I had a brilliant Christmas Day with my family! I spent the day at my ex-wife’s with our children and stuffed myself silly with ham and turkey. Yes, I do have a happy divorce from my ex-wife which is why we are like brother and sister today \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
One of my son’s presents was “i before e (except after c)” by Judy Parkinson and is a throw back to “old-school ways to remember stuff” – I just loved reading it, not least for the nostalgia and also to give me something to post about and “Yes, yes, yes!” – I’m scraping the barrel but give me a break, it is Christmas!<\/p>\n
One of the verses used to educate the little darlings of 1855 was written by David Tower and Benjamin Tweed and it goes like this:<\/p>\n
“Three little words you often see
\nAre articles<\/strong>: a,an and the.<\/p>\nA noun’s<\/strong> the name of anything,
\nAs: school or garden, toy or swing.
\n
\nAdjective<\/strong>s tell the kind of noun,
\nAs: great,small, pretty, white or brown.<\/p>\nVerbs<\/strong> tell of something being done,
\nTo read, write, count, sing, jump or run.<\/p>\nHow things are done, the adverbs<\/strong> tell,
\nAs: slowly, quickly, badly, well.<\/p>\nConjunctions<\/strong> join the words together,
\nAs: men and women, wind or weather.<\/p>\nThe preposition<\/strong> stands before
\nA noun as: in or through a door.<\/p>\nThe interjection<\/strong> shows surprise
\nAs: Oh, how pretty! or Ah! How wise!<\/p>\nThe whole are called the parts of speech,
\nWhich reading, writing, speaking teach.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe book then went on to deal with punctuation in poetic fashion; Cecil Hartley wrote “Principles of Punctuation” in 1818:<\/p>\n
“The stops point out, with truth, the time of pause
\nA sentence doth require at ev’ry clause.
\nAt ev’ry comma, stop while one you count;
\nAt semicolon, two is the amount;
\nA colon doth require the time of three;
\nThe period four, as learned men agree.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nNow I think learning English was made a lot more fun in the olden days than it certainly was for me, but then again back in 1818 I’d probably be a chimney sweep covered in soot, a powder monkey getting blown up in a battleship or dying of malnutrition in a cotton mill at the age of 6.<\/p>\n
Halcyon Days!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a brilliant Christmas Day with my family! I spent the day at my ex-wife’s with our children and stuffed myself silly with ham and turkey. Yes, I do have a happy divorce from my ex-wife which is why we are like brother and sister today \ud83d\ude09 One of my son’s presents was “i […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-resources","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t