Susie-Q&A

I love our spelling curriculum.  Really love it.  The concept is eminently sensible:  teach spelling rules implicitly by word families.  Brilliant!

However, I’m finding the implementation a bit tricky.

The main issue is the difference in my students’ ages and abilities, and the inability (unwillingness?) of my younger ones to tolerate prolonged writing sessions.

I have three students in the first Sequential Spelling book.  I started all on the same level (even though the oldest could probably move ahead a bit).  My idea was to quiz all three at once, and thus save time.

Save time.  Ha.

I find my youngest student lagging behind because writing the spelling word takes her longer.  We wait, and wait, and wait for her to finish writing.  While the boys wiggle around and make bored and disgruntled noises, I sit there practicing my deep breathing and trying not to allow the pressure to build up in my temples.  (Either that, or struggling to stay awake–depends on the day I’ve had.)

Given that her older brothers are what you might call reluctant students, I tend to lose them during long delays.   Mentally, yes–but physically sometimes as well.  For example, one will decide he needs a restroom break right about the time she puts the last flourish on the last letter, thus extending our delay that much longer.

In short, spelling is a grind.  It’s frustrating for them, and for me.  I find myself dreading it, and putting it off until it’s too late, and this program is no good unless used daily.  As much as I love this program’s concept, I need to tweak it a bit so we can get it done consistently.

Desperate, and unwilling to give up my wonderful Sequential Spelling, I have decided to revisit SpellingCity.com. This spelling site, used by many a homeschooler, allows children to test their spelling words online, play games based on their lists, print handwriting sheets, and so on.  Most of the features are free; a few (none that I need) require a premium membership.

I’ve entered the first few days’ quizzes, and now I’m trying to figure out how to make it work with this spelling program.

For one thing, Spelling City doesn’t recognize certain forms of the words on the list (though they have more than 40,000 in their database).  So, “Mr. Skinner,” for example, and “treed,” will not be tested.  This is not a huge deal, as AVKO instructs parents to shorten lists as necessary anyway.

However, one of my criteria for spelling this year was that spelling would double as handwriting practice, because coming up with copywork on a consistent basis has been a problem for me in the past.  Having noticed a downward trend toward sloppiness and illegibility in their penmanship last year, I gave each of these students a refresher course in D’Nealian at the beginning of the school year so we could be sure they were forming their letters correctly.   The idea was that they were to observe me writing the correct spellings on the whiteboard, then correct not only their spelling, but any letter may have formed incorrectly.

Well, taking the tests online obviously eliminates the handwriting element.  On the upside, it eliminates the prolonged writing sessions too, which are contrary to the stated goal of the program (AVKO recommends getting through the lists quickly).   And presumably it would add the element of consistency we need to get those implicit spelling rules into their brains.  It’s no good holding out for low-tech spelling sessions if that makes it less likely we’ll do spelling every day.  Better the daily practice.

SpellingCity will allow me to print a D’Nealian handwriting sheet for each list, but as AVKO’s Sequential Spelling lists are 25 words per day for most of the school year, that works out to two printed pages per child–lots of paper, lots of expensive ink…and, I anticipate, lots of unhappiness, just as there is now with the status quo.  SpellingCity’s printable lists are not, as far as I can see, editable.  In other words, I can’t select just a few words, like the ones the child misspelled, from the list for him to trace and/or copy.  It’s all or none.

If I want to have them write only the words they missed, and perhaps all the homophones noted on each list, I could do up my own handwriting sheets using StartWrite (or simply have them copy onto blank handwriting paper from the Sequential Spelling book after they complete their quiz).  This would cut down the frustration of having to write so many words, which, for my two younger students, is a large part of our difficulty in spelling.

Another issue is that all of my spelling students are beginning typists.  I can only trust that “hunting and pecking” for their spelling quizzes will not interfere with their progress on Typing Instructor.

I’d love to hear from parents who’ve used SpellingCity for students aged 7-10–especially those who may have used it with Sequential Spelling.  Anything I’m missing?

That’s how I feel with these new templates. Isn’t there any way to fiddle with the code?

Today was a red-letter day for Ian.  He sat in the dentist’s chair like a little man and did all the hygenist told him to do.  His teeth are nice and clean, thanks to our tag-team brushing (mommy brushes his teeth, then hands the “finishing” over to him).

He even took regular bathroom breaks while we were out.  (Ordinarily, he resists strange bathrooms.  He barely likes our bathroom.)  To sweeten the day even further, I got several spontaneous hugs from him.   My little lion was cuddly and affectionate.   He’s able to express himself quite clearly now.  It’s nice to carry on a good conversation with my little four-year-old general-in-the-making.  I get to see what makes him tick.

