A Short Rant on Grammar

I hate pronouns. I seem incapable of teaching my cherubs pronouns.  As a veteran teacher I know the age that most children acquire the use and understanding of pronouns as part of language.  It is the transition from language to action that I can't seem to impart.  Towels go over the towel rod, not under the rod. Put the dirty clothes in the hamper, not on the hamper or beside the hamper. Hang your clothes up, don't lay them down. [I won't even touch the issue of up versus down regarding toilet seats!]

Other directional words are difficult concepts for my tribe.  The difference between open and shut, for example, is particularly challenging. I have found this especially true when trying to teach the concept regarding drawers, cupboards, and doors. 

Nouns can be part of the problem also.  The nouns "sink" and "counter" are easily mixed up if put in a sentence with "put" [as in "Put the dishes in the sink, not on the counter."] When taking care of clothes the confusion is generally between the noun hanger and the noun floor. [Well, actually the noun hanger is almost diabolical.. easily becoming confused with almost anything.... floor, desk, couch, chair, bed..anything!]

Even some verbs [such as stop] can be misunderstood and exchanged [one more time]. Which leads me to numbers, where 1 [as in the previous example] is interchangeable with almost any larger number!

Oh well... I need to stop, stand up, close my computer, watch just 1 television show and go to bed!