Category: English Fun

An Ongoing Dialog

Hi everyone!

In the past I’ve been making dialogs with random people’s names in order to show what different words or phrases meant.  I’ve decided to create a few characters that I will use over and over so that you can get to know these people and their personalities.  Let me introduce to you the people so far:

First we have Xander.  Xander is a sophomore in an American university.  He likes to watch football (American football) on TV on Monday nights.  He is in a fraternity and likes to drink beer with his friends.  He has an on again/off again girlfriend named Claire.  Xanders major in college is liberal Arts because he really doesn’t know what he wants out of life.  He just knows one thing right now, he is lovin’ college life!

Next, we have Claire.  As you read above, Clair is Xander’s girlfriend.  She is very attractive, but shy.  Even though she is shy, she is not bookish or too quiet.  Once you get to know her, she is quite bubbly.  Her major at the university is the MRS. degree.  Stay tuned to find out what an ‘MRS.’ degree is.

Xander – Come on sweet cakes, let’s get going!

Claire – Sure, where are we going tonight?

Xander – My frat. is having a party.  Let’s go!

Claire – I’d rather have some quiet time with you.

Xander – There will be time for that later.  Now, it’s time to get your groove on!

Pinch Poke, You Owe Me a Coke!

Pinch poke, you owe me a coke!

Slang of the day:  Pinch poke, you owe me a coke!

Meaning:  This is a silly saying you can say when you and a friend say something at the exact same time!

Usage:  Pinch poke, you owe me a coke!

Dialog:

Mom – Who wants the green juice and who wants the orange juice.

Sally and Tommy say at the exact same time – I want the green one.

Tommy – Pinch poke, you owe me a coke!

Sally – I’ll give you a coke, if you give me the green juice.

Tommy – never!

Mom – *sigh*

Mixminder.com

Do you have children or are you a teacher? I have a new web site called mixminder.com. I create wonderful games, worksheets and lesson plans for children of all ages.

I made a rocket ship game where children can practice counting their numbers. There are also several Valentine’s Day games and math problems as well. If you want to teach your own children English, there are many worksheets that introduce the English alphabet that you can use. Stop by and take a look!


Also, follow me on FB at: https://www.facebook.com/mixminder

New English Game

Hi Everyone! I’m creating a new English game and I wanted to let you know how it will work. Every day or so, I will be making a post about a new slang phrase or idiom you can learn. Each phrase will have a card that you can print out and carry with you in your wallet or day planner so you can remember it. Each card will have points that you can earn by using that phrase in an English conversation. If you use the phrase while speaking English you get points. You can keep track of your points and then trade in your points with me to win things like free ebooks and more.

More details to come!! Stay tuned!

Learning English Through Dreaming

Hi Everyone!! I’ve created a new e-book called “Learning English Through Dreaming.” This ebook is 40 pages long and filled with great writing prompts to get you daydreaming in English. Do you want to know what makes this book even more special? The fact that it is part of the live English series. This means that you will be able to talk to me, the author, about any of the writing prompts. Do you have a question about something in the book? Do you need a little grammar help? I’m just a tweet away @theenglishguru.

If you’d like to purchase this book, just click on the button below and I’ll email it to you shortly. There are 3 options to buy it so, look carefully.

 

Learning English Through Dreaming – only the e-book – $3.99 USD





Learning English Through Dreaming – e-book and 3 emailed critiques of your writing – $13.99 USD





Learning English Through Dreaming – e-book and 8 emailed critiques of your writing – $24.99 USD





Easter in Pictures

Here are some pictures that I wanted to share with you all from past Easters.

My daughter took her picture with Mrs. Easter Bunny.

A professional picture of 2 of my 3 children for Easter 3 years ago.

We dyed Easter eggs and put beautiful butterflies on them. These were the prettiest eggs we’ve ever made.

My son shelling Easter eggs.

My son and daughter hard at work shelling the Easter eggs we painted so they could eat some.

These were the pretty Easter eggs we made last year. I can’t wait to see what we make this year.

English proverbs

Proverbs are simple sayings that are based on common sense and are repeated often.  Here are a few of my favorite English proverbs.

The early bird catches the worm.

This means that success will come to people who are well prepared and put forth great effort.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

This can refer to a team or a group of people and that they (as a unit) are only as strong as the weakest person on that team.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

This means that it is just as useful to save the money you have, as it is to earn more money.

All good things come to he who waits.

This is a proverb that is referring to patience.

Easter Traditions

Easter is very late this year.  This year it is on April 24th.  The stores are filled with chocolate bunnies and eggs, as well as little toys.  So many places have different Easter traditions, so I thought I’d write about my family’s Easter traditions.  During the week or two before Easter, I try to find some Easter egg hunts for my children.  Churches, schools, communities and other places organize Easter egg hunts for children.  It’s chaos, but fun.  The children all start at the same time and run, run, run gathering up as many eggs that will fit in their Easter baskets.  Some Easter eggs hunts have colorful plastic eggs filled with candy, some have real hard boiled eggs and other Easter egg hunts have chocolate eggs.  Since I’m from the South in the USA, most of the egg hunts I go to have plastic eggs filled with goodies.  One Easter egg hunt we went to last year had money in the eggs!!!  Last year I took my kids to four different huge Easter egg hunts.

I bet some of you are wondering about the Easter bunny and who he is… Well, on the night before Easter, my children put out their Easter baskets and in the morning they wake up to find many treats and small gifts that the Easter bunny left for them.  In a lot of ways he’s like Santa Claus, but he doesn’t bring as many presents as Santa.

Easter Sunday is a time spent with family, at church, or outside at a park. It’s a great time to relax as many schools have Spring break during Easter time.

Happy Easter to everyone!!  Now, let’s go find some eggs!!!

You win some and you lose some…

Have you ever felt like sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t? Read this story below and answer the questions to see if you can find out what is going Fred’s way and what is not going his way today.

April 11, 2011

Dear Diary,

Today has been a truly bizarre day. So many good things have happened to me and at the same time, so many bad things have happened. My day started out like any other day. I woke up, showered and got dressed. Then, I went downstairs to have breakfast. I opened up the fridge and a milk carton fell out and milk spilled everywhere. It took me a while to clean it up. After I cleaned it up, the door bell rang and on my door step was an envelope. I opened it up and it was a letter from the girl who lived next door. She wanted to meet me at the park. I was on cloud nine!!

After I ate my breakfast, I ran the whole way to the park and then I saw her. Her name was Nicole. She’s so pretty. I walked over to her and we started talking. We decided to have get some ice cream from the vendor and wouldn’t you know it, after I had only 2 licks, my ice cream fell on the ground. I would’ve gotten more, but I didn’t have any more money. Nicole smiled at me and handed me a present. Ahhh, she remembered that it was my birthday. I opened it up.  It was a beautiful scarf that she had knitted. I put on the scarf and we started to walk back home, unfortunately, I tripped on the scarf and fell. Nicole just smiled at me and offered me her hand. Luckily, she didn’t care that I was having a lot of back luck today.

Overall, I had a great day! Until tomorrow diary,

Fred

Questions –

1. What were the three bad things that happened to Fred?

2. What were the two good things that happened to Fred?

3. Why was today special for Fred?

4. What does ‘You win some and you lose some” mean?