Speaking of ticks, he did some deer spotting today.  No spotlight-grabbing fantastic headlines necessary this time–(“A fox ate Neena [the cat]!”)–because he had real news to share:  “Mom, I saw two deer in the back yard!”  And so there were:  a doe and her fawn.

He’s such a great little person.

Haven’t blogged about it much–haven’t blogged about anything much–but I took up the tin whistle last year, at about the same time the kids did in our Classical Conversations program.  I haven’t made as much progress as I’d hoped to by this time.  The goal was to have all the tunes on my short list down pat, but I still stumble over certain spots in each one.  By winter, I’d like to have a few session-ready tunes, in case I stumble across the elusive (probably mythical) local session.  I do believe the only effective way to reach session-readiness is to play along with recordings, so that means commandeering the “school” computer, since my laptop went mute months ago (fried sound card, I surmise).  And that means beating the kids to said computer.

But I think that’s really the only way.  Playing along will force me to keep going, to find my place quickly again after the musical equivalent of a face-plant, to emulate people who actually know what they’re doing.  Otherwise, I’ve only my rank amateur self as a measure.  I need a little higher star at which to aim.

I listen to good playing, mind you.  But listening to good musicians when I’m not playing doesn’t necessarily translate into good practice sessions.  Just take my word for it; already been there and done the experiment for you.  I’ve got Audacity to slow my .mp3′s down a bit, but I’d like to keep them somewhat close to speed to force quick improvement.

My favorite jig so far is Willie Coleman’s.  My favorite (only) polka is The Britches Full of Stitches.  I haven’t got a favorite reel yet.  I find my reel selections a bit tedious to play.  I’d say Flowers of Edinburgh, but that, I have learned, is actually a barn dance.  Don’t ask me what a barn dance is.  I find all these dance tune categories terribly confusing.  I’ve always liked Flowers of Edinburgh, but I can’t play it straight through to save my life.

Willie Coleman’s:

Eyes must close now. I am at their mercy. Time for bed!

If you have considered homeschooling, are facing your first year with some trepidation, or wonder what advantages homeschooling affords, I highly recommend you set aside an hour of your time to view this concise summary of how it’s done, by parents who’ve successfully sent three of their five children to college.  This family uses the Robinson Curriculum, but even if you are leaning toward another curriculum, their advice is applicable.  This series is well worth your small investment of time.   Homeschooling requires a very different approach than mass schooling, and this couple sums it up well.

Here is the first video, to whet your appetite.

My dear, sweet mother-in-law gave me a food dehydrator a couple of visits ago.  I was itching to try it, and when I came across bagged bananas marked down to .39/lb. (my buy-it price!  ding, ding!), I knew I’d found the foodstuff for the inaugural experiment.

First, I rescued several bananas from the marauding toddler, who likes squashing them about as much as eating them, and returned them to my stash.  Then, I sliced my bananas 1/8-in. thick, or as thin as I could get them.  I dipped them in pineapple juice because I didn’t have any lemon juice, and I’d just drained pineapples for pineapple salsa (which was good, but that’s another story).  I put them as close together as I dared on the trays.  There are four trays in my dehydrator, and it took me a little while to fill them.

I dried them on the proper setting (indicated on the lid) for several hours.  I can’t remember how many now.  Sorry, I’m no Pioneer Woman–no pictures, no recipes.  But, they came out great!  And they sat around 2-3 weeks before I rediscovered them and we devoured the entire bag in one sitting.

Next, I tried some of the canned pineapple I have stocked in the basement pantry.  I got these through the food co-op and I need to use them up.  These, I tossed with a bit of sugar (shh, don’t tell the nutrition police) because they are not very sweet.  Another great batch of dried fruit!  We snacked on them as “emergency food” when the power went out yesterday during a thunderstorm.  They’d make a nice addition to homemade granola.

Now I was feeling very brave…very brave, indeed.  I decided to try deer jerky.  We still have a good bit of venison in the freezer since hubby took a couple of does in the backyard last season.  I sliced the venison 1/8-in. thick in to varying lengths (we didn’t butcher those deer very precisely) and marinated them in this recipe.  I started them rather late in the day, maybe early afternoon, on the highest setting, but still, I did not expect them to be done so early.  They were good and dry by dinner-time.

See, I’d already noshed on the first tray.  Very good!

Mmmmmm!

I’ve already got two more bags of marked-down bananas ready to go next.

I am thrilled to pieces with my new toy.  Thanks again, Mama Cox!