It’s tough to find fun ways to learn with social distancing in place, but we can’t stress how important it is that practice makes perfect! When thinking about keeping skills sharp, most people don’t think about working on their English grammar skills – after all, we talk, think, and write in it every day. But casual conversation and instant messaging can contribute to a “language laziness” that insidiously creeps into the places where you least want it to, like formal papers in secondary school.
For older kids, here’s some easy and fun ways to practice English grammar lessons without it becoming a chore.
Break Out the Mad Libs
For great (adverb) fun and childhood (adjective), check out this fill-in-the-blank word game better known as Mad Libs.
If you must look up the difference between an adjective and an adverb, then that simply proves that you need to play. This is a wonderful game for social distancing, because it’s easy to play on a group call with friends. All ages can enjoy this game, but parents, if you’ve never encountered teenagers playing Mad Libs, we warn you in advance that you may want to cover your ears.
Play the Grammar Saves Lives Game
There’s bad grammar to be found everywhere in real life. It contributes to confusion and sometimes hilarity. Play the Grammar Saves Lives game by sharing the funniest examples you can find reading the news, comments, or while out and about in real life.
If you love this game, maybe consider picking up this book too.
Read The Oatmeal
Are you using i.e. and e.g. correctly? One of the favourite internet-comics also has a series of funny comics dedicated to grammar lessons. You will never need to be confused about when to use who or whom again and can impress your friends with correct use of a semicolon.
Write!
Nothing forces you to work on grammar and sentence structure like writing does. Keep a journal, write short stories, write comics, a screenplay, or start penning the next great novel. We guarantee you’ll have more fun doing it than sitting around moping about being bored, and there’s some great free tools out there that will help you check your grammar, readability, and structure.
Do you like the idea of writing, but need something to hold you accountable? Check out Writely.
A simple distinction about whether we’re talking about your writing or whether you’re writing is important, so be mindful about lazy text-talk creep and be sure to practice, practice, practice!
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