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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Moment
The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Monday Moment is… Bated vs. Baited Bated: |ˈbātid| (adjective) – in great suspense; in anticipation; used in the phrase bated breath. “He waited with bated breath for the call...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Monday Moment is… Peak vs. Pique Peak: |pēk| (verb) – hit the highest point. “Oil prices peaked in July.” Pique: |pēk| (verb) – stimulate (interest or curiosity.) “The...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
This Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Moment is… Pore vs. Pour Pore: |pôr| (verb) – to be absorbed in the reading or study of. “She’s going to pore over the documents all weekend.” Pour: |pôr| (verb) – to cause...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Reminder
(Republished from November 2010.) The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Moment of the day is… Affect vs. Effect Affect: Verb. To have influence on. To have an effect on. Effect: Noun. A change that is a result or...
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Redundant Phrases
I found out over the weekend that the phrase added bonus is considered redundant. This blew my mind and caused me to research other common redundancies. Here are a some I found, only a few of which had...
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Free Rice
Originally posted in 2010. Updated for 2012. I feel it is my global, grammatical, and terminological (huh?) duty to share this site once a year. I still love it. If you need to rattle the vocabulary...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Moment
I covered this same topic in a post a couple of years ago, but Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm hasn’t gotten a hold of it yet. Plus, it’s one of the most common usage errors in this here English language we all...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
“Between the ‘A’ and the ‘T.’” I grew up hearing this. It was my grammatically correct mom’s response whenever I’d end a question with the word “at.” Where’s my ballet bag at? What time is rehearsal...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
The Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm Moment is… Either vs. Neither This is one of those rules that’s a little difficult to explain, and I hope I have enough of a grasp of it myself to explain. If I make any glaring...
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Prepositions!
(“Under the sea.” Get it?) Okay! Here’s the situation: A preposition links a noun or pronoun to the rest of the words in a sentence. And I love this description from The Writing Centre at University of...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm – I or Me?
By Heather Sanders Lidian H. wrote to me this week asking if I would tackle the use of “I” when the proper word to use is “me”, and vice versa. For the record, and many of you will nod your heads in...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm – All right or Alright?
By Heather Sanders After posting the Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm distinction for when to use I or Me, I received several emails requesting dissemination of many other grammar faux pas, which means I am...
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm – Who vs. Whom
By Heather Sanders The question of whether to use the pronoun “who” or “whom” is often a struggle. While there is a shortcut I learned in middle school, let’s take a look at the grammar rule first....
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Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm –“In to” or “Into”?
By Heather Sanders I am often hesitant to write Mean Ol ‘Schoolmarm posts because I am not a grammarian. That said, writing these posts exercises my love of learning and encourages me to remain...
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Eggcorns!
Question: Have you ever heard of an eggcorn? Well, I hadn’t either until a few days ago! I love learning new things. Before I show you examples (you’ll immediately recognize the phenomenon as soon as...
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The Best of Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm
Mean Ol’ Schoolmarm started posting here back in 2010 as a way not only to point common grammar and usage errors, but also as a way to dive deeper into them myself herself and learn precisely the...
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My 10 Most Commonly Misspelled Words
By Heather Sanders Each homeschooling family handles spelling differently. Initially, I assigned spelling words from the Language Arts portion of Sonlight’s Core curriculum, but eventually switched to...
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The Cost of Homeschooling
By Heather Sanders Those of us who have homeschooled multiple children for several years have the advantage of off-setting costs for subsequent kids by saving/copying curriculum and texts/readers....
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Community Question: Math Methods
Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the...
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For Summer Reading (Winners!)
The winners of the iPad minis and the iTunes gift cards are… #12473 Mandi B: “Most talkative by Andy Cohen.” #26604 Sonya: “Just started Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” #65526 Joannee:...
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