How To Find Us

 


We've moved from our old Blogger blogs, and made a few changes. Below are some places you can find us!


         


    
First, you can find us on our Character Ink blog! Here I blog about parenting, homeschooling, marriage, character training, language arts, home management, low-carb/healthy cooking, grammar, reaching the hearts of your children, and teaching. CharacterInkBlog.com  






 



Second, you can find us on three Facebook pages:

 Character Ink!  

Raising Kids With Character

 Language Lady


Note: We are closing the Training for Triumph Facebook page, so be sure to go over and like our Character Ink page for homeschooling and more, and the Raising Kids With Character page for parenting in general.      

 

Third, you can listen to our Wondering Wednesday podcasts episodes at our blog AND in iTunes!     

 


Fourth, you can see samples of our curriculum, print them off, and try them out here for CQLA and here for Meaningful Composition. Check back here often as we are adding the new Meaningful Composition books through summer 2015.



   



 Finally, you can call or email us directly to place an order, to sign up for classes, or to schedule a speaker or a parenting seminar.  

Email us: characterink@gmail.com OR characterinklady@gmail.com  

Call us: 260-450-7063 260-433-4365  

Write us: Ray and Donna Reish
11120 Aboite Center Road
Fort Wayne, IN 46814  


You can also find us on Pinterest, and in our weekly e-newsletters that contain articles, recipes, parenting helps, language arts teaching, and more. Sign up here! And click here to see previous newsletters :)


See you soon!

Rise/Raise and Sit/Set and Lie/Lay Tips

Sit and rise have I's--and lie does too.
"Coz these are things that I, all by myself, can do.
Set, raise, and lay are words that you choose
When each one has an object after it to use.

I am going to take sit/set; rise/raise; and lie/lay one pair at a time over the next few days; however, I wanted to start the series (or at least this second post) with teacher tips.

I have watched kids with glossed over eyes as I have tried many techniques and order to teach these tricky pairs, and have had many difficulties “rise” up and confuse them (and me!):

1. People lie; things get laid down—sort of works, but it’s not just people who lie—the sun lies on the horizon; the city lies asleep in the early morning hours; the animal lies in the middle of the road….you get the idea
2. People lie; things get laid down—but it still didn’t help with the sit/set and rise/raise dilemma
3. The past tense of lie (as in yesterday I lay down to take a nap…don’t I wish!) is the same as the current tense of lay (as in I am going to lay the book on the table)—poor kids!
4. And so many more!

So here are a few tips that I would like to pass along to those trying to teach these rules:

1. Consider a rhyme or mnemonic like the one above to reinforce the I’s in sit, rise, and lie—when we remind students that I do those things—and they have I’s in them, we are helping them remember that these do not have objects following them.
2. Do NOT start with lie. It is by far the most confusing of the trio—and I try to do that one after rise and sit (with fewer exceptions, etc.) are established in students’ minds.
3. DO start with sit. Set has the same tense for all—present; past; and past participle. Today I set the table; yesterday I set the table; before that I have set the table.
4. If you are teaching from a Christian standpoint, Jesus and God are prime examples of rise/rose/has risen and raise/raised/has raised:
1. Jesus will rise from the grave. God will raise Jesus.
2. Jesus rose from the grave. God raised Jesus.
3. Jesus has risen from the grave. God has raised Jesus.

5. Suggested order: sit/set; rise/raise; and lie/lay.

Check out more posts about these confusing verb pairs--including a quiz or two!

Happy teaching—and learning! J

U is for UNUSUAL SPELLING--Facade

You know what one of my least favorite words is? FACADE.

First of all, I work week in and week out to try to teach that an A, O, U, or most consonants make the C say "kuh." That would make this word fuh-kade, right? (Or even fay-kade.) Unfortunately, that is wrong.

It is pronounced fuh-sodd. (That A really doesn't make the C say "kuh.")

That clearly makes this word a FAKE, which is one of its only redeeming qualities--it means what it looks like! Smile...

That bring us to the second aspect of the word--its meaning. It is a noun that means "a face of a building or a superficial appearance."

In that regard, it is as it is pronounced--even though it isn't pronounced like it is spelled (which is true of many words that came from somewhere else).

So it is easy to learn the meaning of---it has to do with what it sounds like--FACE (albeit, a fake face). But it is not spelled as one would think.

