Boy do I remember the days my oldest daughter hated to read  and write because she didn’t understand spellings of words.  Now being in seventh grade I can not get her to put down a book.  She has a friend who has the Kindle and let her borrow it so she can read the new book she wanted.  There are some big words she comes across that still baffle her.  What I have turned that into is her writing and spelling assignments.  She gives me a list of the words she has  problems with and I make printable lists for her.  With that she will write the word a few times and I will give spelling test on them.  For some reason in her mind this is more fun than just a plain ol’ spelling test with random words for the week.  Go figure, but hey if it works…go with it!!

Well I knew what would be coming next!  The “I want a Kindle, Mom” statement.  I was doing some research on them and told her she needs to start saving for it and I will help her with the difference.  A couple of weeks have gone by and she went to the bookstore with her father to look for a gift for a friend.  While there she looking at their e-reader.  Much to my amazement she came home and said “I’m not sure if I want a e-reader, Mom.”   I asked why and she she said, ” I love the smell of books and holding them in my hand to read.”  Technology lost out on this one!

Spelling is hard enough for kids to learn without throwing them a curve ball full of contractions.  But unfortunately, that’s exactly what homeschooling parents have to do.  So how can we teach about contractions and make the experience a little less painful for the kids?

Look around for some contraction games to keep the kids interested.  There’s so much on the internet these days, so many resources just waiting to be discovered.   Google is your friend!

Have you ever heard of Opposite Day, where every word you say means the opposite?  The kids really enjoy telling me how much they hate me on opposite day!  They talk about how hot their ice cream is, and how they really want to go to bed early, etc.  Hey, it’s goofy but it’s fun and it works!

How about giving Contraction Day a try!  The rule is that everyone in the house has to avoid all contractions, because if they use a contraction in their everyday conversation, they have to….yes, you guessed it….SPELL it!  Make it fun, throw in some finger pointing and a “Gotcha!” when someone says a contraction, and make them spell it for everyone present.  It’s surprising how many contractions we use in normal conversation, and the kids really like it when parents get “caught” and have to spell out the contractions too!

My strong recommendation for those homeschooling and using the web is to check out the following.

 Time4Learning’s web-based online curriculum.  They have great interactive lessons for middle school, elementary school, and even preschool.  It’s highly interactive and full of animation and multimedia. Whereas some curriculum are just lots of text with an occassional video or animation, Time4Learning is an interactive experience.  All those tough math concepts seem simple when they’re explained in such alight-hearted manner.  Who says fractions has to be hard? Their great multimedia lays it out so simply.  Give it a try.  Time4Learning is a great homeschool partner. They let you sign up month to month and start and quit at any time. Start by looking at their lesson demos.
 

 Number 2 choice – Time4Writing.  If you are like me, you find some subjects hard to teach.  One of the hardest is writing skills, especially when the kids get into middle and high school.  Expectations are so high. And my kids just don’t react well to my correcting their writing. Want help?  This isn’t a “how to”, it’s an online tutoring course where they work directly with your student teaching writing skills every week and giving one-on-one feedback.  You get the same tutor for the whole eight week course which the kids really like. It’s definitely worth taking Time4Writing’s writing classes. They have sentence writing, paragraph writing, essay writing (these are for writing tests and college essays), and research paper writing.
 
 
Number 3 choice – Fun Building Vocabulary. This is not really a curriculum choice but a fun collection of vocabulary games. Vocabulary is Fun is a leading vocabulary website worldwide with the best flash online word games.  The vocabulary games include an online word search, an online crossword puzzle, and hangman online (their version is called HangMouse).  Users choose the vocabulary list that the online word game will use in the word game. So have some Fun Building Vocabulary.  
 
 
Number 4 Choice – Spelling City. This spelling program should be used by everyone. I would have put it first but I’m not a huge believer in the importance of spelling skills.  Despite that, now that I’m using this site, I’ve returned to having spelling as part of our weekly routine.  You know what’s really cool, check out how the vocabulary site’s science songs have put their vocabulary/spellinglist on SpellingCity.
 
 
Number 5 choice – This learning games website is really what it sounds like.  But they have the best collections.  For instance, they have keyboarding games, memory games,  science songs (also integrated with vocabulary lists), and math learning games.

Well today my T4L went dormant…Three of my students will be returning and I let the other 2 accounts drop.

As I was printing out the records last night and looking at the average scores of their activities, I found myself so grateful that I did t4l, esp. for the neighbor’s grandson. Here was written proof of what he had accomplished.

And for my son with special needs, when I meet w/ professionals about his strengths, weaknesses and school performance, I know what grade level he is doing and what kind of “grades” he makes.

It is such a relief to have these measurements of this school year!

I already miss t4l even though it hasn’t been dormant for 24 hours yet! It is quite a motivation to have everything ready to go for school. No one has to hunt for books or pencils, I don’t have to prepare anything…

Actually, I am glad for the break. I think I will continue to do 3 months of T4L and then breaking for a month to do special things that don’t get done.

Today I had everybody make up some spelling words pertaining to their special projects on spellingcity.com.That is a great little site! Normally I use Sequential Spelling. I started making lists on spelling city w/ those words, too.Now that everyone won’t be on the computer doing t4l, we will have more time for it.

I’d like everyone to brush up on typing. I have a typing program and the kids found a great typing game that looks just like guitar hero!

Also on the agenda is math drill sheets.

I’m probably repeating myself, but t4l really did give me a much needed boost just when I needed it! It’s good to have something to fall back on.

Since we missed some weeks from dh’s broken ankle I am going to continue on for probably one more week. But pretty much, we are finished with the school year!

I am so pleased to end on such a good note. This has been my best year yet!

I’ve found a fantastic resource for spelling help. We’ve been using it every week to practice for spelling tests and my 11 yr old has gotten 100% every week, which was not the case before we started using Spelling City. I, for one, never knew that it could be so hard to teach spelling. It’s not even so much teaching spelling though, as teaching a child HOW TO STUDY for the weekly spelling test. Before using SpellingCity.com dd would just look at her weekly list and write the words as I called them out. Not fun… for either of us, and not very effective. Online games are a much more effective way of getting knowledge into my very e-oriented kid’s brain… and keeping it there.

They already had practice spelling tests and spelling games but they continue to add new fun features! New games, printable worksheets for handwriting practice, and more, more, more. I highly recommend it for any kid who has to take a weekly spelling test.

Have any of you tried it out? I’m still exploring the site and I keep finding new things. It’s one of those things like caller ID… once you have it, you just wonder how you got along in life without it.

Hope you all find Spelling City to be as useful as I have!

JK