Tuesday, March 16, 2010

You Say Conjunction, I Say Interjections!

One of my favorite things about Facebook are the spontaneous little conversations that erupt in the comment boxes under status updates. Sure, people can post all sorts of notes to tell you about themselves, but you really learn things about your friends in these casual, chatty asides!

Yesterday, for my status update, I posted a line from the old grammar rock song about unpacking our adjectives. Remember that one? "He was a hairy bear, he was a scary bear, we beat a hasty retreat from his lair..." This has caused a totally friendly disagreement between two of my dear friends (one of them my husband!) about their favorite grammar rock song of all time. It cracks me up. And I can't even cast a deciding vote because I love both Conjunction Junction and Interjections! (Hooray! Eeek! Aw, rats...)


We have the whole Schoolhouse Rock collection on DVD and have been playing it lately as the sweet girl is learning about the kinds of things that get a lot of airtime in the songs. Adjectives, adverbs, the multiplication table and gravity have been big hits at our house this month.

If you're a person of a certain age (come on, you know who you are!) you grew up with these little gems singing through your brain. If you saw them enough on Saturday mornings, it's possible you still wake up with some of them singing through your brain from time to time. "Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here!" "Three is a magic number, yes it is, it's a magic number!" "Take your powder, take your gun, report to General Washington..."

So if you loved Schoolhouse Rock, what are you favorites? Inquiring minds what to know. If you can't remember all the lyrics, you can go here to find them. And once you're done telling me some of your favorites, you can actually head over here to cast your official vote on the Schoolhouse Rock website. Who knew?

And hey, did anyone else ever have to take an American civics quiz on the preamble to the Constitution? At some point in high school I did, and I'm pretty sure the whole class was singing under their breaths as they wrote. Oh go on...you still know it by heart...you know you do!

And just for the record, though it's really hard to choose favorites, I'm partial to "A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing," "Electricity" (though "Victim of Gravity" is also wonderful), "I'm Just a Bill," and "Figure Eight." Though I must confess "Sufferin' Till Suffrage" does buzz through my brain more often than you might guess. Yes indeed, I am a child of the 70s!

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