Saturday, November 20, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up: Spelling and Treasure Island


This is my first Weekly Wrap-Up.  I'd like to do one at least now and then.  I'm really not sure how often I'll take the time, but I think I'd enjoy having them here to look back at later. 

This week I just want to note a couple of things I'm pleasantly surprised about in our homeschool that have happened very recently.

First, we've had an unexpected shift, in that spelling has become a subject of much more interest recently for all the children.  It really caught on when Peter took an intense interest in it.  Soon all the older ones were spelling, and I was smiling.  There's just nothing like interest and a little friendly competition thrown in now and then to help with motivation.

They've been really interested in the Turbo Twists I got earlier this year on Ebay (some friends we stayed with had some and they'd enjoyed them), as well as some hangman booklets, and Peter is now interested in possibly participating in a spelling bee.  He also used his turn with the Paint program on the computer to start typing out spelling words in a text box, so I opened a Word document for him and let him go to it.  He has spent hours learning how to spell new words and entering them into his document.  If you remember that in the past he was fascinated by large numbers (which I haven't heard anything about recently), you won't be surprised to know that he especially likes long words.

In addition, I think he's finally decided that he's a reader now.  He's known how to read for some time, but I guess he thought it wasn't well enough, as for a long time he would still say that he couldn't read. :-/  I hope he won't say that anymore, ha.  He'd been reading more simple books on his own lately, but after we finished reading Treasure Island aloud on Robert Louis Stevenson's birthday (How cool is that?  And we didn't even plan it!  It was a week ago, November 13th), he picked it up and started reading through it himself.  This is not a simplified version, but the complete and unabridged classic.  He only comes to me for help occasionally with a difficult word.  It amuses me that he jumped from Amelia Bedelia to Treasure Island, but I guess learning in bursts of passion may be his style.  Bethany is pleased that she's not the only one of the siblings who wants to read alone now sometimes instead of playing, because before Peter didn't understand and would pester her about it.  You don't suppose this will put an end to all pestering, do you? ;-)

Bethany and Zion got in on the spelling extravaganza too, but they weren't quite so taken with the subject.  I just have to say that I love the little look Zion gets on her face when she comes to me to have me secretly write out a word for her so she can go try to stump her siblings or her Dad with it.  It's so cute, and it's interesting to see the words she picks.

Everyone was involved in Treasure Island, too -- even John, who started reading some of the chapters aloud when we were part way through it and ended up almost taking it over by the end!

3 comments:

  1. I love it!! What a great idea! I really want to start doing it too. . .it would be such a great little review of things we've learned. Can I copy you?!

    How fun that the kiddos are having fun with spelling. Isn't it great how they learn when they are ready and interested?!

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  2. Of course you can join in, Shonya! You don't need my permission, lol. I guess we're all "copying" Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, though! ;)

    Yes, delight-directed learning is so fun to witness.

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  3. Awesome! Love when things work out like finishing Treasure Island on RLS's birthday!

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