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Is Old English irrelevant to kids today? And a question about contractions in grammar …
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Okay, as I sit here reading through selections of bible verses, poems and hymns to share with my DD for reading lessons I find myself completely in love with this good old fashioned non-twaddle stuff – then I stop and wonder if it isn’t all too outdated for kids today.
For example, should I really introduce words we don’t use when we are actually speaking -like loveth and doth- to my 6 year old? Or should I just change them to their modern day English meaning? I know she will likely use/need to know the words when she is a bit older and reads classic poems or books but are they too much to introduce to a beginning reader?
Also, I am wondering if introducing contractions is too confusing for a beginning reader with no knowledge of grammar (obviously). Naturally, many books and poems have contractions in them, simple ones like “I’ll” , and I hadn’t thought about it before, but now I am wondering if it will be confusing for a child or if I could just quickly explain what they mean. What do you think?
Hasn’t caused us any problems – either older English words or contractions. I quickly explain what it means (if she seems confused at all) and we move on. I think introducing things like this as you come across them even when they are this young will make challenging books more accessible as you progress, and make the grammar aspect of contractions easier to teach when you get to that point because she’s already seen them before.
Jen
While I agree with Jen that Old English can be accessible to children and lay a good foundation for future challenging books, I also think that in the very beginning reading lessons there may be merit in using word forms that the child will see most often. Obviously, children years ago learned those older word forms in their reading lessons, so it’s not asking too much; but they probably also saw those words more often than our children today will. That’s one reason we edited the Hymns in Prose for Children book; it contained many of the Old English word forms, which are beautiful and children will need to know what they are, but may not be the most practical for beginners.
Now, that being said, one of the key components will be mom’s attitude toward the words. I love how Jen seemed to approach them as nothing daunting: “quickly explain . . . and we move on.”
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