Today I had the privilege of teaching my girls about compound sentences and comma splices. It was awesome. At first they were less than enthused about it, but they got into it! Syntax was something I heard in college in English 101, and I’m sure in high school I learned bits of this….I particularly remember Mrs. Hamilton, my Senior English teacher, harping on “comma splices everywhere! Comma splice, comma splice, comma splice,” she would say in her very southern twang. But Dr.Hines at Middle Georgia College took one morning to lay out the very basics of the English language, and I was in love. I don’t know what made it so different than high school, but it all just clicked on that beautiful fall morning in Cochran, Georgia. I love writing and words and all things grammar. I write blogs all the time in my head that never make it to print because I don’t always have the time to follow through properly.
There are so many stories swirling around in my head. For example, just the other night we were discussing spiritual gifts as a family. The kids were giving their two cents on what they thought their gifts were. Josh and I gave some insight, and then Mack interrupted us to say, quite confidently, “Mom, I know your gift. It’s work!” Ok then. When he saw the look on my face, he quickly changed his tune and said, “Oh and it’s LOVE! Your gift is love.” Crazy kid.
And speaking of a crazy kid and stories I want to write, last night we went to a High school Graduation Dinner. I started talking to the girls about how one day they will have one of those, and I even asked them if they could imagine Mack having a graduation dinner. They were giggling and saying how cute and funny he is. Then, Molly piped up,and said, “Yeah, I’ll be at his dinner with my husband and my baby on my hip.”
Ummmm, Molly. You’re only 19 months older than Mack.
She’s on the fast track to marriage and babies. Dear goodness.
Ruby is very much a first-born child. Today they were playing in water in the backyard, and Ruby could not just play. She had to have rules. And only her rules counted. And she changed the rules often. It must be exhausting being a first born child. She decompresses by HOURS of reading a day. She loves to go upstairs and get on her top bunk and read out loud. I love hearing her; she uses such great inflection. She also has great voices for different characters. The other two beg her to read “just one more chapter” every night.
Three little stories all because I wanted to share about how fun it was to teach English today!
Remember, if you have two independent sentences that you want to bring together, then they must be joined with a comma and a conjunction OR with a semicolon. If you only use a comma, then you are committing a crime—it’s called a comma splice. 😬 Happy Writing!!
