Spelling Tests

I'm writing this post in response to questions that are being asked about how D-Man is doing on his spelling tests. First, I should expain how I give the tests. The point of the test isn't for him to get 100% on it. It is for him to do it ALL BY HIMSELF with no help from me. That is tough for me; I like to help him out. However, since it is important to find out how well he's grasping the phonograms and spelling words, I just sit there and tell him the words. I can also use them in a sentence for him, but that seems to distract him from writing down the actual spelling word. I throw in maybe 2 sentences in out of 10 words.


It is also important to know that we'll do all of these same words next year. The program is designed to be redundant. We'll go over each list at least twice. Depending on how fast we go through the words, I may do a quick review each year of the words we've already covered twice just to make sure he's got it. This year, we'll go through lists A-I (approximately) doing only 10 words/week. Next year we'll do lists A-L doing 20 words/week. In case you're wondering, the lists vary in number of words. The first few lists have 20 words in them.



He's doing great so far. We completed our 3rd test today and he got a 100%. He also scored 100% on the first two. This was the first week that the words had a couple of two-letter phonograms included. It actually required him to think about how to spell the words. That is the point...not to memorize how each word is spelled, but to think about the composition of the word. One of the many reasons I love this program! This method will allow him to spell words correctly that he's never seen as well as read (sound out) words that he's never read before.

Golf Lessons

Now that D-Man is 5, he's finally old enough for golf lessons. He's been infatuated with golf since he was about 18 months old. Until now, he's been satisfied with the driving range and our backyard, but not anymore. Shawn found out that our local golf course offers group lessons for 5-10 yr old kids for less $$ than the YMCA. Surprising, I know. It was a 1-week long class for 1 hour/day. There were 9 kids in D-Man's class and two instructors. Among the students, there was only one other 5 yo. They spent time practicing their full-swings, short-game, and putting. On the last day, they even got to go out to the course to play a couple of holes. D-Man loved every minute of it. He never even complained about the heat (he's definitely my most Texan child). At the end of the week, he asked if we could spend our "break week" (week in between golf and swimming lessons) out on the golf course...everyday. I said "no," but that I'm sure Dad and Grandpa would take him golfing plenty of times when we go to Camp-of-the-Woods. We're also thinking about signing him up for lessons again in August. I'm just a bit worried about the SA temperatures. Our week was reasonably cool (only in the 80s) for the end of June.

Even C-Monster got in on the action. Shawn came to watch the lessons on the last day, but because they took the kids out on the course, he didn't get to see D-Man play. He did get to put around the green with C-Monster though.

Daniel's First Spelling List

Today, we finally got to start spelling. We had to wait until D-Man learned the proper way to form all of his letters. He had picked up some bad habits by trying to figure out how to write by himself, so we learned the proper way to write each letter. I thought that he would fight me, but he didn't have any problems. I think that he likes knowing the "right" way to do it instead of guessing or making it up each time he writes a letter.

I had planned on taking it fairly slow only doing 2-4 letters each day, but D-Man had other ideas. He didn't want to only do two letters the first day, he wanted to do ALL of them. So, we did. He insisted on doing that everyday. I found that it was much easier for him to write on a dry erase board instead of a piece of paper. He doesn't have to put much pressure on a dry-erase marker, so it keeps him from getting tired as he writes. Here was his dry-erase board the first day:

Yes, it is very colorful. I think he did a GREAT job.

I figured that we couldn't just practice letters everyday or he would get bored. Plus, now that he knows how to form them correctly, he will have plenty of opportunity to practice them as we do our spelling words. One of the prinicples that SWR keeps repeating is to get on with it.

I decided that we would only do 10 words/wk this year so that it wouldn't take too long and D-Man wouldn't get tired writing them. The first 10 words were a breeze for him. I didn't know how it would go since he's never spelled before. He can read all of the words easily, but spelling is a different skill. I'm glad that today was easy for him so that he'll be excited to do more later. We wrote them first on a piece of paper so that he wouldn't have to concentrate on his penmanship. Later, we transferred them to his log concentrating more on penmanship. Here is a pic of the words in his log.

If you're wondering why there is a 3 on top of the a in all and the y in my is underlined, that is part of the program. We use marking in our log to remind us how a phonogram sounds in the word. The 3 indicates that it is the third sound of "a" and the line tells us that it is the second vowel sound of "y" (standing in for "I").

This log essentially becomes his textbook for the year. It has reference pages in the back that we are building and his spelling words in the front. We will be reading these words throughout the year to help him gain fluency.

When we do our spelling words each week, he doesn't just copy them. I tell (dictate) the word to him and help him figure out which phonograms to use for the words. He actually had to think about how the word is constructed. I think it is a great method to learn phonics to both encode and decode words.

Now that we have our words for the week, we'll do several enrichment exercises with them and have a test on Friday. I'm very interested to find out how he handles his first test.

GO!! Our first day of school

Well, we were "supposed" to wait until June 1st to officially start Kindergarten, but we didn't. After reading some posts on the Sonlight forums, I decided that we should gradually start school. First, we would start our Sonlight core; then, add in math; and finally, Spell to Write and Read. It didn't work exactly like that. We started the first day of our core on Friday. D-Man started learning his memory verse and we talked about our character trait of the week: attentiveness. Instead of continuing on with our core reading, D-Man begged to start his math workbook. I made him stop math after 3 lessons since we hadn't had breakfast yet. I wasn't suprised that he did 3 lessons and wanted to do more. After breakfast, we read our whole day's worth of Sonlight and a little more. Shawn was a little disappointed that we hadn't saved any school reading for bedtime. Overall, it was a GREAT first day.

One thing I figured out was that one day of core reading just isn't enough for us. So, I decided that we would just go through each of our "assignments" at our own pace and possibly do the entire thing twice this year. Basically, I need to be flexible.

Preschool Graduation

We had a fabulous year at our church's preschool this year. D-Man enjoyed his special time out of the house for 5 hrs/day, 3 days/week. He made some close friends, gained some independence, and took part in some fun activities. As excited as I am to start homeschooling him, I am sad that our year of preschool is over. As usual, the director, Susan, planned a wonderful graduation to end the year. All of the pre-K students (the two classes of 4/5 year olds that will go on to Kindergarten next year) took part in the special ceremony. One of the highlights was asking each child what they wanted to be when they grew up. D-Man wanted to "work on computers with his Daddy." There were some ballerinas, a race car drvier, and a few doctors. Shawn's favorite was the cute little girl who wants to be Batman.

Miss Susie, the art teacher, made profile cutouts for each child. They had them posted around the chapel without names, but we knew immediately which one was D-Man. This will be framed and put in his room.

D-Man with his teachers, Miss Maria and Miss Deloris. I couldn't have asked for a better set of teachers for Daniel's class.

The whole class. There were 12 girls and 4 boys. Although, the boys and girls played well together, it seemed like the boys really bonded over the year. The really tall boy next to D-Man is his best friend in the class.