Formal Spelling Lessons Begin

Today was day one (only 4 days behind schedule) of testing Thomas to determine the appropriate level at which to start his spelling curriculum (Spelling Power). We sat at the kitchen table, not our normal schooling place, to give it a more "test like atmosphere".

The test began with words such as "going", "did" and "get". Thomas was able to get all the way to the words "curiousity", "butcher" and "prairie" before he hit the threshhold for misspelled words. At first he said "these are too easy". I reminded him that the words would soon be much more difficult (the program starts at age 8 and goes through grade 11). In the end, he was spelling as I expected him to. Guessing and putting the sounds together as he went.

We will attempt to spend some time (self directed primarily) on spelling each day and undoubtably Thomas will learn some of the idiosyncracies (did I spell that right??? lol) of the English language.

How is your spelling??

Did you know that English does in fact have a very poor phonemic orthography, or correspondence between how the words are written and how they are spoken. For more information on what Thomas may subscribe to by the end of this years program, see English Spelling Reform at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_reform

Blessings,
Marie