Spelling

A few friends have asked what curriculum I use for spelling.

Right now? My own.


You can find spelling lists online for each grade level that your child is comprehending- that's a perk of homeschooling, to move your child up or down according to their individual readiness. Maren is in 1st grade, reading at a 3rd grade level, so for a challenge of learning new words I took ideas from 4th grade spelling lists.

Using Microsoft Word, I made a weekly list consisting of 9-10 words for Maren, 6-8 words for my kindergarten age son Kellan.

Both of them have a folder they call their "Dictionary". Each Monday, I put their new list for the week on the left side. The middle section has pages from A-Z for them to add in their new words alphabetically as they learn them. The right side has a column for each week to make a record of their testing.

So this is how we use this subject: Mondays they receive their new list. 1st Grader writes her words in cursive practicing handwriting, and looks words up in a dictionary. Kindergartener writes spelling words 3 times each in manuscript, focusing on handwriting for both.

Tuesday: 1st Grader uses dictionary for vocabulary and deciphering if the word is a noun/verb/adjective, etc, and writes it in a sentence. Kindergartener writes rhyming words for his list.

Wednesday: 1st grader focuses on grammar and usage of words (past or present tense, pluralizing, or conjugating verbs.) Kindergartener writes/traces/or copies from a writing board sentences containing his spelling words- focusing on punctuation and handwriting for both kids.

Thursday: 1st grader has creative, free writing time in journal, and reviews spelling and vocabulary for the list of words, alphabetizes them on a worksheet. Kindergartener has phonics lessons of combined sounds like TH, SH, CH, OU, EE, OO etc, and review of list words that might reflect those.

Friday is testing on spelling and knowledge of proper use of words, then they add them to their "Dictionary" to indicate that they have shown they have learned it. The date is noted on the right column of their folder, and a gold star just because I'm cool like that!

Also, the folder is record at the completion of their learning each week, so all of their papers of writing gets thrown away- this will go in their end of the year binder documenting their progress for our legal records. VERY easy and compact!




Other ways I supplement learning vocabulary and grammar for them are these worksheets I made. My first grader will have a sentence written incorrectly with mistakes like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or incorrectly conjugated verbs, and she must critically think and correct the sentences. My kindergartener will be given a sound such as "-ing" and makes a list of words containing that combined sound of letters.

For further language and grammar for my 1st Grader, we are using Shurley English, and it fits us perfectly!

Number combinations and Twins

In my house I have two school age children, who are two different types of learners. My daughter is artistic oriented. She loves drawing, coloring, and writing. And she's very good at those things. My son is math oriented. He loves building, solving, and counting, which he also is very good at.

We played a little exercise today during math time, which enaged both of their interests, and can easily be adapted for each child's level of understanding. We took index cards, and on the blank side I drew a black line, and made a group of dots of differing amounts on each half. My 1st grader had more dots to count, my Kindergartener had less dots to count.

(ignore the crooked lines and the less-than-perfect dots, this was made during our discussion, and I knew they would be throw aways, this isn't something you would want to laminate and keep around necessarily. But my compulsive self wanted to make a perfect looking one just for pictures, I've resisted!)

In math this week we've been talking about "twins." (4+3=7 and 3+4=7 ) So on the back of each index card they needed to write the number combinations and figure out the sum, then write the twin as well.

Then I gave them a few blank ones, to write their own combination of numbers, and the math sentences on the back. My daughter, the artistic and creative one, was a bit more ambitious than her skills are capable of, and drew about 86 dots on one side, and 74 dots on the other side, then she became stumped when she couldn't figure out the sum and kept loosing count! We finally agreed that Mom knew what she was talking about, and she ended up settling for a number in the 20's.

My kindergartener dislikes writing with a captial D! But if you give the kid a math game, he will show that he DOES know how to write the numbers, even if his handwriting needs a lot of improvement. Not bad for the second week of school, and the kid who refused to write them independently before today, huh?

(Let's pretend that I know why this picture keeps posting rotated, and I'm just leaving it like this for flare, because I can't figure out why some flip and some don't! Sorry. )

You can also use domino's to write the number combinations, challenge them to figure out the sum. We also used colored popsicle sticks that I got at the dollar store to show two different combinations in each hand, we orally figured out the sum, and then crossed their hands to reverse the number combination, helping them get the idea of "twin" addition facts.

To learn how to write numbers, my son has been practicing his letters on these worksheets, which I made for preschool activities pritint off my own templates from kidzone. I made a binder of beginner words, their names, capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers, then put them in page protectors. They trace the letters or numbers with dry erase markers so they can be used again and again, and from kid to kid!

After he successfully wrote numbers with a pencil, and wasn't tracing or transition writing them, he felt much more confident in himself, and told me that he prefers a notebook now, he doesn't want to use the preschool workbooks anymore. WIN!

Math + Folders = Fun!

One of the things I'm adding to our supplies are folder games, so I've been busy laminating and cutting more things than I ever thought I would do in my life- talk about an initiation, whew!

I've got a schedule for our days I'm going to stick to for the most part, to make sure we get through each subject (and to keep myself on track!) but when there may be times that the toddler is grumpy, or I need to spend one on one time with each of them, I want something that I can say "here, do this project for a minute" and they'll actually have fun when they do it.

So here's a few of the file folders that I've made!

Fishing for numbers (K-1st Grade) The inside of the folder is boats with the spelled number for reading recognition, and each fish has a matching number digit to correctly match up. I found some clear stick-on velcro at Walmart, so it doesn't cover the picture of the boats.

Gold fish Subtraction has math problems to solve the answer for by placing each gold fish on the correct numbered gold fish bowl. (These also have the velcro pieces on the back of the fish to place on the bowls.)

You can find the pattern to download both of these games over at Homeschool Share's website! I laminated the folders after I glued the pictures to it, then placed the velcro on the pictures. For the game pieces, I glued them to cardstock to make them more durable, and then laminated them, and applied the softer piece of the velcro set on the backs.

Happy cutting!