We're in the first half of the second grade curriculum for spelling. We started it last year and then kind of forgot about it because we felt we needed to concentrate on getting our science and reading done. Now we're making more of a concerted effort to make spelling a part of our week over the summer. The problem arises when Emperor frequently gets 100 percent on the pretest and other people like Elf and our guest summer homeschooler, G, don't do as well. I don't really have time to do three different curriculum texts, even if I did have unlimited cash. There are "climber" words each week, however, and that means two words they've missed in the past get studied each week. There are also journal exercises, dictionary work (put words in order, etc.) and other workbook pages included.
When I was in grade 5 and 6 we used very similar books to that. They came in 3 different difficulties at the time, maybe something to look into?
ReplyDeleteHow do you even know where to begin? Do you ever think "I can't do this!"? Do you find it intimidating or do you enjoy it or both? Do you have to be given any kind of 'test' in order to homeschool your kids? I know you are not dumb, but what if some really dumb person wants to home school their kids? Then their spelling and maths etc is hopeless too!
ReplyDeleteWill answer in a new post, Tracey. Get ready! :]
ReplyDeleteVeronica, these come in about five different levels, but the thing I like a lot about them is the journal and reading work. While Emperor aces the tests, much of reading and learning comes from more reading and writing about our experiences. Unfortunately, with all the attention on homeschoolers acing spelling bees we can sometimes forget that this knowledge has to come in a context.
PS I think I remember similar things as well in primary school. We also used SRAs, did they have those in Tasmania? I went briefly in New South Wales.