Two years ago, I began a spelling book with B. while she was in first grade. Within a few months, it became clear that we were wasting our time: even though each week she completed a lesson and successfully spelled all the words in it, several weeks later she would not remember how to spell any of the words that she had not already known how to spell. So we put it aside for the year, and picked it up next year, in second grade. This time she knew more words to begin with, but we had the same result with the words she didn’t know. Again, I decided we were just wasting our time, so we put the book aside again. This year, in third grade, I decided we really better start working on spelling, so we picked the book up again. B. was delighted to try spelling words, and we worked through the entire book of 34 lessons in just one week. The result: she knew all the words but eighteen. Wow, that was much easier! Now, if I could just be confident that in two years she will know all (or most) of the third-grade spelling words, I could really relax.
Filed under: Children, Homeschooling | Tagged: Children, Homeschooling
