Spelling Power

Today I thought I'd provide a glimpse into the new spelling program we are using this year. So far, I LOVE IT (as for Hunter, I've received no complaints whatsoever). 'Spelling Power' (an award winning program and Cathy Duffy pick!) focuses on the 5000 most frequently used and misspelled words in the English language. There are no grade levels (just corresponding letters -level A= first grade, level B= second grade, etc.), and no weekly lists. You read that right! NO WEEKLY LISTS!

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You start off by giving your student a series of detailed assessments (very user friendly, everything is in the manual!). The results of these assessments determine which level is an appropriate starting point for your student. You begin with group 1 of the appropriate level, and work your way through AT THE STUDENT'S OWN PACE! No pressure to finish the book in one year, no getting bored with the same words over and over. In my opinion, I believe the best part of this program is the idea that if Hunter knows a word, we move on, and he never has to prove his knowledge of that word again! We only practice words he has misspelled.

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Here is a shot of the page we are currently using. He is on level C, and working through group 3 right now.

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Hunter's test sheet starts off looking like this. The left column is labeled 'Test Words', and the right column is labeled 'Words to learn'. The book comes with a cd rom that contains files of printable test sheets. I feel they are a little busy for Hunter's level, so I just improvise :o)

The first words of the test are always the word/words he got wrong the day before. SO you start with the missed words from yesterday, and then continue through the list in the book - for five minutes, and then you stop!
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I love watching him use that noggin!

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Here he is writing the first word, 'which', which is the only word he missed yesterday.





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An important step in this special process is to stop and review each word immediately after your student has finished writing it. If they spelled it right, move on to the next word. If they spelled it wrong, the student rewrites the word, spelled correctly, in the 'words to learn' column. Move on to the next word.

Hunter got through five words before he missed one, 'pick', which he spelled 'pik'. At that point, I write the word on the whiteboard, and we discuss the correct spelling.





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Here is Hunter copying the correct spelling into the 'words to learn column'.




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After that, we had time for one more word, 'picked', which he spelled correctly, leaving 'pick' as the ONLY word he has to study!

Here is where things get interesting:

Now that we have his words to learn, we go through a unique list of activities.

Step one:
Review the word, say the spelling out loud, and discuss anything tricky, such as silent letters

(Hunter took this picture, and was told NOT to include anything but my arm, on pain of no birthday presents!)


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Step two: The student closes their eyes, says the word, spells the word, and says the word again (spelling-bee style). If the student spells is right, move on, if not, go back to step one.

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Step three: The student traces the letters on a tabletop, while saying the letters out loud. This is an awesome mental/physical connection for them! Again, if he gets it right, we move on. If not, we go back to step one.

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Step four: The student says the word, writes the word (speaking out loud as he writes each letter), and says the word again.

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At this point, if he has it right, you're done! (if not, you guessed it! Go back to step one, and continue until the student gets all the steps right)

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Go through all of the steps, on missed word at a time. I make a point to throw the words out at Hunter throughout the evening, and especially at dinner. So tomorrow, the first word on Hunter's test will be 'pick', and I'm sure he'll get it right!

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By the way, if your student gets the word wrong again the next day, it is no big deal, you just proceed exactly the same way. That word will stay on their test until they've gotten it right, but you've been able to move through the list at the same time!

Another interesting thing worth mentioning, is that the book you purchase contains ALL of the spelling lists needed for 1st - 12th grade! That is ONE non-consumable book that will sustain ALL of your kids through ALL of their school years!

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Friday Reflections - Week 1

Well, week one is officially behind us! We had a great week, and I am BEYOND thrilled with all of our curriculum. I think the 'well-trained mind' way of doing things is wonderful, concise, organized, and casual, while at the same time, is extremely content-rich!
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Here is a look back at our first week of the year


Here is our happy first-grader on the first morning of school!

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He was VERY happy to see the new school room. He had been SO patient as Justin and I poured everything we had into that room to get it ready for the new school year!

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Morgan quickly made herself busy, checking out the goodies in her nook :o)

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And of course, my 15 month old baby stayed on the rug and quietly amused herself while Hunter and I did lessons. (yeah, I totally snorted pop out of my nose when I read that sentence too....)

I swear - she looked like this the WHOLE time!! (Ocean front property in Arizona, anyone???)

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When I was planning out the school year, I had a little bit of difficulty deciding how I would organize some of Hunter's work this year. One thing I am really, really happy with kind of sprung up out of nowhere, but I think it's going to work great.

