Spelling

I have never done well teaching spelling to my children, but this year I was determined to find something to try with them.  I did lots of research into various options, but most were either too complicated or too expensive ... neither of which appealed to me very much. 

Then I found Sequential Spelling.  I like what I read about it and how it teaches spelling based on word families.  I also like that it is very inexpensive and works well for both of my older kids, even though they are in different grades.  It might have worked to start Laura at the 2nd level, but I figured it would be good to start them both at the beginning and build from there.

The lessons are designed to take you through one level per 180 day school year with one 10-minute lesson per day.  So far, we have done 2 lessons per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The beauty of the lessons (besides how quickly they go) is that the student gets immediate feedback on each word.  The teacher reads the word, followed by a sentence using the word in context, and then the student attempts to spell the word.  The teacher then writes the word on the board, beginning with the word family in one color and adding the other sounds in another color.  The student checks his own work and corrects his own mistakes, thus giving him an opportunity to recognize why they were wrong and mentally correct the mistake.  The student is encouraged to learn from his mistake rather than being upset that a mistake was made.

So far, my kids are loving Sequential Spelling.  They keep asking to do more than 2 lessons a day!  The teacher's book does say that it is okay to do multiple lessons a day as long as you space them several hours apart and don't do more than 4 lessons in one day.  I am thinking that 2 is enough!

I hope we have finally found what we will use for spelling for the next several years and more importantly, I hope my kids will finally learn how to spell!

Science Experiment - Mummified Apple

We have completed our first science experiment of the year.  We are studying Apologia's Human Anatomy and Physiology and the first lesson was basically an introduction to the course.  This introduction began with a discussion of several ancient cultures and their study of anatomy and ended with a simplified description of cells.

As part of the history of anatomy we read about the ancient Egyptians and the process of mummification.  The suggested experiment involved observing what would happen to a peeled apple if it were left uncovered for a week compared to one that was covered in a mixture of salt and baking soda.

We began the experiment last week by cutting an apple in half and peeling it.  The control apple was left in an open bowl.  The kids mixed the baking soda and salt and took turns covering the other apple.

Taking turns covering the apple...
even Gilligan got in on the action

Once the apple was covered the only thing left to do was wait.  We completed our scientific speculation sheet and observed what was happening to the control apple each day.

The children each had a hypothosis for what would happen to each apple and they all got it pretty close.  Everyone agreed that the control apple would rot, but that the other one probably wouldn't.  Actually, they all agreed that the covered apple would change, but no one could really guess as to how it would change.

The change in the control apple was easily observed and, by the end, quite disgusting.

This is today ... I missed photographing day 6,
but trust me, it looked much the same as today.

This morning we uncovered the other apple (I guess I should be calling them specimens or something scientific like that) to see what the salt and baking soda mixture had done for it.  The kids were incredibly excited to find that their hypothoses had been correct.  The covered apple had changed, but it wasn't rotten, or even nasty looking.  It has turned a yellow/brown and the texture is now kind of rubbery or maybe spongy would be a better word.

I am sure that this is just the first of many experiments we will do this year.  In truth, science was never my favorite subject in school, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had done things like this and had a textbook like the ones from Apologia.  All three kids are enjoying science (even the reading) and can recall more information than I would have ever thought possible!

Neatness Counts

Twice in the last two weeks, I have had to face my failings as a teacher in the work my daughter is doing.  I have no choice but to admit that I have been way too lax with both the kids when it comes to requiring neatness and even to letting them off the hook for mistakes.  I have always pointed out their mistakes, but haven't always made them correct them. 

Just for the record, that was a bad idea!

Now that Laura is getting older and her work is getting harder, I almost feel like apologizing to her for not being more consistent when she was younger and the work was easier.  But, as I have had to face many times before, I cannot change the past and all we can do is move forward from where we are now.  And, sometimes, that means we may have to step back and evaluate where we are before we can know how to move forward.

With that in mind, I have come to the conclusion that we will not be moving as fast in grammar as I would like so that I can stress the importance of turning in neat, accurate work.  I want her to be responsible for checking to see that she has spelled words correctly and started every sentence with a capital letter and ended it with a correct punctuation mark.  I hope that it won't slow us down too much, but I really think that it will serve us both well for her to learn this now.  Hopefully a few times like today, when she had to completely redo an assignment, will help her to remember to do it correctly the first time.

The benefit for me is that I hopefully won't make the same mistake with the boys that I made with Laura.  Poor thing, she has been my trial run for a number of years now.  Maybe one day I'll get it right!