English is a funny language...
- Sparrow Girl
- Oct 29, 2017
- 4 min read
... and often quite confusing. For example...
Why do we have noses that run and feet that smell?
Why is the word abbreviation so long?
The words tear (think crying) and tier (rows, levels) are pronounced the same way but tear (crying again) and tear (as in ripping something) are pronounced differently.
Why does the word lisp have an s in it?
And to push you over the edge...
The Correct Way to Spell Potato
If GH can stand for P as in 'hiccough',
If OUGH can stand for O as in 'dough',
If PHTH can stand for T as in 'phthisis',
If EIGH can stand for A as in 'neighbour',
If TTE can stand for T as in 'gazette',
If EAU can stand for O as in 'plateau',
Then the correct way to spell potato would be...
GHOUGHPHTHEIGHTTEEAU.
Teaching the English language and all it's craziness can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. I've always looked at lots of different ways to teach my sons how to navigate different writing styles, brain-storming their ideas for stories, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation and so on.
Let me be clear, I don't always get it write?! (see my little funny there), however I'm OK with that and my skills get freshened up when doing stuff with my boys. When I'm writing for myself, whether it be for this site or for other work and even as I research writing my own children's books, for me, I have to write in my own way, it reflects who I am and what I'm doing. I have to write how I write.
Let's start with spelling. My eldest had a decent spelling level by the time he left the Montessori school so a lot of the basics were already with him. A huge bonus for my sons (and for me) was that as time went on, I discovered they both appeared to be natural spellers. I think for them it's just one of those things however as they have both always read a lot and from a young age, I think this assisted them greatly. Sure, they still make spelling errors (don't we all at times) but once they have been alerted to the correct way to spell that word, it seems to stick most of the time. As a result, we abandoned official spelling lessons long ago.
Parts of speech were mainly learnt Montessori style. I found a heap of printable resources online, laminated them and we used them over and over again. At one point (mainly with my youngest), I started to think I had to get him to write all of these skills down. Quick! Print all the worksheets! Then I realised if I knew he knew his parts of speech, and he knew he knew them too - could do his cards, could verbalise their meanings, could recognise them in sentences and use them to construct sentences and so forth, why would I make him fill in a bunch of worksheets to prove what we all knew he already knew? So we saved a few trees and never printed those worksheets.
We've used a range of resources over time, they have all contributed to the development of their English skills. For example Writing Strands, Writeshop, those Montessori cards, reading, reading and more reading from a range of fiction and non-fiction sources, information found online and so much more. We tried the odd workbook for this area, but they were so dry and boring, so I put together a range of resources to build a program from.
My eldest has developed more skills of course simply because he's been doing it for longer. At the moment he is working on his private blog. He blogs on a range of stuff. For example he may do a digitial visual diary page on something he's read about through his science work or Australian Studies. Other times he blogs about something that is of personal interest to him. His handwriting is lovely, he knows a lot of different writing styles and how to brain-storm for them so blogging for him is perfect right now.
My youngest is also blogging as above for the moment. He has a great base for writing and what has been great for him on top of his Montessori cards, was doing lots of copywork with a splash of dictation and narration.
Copywork is just as it sounds. You select a poem, passage, paragraph or a list of facts and copy it down in a notebook - word for word including all the punctuation etc. Copywork is not just about practicing your handwriting skills though of course it's about that too. Copywork is about building your vocabulary skills, spelling, along with reading and comprehension skills. Another bonus is that you are potentially learning about a topic at the same time, depending upon what you chose to copy. Tons of free copywork ideas can be found online.
Narration and dictation have also played a role. Dictation is when you read out a passage or poem etc and the child writes down what you are saying. At first you'd include telling them when to insert punctuation, capital letters and so forth and over time, you get the student to work out when they should appear - building their skills in this area.
Narration is when the child reads a piece of writing then tells you about what they have read using their own words, whether it be orally or in written format.
Copywork, dictation and narration have been huge in developing writing skills for my sons. Further, these skills are built upon in other areas by default. When they grab that book of interest to read, write a letter to family, communicating with friends, writing about another topic they are learning about and so on.
Soon, I'll be working more closely with my youngest on building his skills in brain-storming and different styles of writing to further develop his skills.
For now, they'll continue to blog, they are enjoying it and it helps build their confidence in the digital world as well.
We've all seen the grammar and punctuation police, especially on social media and though some people can be really twitchy about it, remember punctuation can save lives...
Poor Grandma.
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