DON DEWSNAP is a writer who with his wife Vykki brought up successful children who love to read. DON and Vykki publish basic glossary e-books such as Basic Glossary of Grammar,
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DON DEWSNAP
Teach Your Children Grammar Early
For some reason, grammar is the “forgotten cousin” of reading programs. Back in the good
old days, second- and third-graders would learn what a noun is, and the difference between
present and past tense verbs. Now they wait until middle school, which is long past the best
learning age. They wonder why they need to learn rules about talking and writing, and get no
good answers.
As the parent, you have the power to bring language to life for your children.
If you haven’t already noticed, children love to group similar things together. They collect
stones of a certain color, or put all their marbles in one place when you make them clean
their room. When you show children that words have similar characteristics, they grasp
the concept very quickly. Grammar is second nature to children.
Some children’s books label objects with their names to help a beginning reader. These
are wonderful, useful books. Try to find one that uses the word “noun,” however, much
less the word “grammar.” Good luck.
The best way I found to introduce grammar to my children was to make a game of it.
Several games, actually: the Noun Game, the Verb Game, the Helping Words Game.
The rules are very easy: “Nouns are words that name something. I am going to say a
noun, then it is your turn.” Play for a very short time, until the child is very happy with
some noun that he thought of, then tell him he won and end the game. He will beg you
to play it again.
Do play it again, later that day or the next. Then do the same thing with Verbs. Then
Helping Words (adjectives and adverbs) which get attached to nouns or verbs. When
he starts getting bored with these games, add the Preposition game.
Fairly soon, you can introduce him to Advanced games, that include proper nouns and
common nouns, different tenses of verbs, etc. Before long he will know all the elements
of grammar.
What you will see, as your child learns to read, is that he will recognize all these word
forms, and identify them to you. You, of course, will praise him to high heavens for being
so clever.
By the time he is in second grade, he will be so far ahead of his classmates in under-
standing and appreciating how sentences are put together (grammar) that he will gravitate
into a leadership position. From there it is a short step to Class President, then a full
scholarship to Harvard Law, then being drafted as a Congressional candidate, and
finally winning the presidency.
All from knowing what a noun is.
Copyright 2006, all rights retained by the poet |
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