So, don't put on a facade today! Don't try to put on a superficial front or fake face. Be yourself!

U is for UNUSUAL SPELLINGS: Wednesday

So many of my students have trouble spelling today’s day of the week! Wednesday is definitely not phonetic, so students (and adults!) get stuck on the spelling of it. Most people say Wednesday without the sound of the d at all.

We teach our students to spell difficult words in many ways, giving them as many tools as we possibly can.

1.    Syllable by syllable—longer words that are phonetic in nature can often be syllabicated and spelled syllable by syllable by a student who is fairly phonetically-savvy: con/se/quence.

2.    Tricks and mnemonics—we call these “Tricky Tricks to Help It Stick” and use them often with our “Wacky Words”—words that have a wacky counterpart that can be confusing, such as the homophones their, there, and they’re. I had an elementary student this year who told the class that they could easily spell Nebuchadnezzar if they just divided it up and pronounced the ch as choo (not kuh): Neb/U/Chad/Nez/Zar! Of course, any tricks that help a person are handy tools to have (though the trick must help that person in order to be effective).

3.    Visual tricks—many visual people spell by “seeing” the word—its shape, its sequence of letters (and the shapes those letters make), etc.

4.    Memorization—some people  are just naturally good spellers (it is now thought to be a specific skill set separate from intelligence) and can memorize a word’s spelling once it is seen.

How do YOU spell Wednesday. Many of my students say it just like it looks to spelll it: WED/NES/DAY!
Does that help you?

S is for SUBORDINATE CLAUSE OPENER--Putting It All Together!

I teach subordinate clause openers extensively in my books because punctuating them properly is key to sentence writing. 

Do you remember what a subordinate clause is from yesterday? A subordinate clause is a sentence (independent clause-can stand alone) that has a subordinator added to the beginning of it (which makes it a dependent clause-is dependent upon something else in order to be used {has to have a real sentence put with it in order to be used}).

Think of subordinate clauses by either of their two names:

1. Subordinate clause--subordinate to the rest of the sentence
2. Dependent clause--dependent on something else to go with it (a real sentence/independent clause) in order to be used


Click here if you need to brush up on subordinators via our Subordinator-Check Sentence or subordinate rhyme.



Subordinate Clause Opener: Now for the opener part.

If you have been reading Language Lady for long, you have learned that a sentence opener has the following characteristics:

1.      It gives a sentence more information.

2.      It comes at the beginning of a sentence, which gives a paragraph a
different rhythm than if it included all subject-verb patterned sentences.

3.      It is often set off with a comma-again, adding to the rhythm of your
sentences.

4.      It si usually non-essential, meaning that the senence is still a
sentence without the addition of an opener.

5.      It shows advanced writing skills because a writer who has a handle
on the many varieties of sentence openers has a large toolbox of sentence structure at his disposal.



So...if a subordinate clause is a group of words that contains a subordinator+subject+verb, then a subordinate clause opener is a subordinator+subject+subordinate clause that is used as a sentence opener.

Simple enough, huh?

The tricky parts of subordinate clause openers are

(1)   Be sure that you never use a subordinate clause opener by itself,
thinking it is a sentence. (It will sound like something is missing-because it is-the real sentence!)

(2)   Be sure that you put a comma following a subordinate clause opener.

When you start a sentence with a subordinate clause, 
Put the comma in when you hear the pause!




Here are some complex sentences created with subordinate clause openers attached to "real" sentence. In grammar lingo, each one is a complex sentence because it has a dependent clause (subordinate clause) at the beginning attached to an independent clause (real sentence).


If you learn subordinators well, you may write sentences with subordinate clauses.

If you put a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence, put a comma in before writing the real sentence part.

As you learn more and more about sentence structure, your writing will improve.

Since people are impressed by good grammar and strong writing, you will become an impressive person as you learn grammar usage.

When you start a sentence with a subordinate clause, put the comma in where you hear the pause.

Although many people do not remember much about dependent and independent clauses, this does not make these clauses unimportant.

Because I want to write well, I am working on my usage skills.

Though some consider analyzing sentences as outdated, I know that it helps me write better.


If you lasted to the end of this lesson, you will be able to write well with subordinate clause openers!

S is for SUBORDINATE CLAUSE OPENERS--Understanding the Subordinate Clause

Studying subordinators, subordinate clauses, and subordinate clause openers...

