Jumping Rope versus Eating Ice Cream

A few days ago an ESL teacher friend of mine telephoned me and said that she and a few of her colleagues were having a discussion about a grammar construction in a sentence. She wanted my opinion on the matter. The sentence was this: " Jumping rope is fun." The question was, What role does "Jumping rope" play in the sentence? The answer is "Jumping rope" is a GERUND PHRASE. Normally, a gerund by itself is a present participle of a verb(an "ing" word) acting as a noun. Thus, in the sentence, "Skiing is my favorite sport, "skiing" is the subject of the sentence and a gerund because it is a present participle acting as a noun. If you say, " I am skiing." "Skiing" in that sentence is NOT a gerund because it is part of the verb and is not acting as a noun.

Let's get back to "Jumping rope".As I said, Jumping rope is a gerund phrase because it has TWO words. The technical definition of a gerund phrase is as follows: " The gerund phrase includes the gerund and the object of the gerund or any modifiers related to the gerund.
Another thing: A gerund or gerund phrase can only be a SUBJECT or OBJECT in a sentence. In Jumping rope is fun, "Jumping rope" is the subject of the sentence. If the sentece read: I like jumping rope, the gerund phrase, jumping rope would be the direct object of the verb "like"

Here is another example: Eating ice cream out of a cone can be a messy experience for a two year old child.

I hope I haven't confused the issue more! At this point one might say, Who cares? Why is it at all important in English grammar that I be able to recognize a gerund or a gerund phrase when I see one?
Well, There is one more rule you should know about gerunds. IF YOU ARE USING A PRONOUN IN FRONT OF A GERUND, IT SHOULD BE A POSSESSIVE PRONOUN.....SO...You should not say, "I hope you don't mind ME jumping rope in the classroom!" You SHOULD say, "I hope you don't mind MY jumping rope in the classroom.......and now I hope you don't mind my signing off.....goodbye.