Grammar Lessons With Generikat

Divided Quotations

I ain't no Carmen San Diego of English grammar

I wear a lot of hats. Perhaps I should say collars. Either way, I am one busy gal. One of the personas that I don during the week is that of teacher, as I homeschool my two children. My poor offspring really won the parent lottery as they get both of their parents as teachers, how cool is that?

Ironically, part of my undergraduate studies was in the realm of education. Does this qualify me to teach my kids? Nope. What qualifies me to teach my children is that I am the sentient being that spawned them. Don't get me wrong, I am not a public school and/or teacher-despising zealot that will espouse my superior ways at every turn. I am constantly searching and examining curriculum and methodology in order to better teach my two beloved pupils. We also have our two kids involved in activities that are taught by other adults. Dance, drama, multiple sports, and 4H come to mind here. My philosophy is that homeschooling is not for everyone, yet anyone can and if they want to, should be able to homeschool. How a person is educated matters less than the quality of how that person is parented. And like everything in life; there are exceptions to absolutely everything.

Of course, the above thoughts are my opinion, and they were born out of my own unique perspective on the issue, for I was both homeschooled and attended public school. There are pros and cons in each realm, and as a parent you just have to make the best decisions that you can.

One thing that I love is the constant review and re-learning of everything from simplifying fractions to today's focus: Divided Quotations! In my non-existent free time I have finished quite a big chunk of a rough draft of a young adult novel. That said, I pay special attention to my daughter's English lessons.

Behold the look on my Banana cat's face! The Sahara-toned example sentences shock even the unflappable!

One thing about English lessons: The example sentences are often boring. Like a beige rug on the desert floor with a brown bowl of melting vanilla ice cream boring. Hmm. I would wonder why that colorless concoction is there, but I divert, so back to the point!

Sometimes you get a quotation that is divided. This was the grammatical concept that I was trying to relate to my Squeaky this morning:

"Divided," said I, "like your attention is right now."

Exasperated brown eyes rolled toward my form, "I'm paying attention, Mom."

"Really," I continued, "not buying it."

"Mom! You said that direct quotations are divided," the affronted adolescent spouted, "The explanatory words divide it into two parts."

"You're right," I replied, "That's exactly what I said. Here's a couple more examples."

"There is always," I began, "Some form of manure to step in around the farm."

My pupil began to snicker, so I had to continue.

"The greatest form of manure is that which is squished into the tread of someone else's shoes," I quipped. "The situation can only become greater if that person is without footwear."

You see what I did here....Our white board suffers greatly.

We have graduated to modern writing utensils, but the quill and ink phase was fun!

It is way more fun for the pupil and the teacher to play around with a concept that can be rather yawn inducing by introducing a bit of fun into the education equation.

I mean, how awesome is it to think that when my daughter steps into some form of manure that she will think of the rules for divided quotations. I bet she will be able to properly quote her exasperated expressions in her head while she is removing the waste from her shoe tread with a stick! Education win!!

And as always, all of the images in this post were taken by the author on her red pen ink stained iPhone.