.)
Proverbs (Section 265)
Your child copies the five proverbs. Then you ask the book's questions for each, and your child puts curved lines around the word that answers.
A barking dog seldom bites.
Say the work
For one proverb, your child says the work of every word: "Dog names what we talk about. Barking tells what kind of dog. Bites tells what it does. Seldom tells when."
More sentences (Section 266)
Do three or four of the sentences in Section 266 the same way, aloud.
The Weather Song (Section 267)
Read it together and learn it.
When the weather is wet,
We must not fret.
Then your child writes it from memory.
Check it gently
Compare the written rhyme with the book: capitals at the start of each line and the punctuation. Fix any slip.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
Your child's own version for a new sentence, "Tom found two brown eggs": Tom tells who found; found tells what he did; eggs tells what he found; two tells how many; brown tells what kind.
Answers to the book's problems
Section 265: 1. news names what you tell about; travels tells what news does; Ill tells what kind of news; fast tells how it travels. 2. Money names what the thought is about; servant tells what money is (is a servant); good tells what kind of servant. 3. spark names what you tell about; makes tells what it does; small describes spark; fire names what the spark makes; great describes fire. 4. dog is what you talk about; barking describes dog; bites tells what the dog does; seldom tells when. 5. oaks names what grows; grow tells what oaks do; from little acorns tells from what; Tall describes oaks; little describes acorns.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.