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Is memorizing a list of prepositions really worth it?


Tranquility7
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Seems like a lot of trouble, and like it would be best to learn the concept of prepositions so the prepositional phrases can just be figured out as we go.

 

I am all for memorizing things (we memorize a lot at our house), but this just seems like overkill and a lot of work with little benefit.

 

Thoughts?

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We've actually found that it doesn't take as long as I thought. Especially if it's in a chant or a song. Then they have that list to pull from later when they are learning the concept.

 

We learned the whole list of presidents in 2 days because it was in a song.:)

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It will save a lot of time later on as you continue with grammar. We have found that long sentences have lots of prepositional phrases. It sure is easy to have them memorized when it comes time for diagramming.

 

FTR, my elder son said just yesterday that knowing all the prepositions makes diagramming much easier.

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Seems like a lot of trouble, and like it would be best to learn the concept of prepositions so the prepositional phrases can just be figured out as we go.

 

I am all for memorizing things (we memorize a lot at our house), but this just seems like overkill and a lot of work with little benefit.

 

Thoughts?

 

Yes, yes, yes, it's worth it!!! There are a lot of prepositions (and may I recommend getting an even more complete list from the R&S Handbook - there are about ten more in there than on the FLL list, and we just discovered this - so now we are working on adding these in - it would have been easier to do it years ago). A variety of prepositions will be used in more advanced reading and writing. Knowing them will enable your readers to understand their advanced reading more easily, as well as give them variety to use in their own writing. Also, the definitions of prepositions are pretty precise, so it's important to be able to distinguish between, for example, "beside" and "besides." If they are memorized in a list, making these distinctions in definition will be easier.

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Absolutely, yes. Learning the concept and the list do not have to be exclusive of each other. Having that list stuck in your head enables you to very quickly eliminate the prepositional phrases and get to the skeleton of the sentence.

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I hope it is, we just memorized our list a month or two ago. We sang them to the tune of Yankee Doodle and now EVERYONE in our house knows them....and the kids sing that song ad nauseum....it's really catchy. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oooh DS LOVES that song. Where did you get the prep list that goes to it? Is it the "full list" that a PP mentioned?

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Yes and No. I think being familiar with them really helps. My Catholic School teacher taught us to remove the prepositions first. I had been in PS for two years prior and didn't have the preps memorized. Somehow I did better than the entire class at diagramming ...after she told me what preps were and gave me the list, and I looked at them a few times, I could intuitively pick them out of a sentence.

 

And, FWIW, even though I loved diagramming and I still love formal grammar, I will not be teaching it to my children. I will be taking a CM approach, and a writing approach to grammar because by the time the summer of 8th grade came and went, I remembered nothing from our grammar school grammar lessons except the very basics. And yet I was an excellent writer, took AP English and scored a 5 on the AP English exam.

 

My children drill and drill and drill math and spend an hour per day doing math. They only have so much time, and I believe all that drill is necessary with Mathematics, but I believe it is not necessary with Writing and English.

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I agree with you, OP. I think it's more worthwhile to learn the concept, rather than a list, especially since some of the words in the list can have other functions.

 

My 7 year old can pick out a prepositional phrase pretty easily, even if there are a lot of them, and even if it's a real sentence from literature. He doesn't have the list memorized. We read through the list to get an idea of what prepositions were when we were discussing them, and we went over the definition in FLL3 and how they work, but I didn't even try to have him memorize them, and in fact, I took the list away when he was learning to find them in sentences, so he couldn't use it as a crutch. ;) Taking that list away made him figure out how to find a preposition without just looking for certain words.

 

He's already done the Peter Rabbit exercise in KISS, where there are two long sentences and a million prepositional phrases between the two. He did very well with it! :D

 

ETA: I never memorized the list either. My teachers taught us the concept. I am very good at finding prepositional phrases. I find it really easy.

Edited by boscopup
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Seems like a lot of trouble, and like it would be best to learn the concept of prepositions so the prepositional phrases can just be figured out as we go.

 

I am all for memorizing things (we memorize a lot at our house), but this just seems like overkill and a lot of work with little benefit.

 

Thoughts?

 

Or you could do both. :D It's not like it takes much time to do either. They are just the grammar and dialectic skills of the same subject.

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The preposition song to the tune of Yankee Doodle (The list is from Easy Grammar.)

 

THE PREPOSITION SONG

About, above, across, after,

Against, along, amid,

Among, around, atop, and at

These are some prepositions.

 

Before, behind, below, beneath,

Beside, between, beyond,

By, concerning, down, and during,

These are prepositions.

 

Except, for, from, past, since, regarding

Like, near, of and off

On and onto, out and outside

In and inside, into.

 

Through and throughout, to and toward

Under, underneath,

Up, upon, until, within,

Without, with, over THE END!

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I stuck a piece of paper, with the prepositions listed, in the kids' bathroom right across from the toilet. I then told the kids they were not allowed to memorize them.

 

I've never had to cover them again. :lol:

 

 

OMgosh! That is sooooo funny!

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The preposition song to the tune of Yankee Doodle (The list is from Easy Grammar.)

 

We also do it to the tune of Yankee Doodle, but ours is a little different.

 

About, above, across, after,

Against, along, amid,

Among, around, at, atop, before,

Behind, below, beneath.

 

Beside, between, beyond, but, by,

Concerning, down, and during,

Except, for, from, in, inside, into,

Like, near, of, off, on, onto,

 

Out, outside, over, past, regarding

Since, through, throughout, to, toward

Under, underneath, until, up, upon,

And with and within and without.

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My girls have memorized all the lists in FLL 1 and 2 they have come across with the exception of dd2 and the months of the year. For some reason it just won't stick. They enjoy memorization and the ability to pull out a list of prepositions or some other obscure bit of knowledge that makes adults go :001_huh:. It's easy and fun for them. DD2 is a bit too young for application of some of these things, but it doesn't mean she shouldn't be exposed. I keep thinking back to the SWB audio lectures I've listened to and how the grammar stage is about creating pegs for future knowledge. Everything, especially in grammar, is going to come around again, so if they get the idea of what a preposition is then next time they can start learning what to do with that knowledge.

 

Strangely enough, with no instruction on what to do with nouns and verbs and only the idea of what they are, DD2 can answer most of the questions DD1 and I go over in FLL 3 and delights in pointing these things out. It's good that she can, but I think the pacing of FLL 1 is more developmentally appropriate especially with us needing to focus so much on her reading.

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