~ A. A. Milne
With another school year started, the agony that is the spelling test has once again entered our lives.
Bugaboo has a spelling test every week. Most weeks there are 20 words, but this week there were only fourteen. I guess that was a gift from the teacher because it was the first test of the year and she wanted to ease the kids into the torture...or maybe that's the parents!
Four of the "words" were actually things related to the school. The name of the school (including the whole "Elementary School" bit), the name of the town we live in, the name of the principal and the name of Bugaboo's teacher. The other ten words were words "with long 'a' and long 'i'". Words like convey and hesitate.
As I go through the words with Bugaboo, I generally try to have him define them for me, hoping that will boost his vocabulary. When he can't, I give the easiest definition I can think of, but sometimes, the easiest isn't down at his level.
Bugaboo got his words on Monday. We had Monday night and Tuesday night to study for the pre-test on Wednesday. I didn't have high hopes for the possibility of success on the pre-test due to wobbly spelling, but figured it was a pre-test, so no big deal.
Bugaboo got in the car after school Wednesday and told me that if they get a 100% on their pre-test, they don't have to take the test on Friday. Well, that's an incentive we can work with! He didn't know how he did on the pre-test yet, so we still spent time studying that night.
Yesterday, he got in the car after school and was grinning from ear to ear. I asked what he was so happy about, and he said that he didn't have to take the test on Friday! Whoo-Hoo! That was a fist pumping moment for this Nonnie!
So Bugaboo and I have made a deal that we'll do our best on Monday and Tuesday nights to learn his words, so he has extra time to play the Wii the rest of the week instead of studying for the spelling test. Maybe it won't be so torturous this year.
Until later...
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