Our coming school year...and spelling
Monday, August 20, 2012 at 07:26PM Well, the local public schools (middle and high school) started back today. The elementary schools start back tomorrow. We'll be starting our own year next Wednesday with the first day of our one-day-a-week enrichment program (used to be Options, now called LEAP...which stands for Loveland Enrichment Access Program). In the meantime, I thought I'd do some of my somewhat regular curriculum reviews. ;) (look back through June 2010 and June 2011)
To start with, here's the background about our homeschool journey. Amazingly, most of that post still holds true. But, Noah's now 11 and will be starting sixth grade. Asher's 10 and is "technically" fourth grade this year (though he's listed as a 5th grader at LEAP...given his summer birthday, he could be either). Micah's 7 and is technically second grade this year (though he's listed as a 3rd grader at LEAP...given his summer birthday, he'd be either a first grader or second grader this year...yes, he's precocious and is listed as a third grader because he's already taken the second grade classes there).
So. Spelling. A couple years ago, we started the All About Spelling program. We also used it the following year. And, we're still using it. That review from June 2011 is still pretty much spot on. It's a keeper for us!
We're mostly done with Level 5 now, though. We're still having issues with boys who hate to be wrong. ;) And I'm still working on separating out the boys so they're at different levels. This past year, I stuck with this routine...
- Tuesday, I'd give them a pretest and had each boy in a different step. (Each book/level is divided into steps.) So, for example, all three would do the ten words for step 11...the older two would also do the ten words for step 12...and the oldest would also do the ten words for step 13. So, there was both review of past words (for the older boys) and a preview of coming words (for the younger boys). (This is the part where we'd have the regular lectures about how mistakes are good.)
- Wednesday, we'd go over the steps, themselves, and the spelling rules and all...basically just following the curriculum plan.
- Thursday, I'd dictate sentences to the boys. Similar to the first day, I'd start with the lowest step and build...so that the youngest was writing a few sentences, Asher had about 6 and Noah had about 9. (I should probably make them write more sentences.)
- Friday, we'd have our final tests for the week. (If, though, the boy had gotten all the words correct the first day, they didn't have to take the final test...this likely contributed to the issues about missing words that first day.)
Right now, then, I'm debating how I want to change this up for the coming year.
I'm thinking I'll do away with the pretests. They seemed like a good idea at the time...a way to remind them that we're learning new stuff...but it's not working that way. I'm not sure what the value of the pretests is otherwise and it just seems to cause strife. Ideas on what to do instead?
I'm also wondering about whether keeping the boys in three consecutive steps is the best route. I think it's holding Noah back and that the younger two could use more review. I also figure that the way it was working meant that the younger two were actually getting less review. Perhaps I need to switch to having every boy do the two steps before along with his current step? Hmmm. Yup. I think I'll do that...have each boy do the two steps before and his own step...and will do away with the pretest in favor of something else (a word search?) that actually just presents the words to the boys so they're not so worried about learning what's coming up so that they don't get any wrong.
What do you think? Seriously...would love to know what works for you!
Reader Comments (2)
So, Options (now LEAP) has moved from Monday to Wednesday?
I think you are a great teacher! Always finding better ways to teach and help the boys be successful. np
sounds like hard work homeschooling. just wondering why you have decided to do home schooling. i am new to your site