This month we wanted to talk about the hidden gift of the present tense and make a special announcement about our new PDF workbooks.
As Marie explains in Lesson 10 of The Basic Cozy Grammar Course, tense is simply a change in the form of a verb to show whether the time being discussed is the past, present, or future.
Take a peek at her lesson on the present tense in our first free excerpt. Once you're done, I'll explain what I mean by the hidden gift of the present tense.
The Present Tense and Being Here and Now
The present tense may seem at first like a very basic and simple matter. And at a certain level, of course, it is.
As Marie and I point out in the Lesson 10 Study Notes, however, the present tense can be used in a number of different ways. I describe these ways in a supplementary video included with the Study Notes.
But beyond those ways, this tense also offers a reminder and a gift. Since we've been blessed with a beautiful spring this year, we've made an extra bonus video to share even more about the present tense.
Take a peek at our second free excerpt below.
The Present of the Present
Whenever we remember to be present and grateful to the beauty around us, we discover the gift of the moment we're living in. We could even call it, playing with the words, the present of the present.
I highly encourage you to take a moment this month to notice something beautiful in the present. Then try writing a poem about it using the present tense.
After you're done, you'll have a reminder of that moment of your own. Even when it's over, the moment will continue to be present in the gift you've given yourself with words.
And if you happen to write a poem that you're particularly happy with, contact us and send us a copy. We might just publish it in an upcoming newsletter!
(The poem I quoted, by the way, comes from my book The Safety of Edges.)
New PDF Workbooks
We're excited to announce that we've recently released a complete set of new PDFs for the revised online Study Notes and Exercises for The Basic Cozy Grammar Course. These allow you to print any sections of the online workbook for which you wish to have hard copies. Simply visit your "My Courses" page to download the sections you want or the entire workbook as a whole.
With all our newly added features, the course PDFs contain nearly 600 pages of material. They also include comprehensive and detailed explanations for every question in the Exercises and Review Tests.
We're currently working on a similar set of PDFs for The Basic Cozy Punctuation Course and will release them as soon as they are ready. Stay tuned!
An Upcoming Opportunity
For our friends in the Pacific Northwest, we're delighted to be appearing at the Washington Homeschool Organization Conference in June. You can read more about the 2019 WHO Conference on their website.
If you're in the neighborhood, we'd be delighted to meet you!
Thank you for being with us this month.
We'll look forward to seeing you again soon!
Warmly,
Thomas
Marie's Language Consultant
The Cozy Grammar Series of Courses