The Sentence Family
When we stared homeschooling four years ago IrishDev decided he wanted to be very involved with homeschool. Since he works during the week we decided that a Sunday morning would be a good time for him to teach the kids something. I took him at his word and organised a fun, easy program for him to start with boys. Enter The Sentence Family. (e-book)
At the time the kids were 9,8 6 and 4 ish. They were just out of public school and had little or no exposure to grammar, so I wanted something light to introduce them to it. The Sentence Family introduces the thirteen members of the Sentence Family, four adults (the four types of sentences) and nine children (the nine parts of speech), in a fun and memorable way. Four years later we still talk about Mr. Declarative and Mrs. Exclamatory.
Mr.Imperative on the right was drawn by IrishKing when he was four
Hubby started each lesson by reading the story and then himself and the kids would draw each character with color and visual cues provided in the book. Their gestures, colors used, and clothing suggest their personalities, and drawings helped to internalize the characters. According to the introduction in The Sentence Family, “The drawings ‘put flesh on’ the definitions, and therefore engages more of their (childs) brain”. As you draw, you discuss the part of speech and note what each character might “say” in a sentence.
At the end of the book, there is additional information on diagraming sentences. Verbs and Noun sleep on horizontal beds sharing a common headboard, while Adjective and Adverb sleep on slanted beds, ingenious.
If you are looking for a fun way to introduce your kids to grammar you might want to give The Sentence Family a look. Now, it’s been four years since IrishDev did The Sentence Family with the kids, and he has done little since. So much for his big involvement in homeschool!! Men 😉