ummtafari Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 My mother, the retired English teaher, suggested that I make my 9 yo. son memorize the prepositions and the helping verbs. Is this really necessary? She claims that this will give him variety in his writing. Is there any truth to this? BTW, lately, I have realized that my mother does have some wisdom and must experiene, lol! After assisting my son with some lapbooking recently, he even commented on her knowledge and experience compared to mine. Debra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Closeacademy Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Not really, but there is not a whole bunch so it would be easy to get familiar with them by talking about prepositions and helping verbs every so often.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karie Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Imperative, no. Extremely helpful, yes. I didn't learn these until I taught them to my kids and now that they are ingrained in my brain, I understand them SOOO much better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Yes, your child will be a social misfit if they do not know them. :D Seriously though, knowing the prepositions is very helpful when learning other parts of speech, diagramming sentences and what-not. It is also very helpful to know for learning a foreign language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ELaurie Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 using the FLL CD from PHP. Catchy tunes, fun to sing, fun to learn, effortless :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyboys Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Imperative, no. Extremely helpful, yes. I didn't learn these until I taught them to my kids and now that they are ingrained in my brain, I understand them SOOO much better! Yes. I agree. We learned them in 2nd with FLL, and ds is now having a much easier time with rod&staff grammar because he has those lists in his head. He's recalling the chants we used to learn them (which took a few weeks originally) and they're "coming back to him" so I'm glad we spent time working on it. You may decide that it depends on your child, but for writing and languages, I think the more you give them a grammar foundation the better, and that includes the helpful lists of parts of speech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dymphna57 Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 :iagree: Especially prepositions as they are hard to define otherwise. My kids kept trying to call them adverbs which messed up their diagrams. We don't like the Shurley grammar tunes but we say the drill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomOfOneFunOne Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 I guess I'll pipe in to saw what's already been said: I think your son will be okay if you don't have him memorize them but I think having these things at one's mental fingertips is a great help in writing. I place a great emphasis on writing b/c I also believe that if one can write well (and read well) he can excell at almost any test and any profession. I strongly believe this to be true and would pack my student' s head with as many aids to this end as I could. So, my answer is that yes, I do think it is important but I also think he'll be okay without. Happy Thanksgiving! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisychics Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 using the FLL CD from PHP. Catchy tunes, fun to sing, fun to learn, effortless :) :iagree: My 4 year old dd memorize them because my son loves listening to the chant on cd (okay maybe not LOVE- likes :tongue_smilie:). He likes the song after the chant though.... am. is. are. was. were. be.......:lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 I had DD memorize the helping verbs, because there were not that many of them and they function more or less the same way all the time. But I did not have her memorize the prepositions--there are so many of them, and some of them are prepositions sometimes and sometimes other parts of speech, which I think is confusing. In our case, I have to say, memorizing the helping verbs does not seem to have translated into easing in identifying them in a sentence. DD seems to store functional and list-oriented grammar in two entirely different sections of her brain, LOL. But I live in hope. She is 12 and does pretty well with grammar, and I am guessing that our earlier investments in memorization will bear fruit within the next year or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogpond1 Posted November 29, 2008 Share Posted November 29, 2008 I found that all my students who have memorized them have kept it in their long term memory. We used the FLL audio Cd to memorize these lists. BTW it is easier at 9 than age 13. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJoy Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 I memorized them 18 years ago and can still recite them! I have definitely found them to be helpful over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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