Did you memorize subordinators, so you can write with subordinate clause openers properly? If not, you can find the post on there here.

Once you memorize subordinators, you are ready to write with subordinate clauses. Specific to this lesson, you will be ready to write subordinate clause openers (subordinate clauses that are added to the beginnings of sentences).

As far as a subordinate clause is concerned, it contains a subordinator and a subject and a verb.

Subordinator + Subject + Verb



When she drove,

As he said,

After she left,

When they arrived,

Because he smiled,



Did you notice anything about those subordinate clauses? If you noticed that each one would be a sentence if the subordinator were removed, you are correct!

A subordinate clause is a sentence (subject + verb) that has a subordinator at the beginning of it!

Sentence: She drove.
Subordinate clause:  When she drove,


Sentence: He said.
Subordinate clause: As he said,


Sentence: She left.
Subordinate clause: After she left,



Sentence: They arrived.
Subordinate clause: When they arrived,



Sentence: He smiled.
Subordinate clause: Because he smiled,


So....a subordinate clause is a sentence (independent clause-can stand
alone) that has a subordinator added to the beginning of it (which makes it a dependent clause-is dependent upon something else in order to be used {has to have a real sentence put with it in order to be used}).

Think of subordinate clauses by either of their two names:

1. Subordinate clause--subordinate to the rest of the sentence
2. Dependent clause--dependent on something else to go with it (a real sentence/independent clause) in order to be used

S is for SUBORDINATE CLAUSE (Starting With SUBORDINATORS!)

Image from linguisticsgirl.com

When you start a sentence with a subordinate clause,
Put the comma in when you hear the pause!


That is a cute rhyme (don't you think?)....but unless you know what a subordinate clause is (and prior to that, what a subordinator is), it will not do you much good to recite it. So this post will go back to what subordinators are first. 

Maybe you were taught that subordinators (words that make the part of the sentence that they are in be "subordinate" to the rest of the sentence) are called other things, like conjunctives or subordinate conjunctions. Some grammar handbooks do not even classify subordinators at all but call them whatever other class they fall under (i.e. the preposition before might always be called a preposition, even though it is a subordinator when it has a subject and verb following it).

Regardless of what you were taught about subordinators, they are extremely important to good writing. Why? 

A subordinator is a word that falls at the beginning of a subordinate clause.

A subordinate clause has the following characteristics:

1. It is a group of words that begins with a subordinator and has a subject and verb following it.

2. It is subordinate to the rest of the sentence--that is, it is "less than" the real sentence.

3. It may not stand alone as it is not a real sentence.

4. It sounds as though something is missing when it is read--because something is (the real sentence!).

5. It may be joined with a complete sentence to create a complex sentence, but the subordinate clause may never stand alone.

So....what are subordinators?

Let's start with the first six that we teach our youngest language arts students in our books:

Since, when, though
Because, if, although.

Yeah, it's a rhyme! Cute, huh? (I love teaching!)

Anyway, for you older folks, we have a Subordinator-Check Sentence that most subordinators fit into. 

In a nutshell, if a word fits in the check sentence and the word is not an adverb, it is likely a subordinator:


________________________ the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.


Since the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.


When the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.


Though the submarine went down, we could STILL  see it.


Because the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.


If the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.


Although the submarine went down, we could STILL see it.

Okay, those are the first six.

 Here is a lengthy, but not exhaustive list of subordinators:

-after (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-although
-as (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-as if
-as long as
-as soon as
-as though
-because
-because of (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-before (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-even
-even if
-even though
-if
-inasmuch as
-in order that
-lest
-now (more commonly used as an adverb)
-now since
-now that
-now when
-once
-provided
-rather than
-since
-than (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-that
-though
-til (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-unless
-until (also a preposition when it just has an object following it)
-when
-whenever
-where
-where ever
-where as
-whether
-which
-which ever
-while
-who
-whoever
-why


In as much as the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.

Until the submarine went down, we could STILL see it.

While the submarine went down, we could no longer see it.



 We will stop here and give you time to memorize these before we go on in a day or two working on punctuating sentences that begin with subordinate clauses. Just looking at the Subordinator-Check Sentence, though, you can probably deduce that the first rhyme in this post is accurate: a subordinate clause opener is followed by a comma. More later!