For writing, we are using Writing With Ease. It is easy to forget that writing should involve much more than handwriting worksheets. This program encompasses the physical act of writing, but also includes reading comprehension, narration, mechanics, and formation of thought.

I decided that we would organize Hunter's writing in a composition notebook (which I covered in camo duck tape to up the 'coolness' factor!) Each page will have the entire week's worth of lessons on it. This way, we can flip through the book and see Hunter's progress as the year goes by.

While reading 'The Well Trained Mind', it was brought to my attention that just because Hunter is physically capable of writing, that doesn't mean I should force him to write out every little thing he thinks. Hunter has written very little this week, but each day he has formed thoughts into words, which I have put down on the page for him to read. At this stage, most kids' ability to form sentences in their brains far outpaces their ability to physically write those sentences down. By incorporating narration into almost every subject, Hunter is generating complex thoughts and sentences, but not getting burnt out while recording them. This concept makes so much sense to me, and it's validity was confirmed 100% as we got through an entire week without so much as a *peep* of complaint from Hunter.

Here is what his writing notebook looks like:

In Writing With Ease, each week focuses on a different work of literature. Week one takes its assignments from 'Little House in the Big Woods'.

Day 1: copy work sentence, discuss title and author

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Day 2: read a passage from 'Little House', discuss comprehension questions, complete narration exercise

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Day 3: copy work sentence

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Day 4: read a second passage from 'Little House', discuss comprehension questions, complete narration exercise

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Science was also fun this week, as Hunter learned about NASA, Copernicus, Galileo, and definitions of words like astronomy, astronomer, and gravitational pull! He also created his own mnemonic device to remember the names of the planets. The sentence he came up with was:

My Very Enthusiastic Muppet Jumped Sideways Up Nine Pinetrees

(and yes, we discussed the Pluto controversy!)

Here you see one of the notebook pages, once again utilizing narration!

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I copy Hunter's worksheets in the hope that the originals can be used for Morgan in the future. Our copier/printer is acting up, so I had to do as the Marines do and 'Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome' - so hand copied worksheets it was!

We are continuing from where we left off at the end of last school year, Alpha, lesson 15

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So there is our week in review! On deck for next week: Pinocchio (for writing), nomads, full moon, and a cave painting!

The School Room is DONE - and just in the nick of time!

Well, it took Justin and I until 3am this morning, but sure enough, we got the school room done in time to begin Hunter's first grade year this morning! We had a great day, and I can't wait to get back to it tomorrow! (When we were done, Hunter actually said "awww, can't we do more??" - so I let him use my label maker while we put some binders together :o)
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Anyway, how about some school room pics??
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In order for you to get the full effect of how far we've come in 3 months, I'll share some before pics:

Here we are looking into what is now the school room, this is what it looked like when we moved in over Memorial Day.

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Inside the school room looking out into the living room. We built a closet that now conceals the water heater and stashes all of our school goodies.

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Here is Justin framing one of the 9,000 soffits in the school room, thanks to the builder leaving pipes in inconvenient places.

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My Dad and Justin framing the wall that now holds our whiteboards. (We had to frame all four walls in this room)

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And now for the After photos!!

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Here we are in the living room looking into the school room. (we dropped everything in the living room to focus on the school room, which is why the stairs are still bare and the doors lack casing. Don't worry, after a small break, we'll get on that :o)

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Ahhhh, just like I dreamt it!!!

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Here you can see the closet over to the left.

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Hunter's desk: a thrift store find that I stripped and painted black, then I painted the top with dry erase paint, so his whole desktop is one big dry erase board!

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Goodies waiting for Hunter at his desk this morning included a brand new, big kid Bible, a Berenstain Bears book, and a Toy Story lunch box with new dry erase markers, Chicago sports teams pencils, bookmarks, and some silly-bands :o)

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We added a little bit of Hunter's personality/passion to the desk drawers

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I used this adorable antique canning jar for pencils. I secured the jar to the desk using 3m picture hanging strips.

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Morgan's nook :o) I made the magnet board out of an antique frame and some flashing

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This is the shelf above my desk; a little homage to Laura Ingalls Wilder and my love for the one room schoolhouse concept

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I LOVE this antique tea table, and it just happened to work perfectly in the room as a printer stand!

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Well, there it is! There is still a lot of wall space to fill, but I was not at all interested in cluttering up the walls straight out of the gate. We'll be doing rain gutter bookshelves again, and hanging various projects from throughout the year. For now though, I love how simple, clean, and calm this space is! The rest of my house is still a disaster, since we spend every spare minute on the basement. However, now we have this space to greet us every morning, and I am feeling so blessed :o)

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