spelling bee

I first started spelling lists by pulling them out of the "Teach your child to read" book we've used for Sunny and Posy. They went on and on and on, and last spring, Sunny and Posy got really impatient with me. "I already know how to spell these words!" True. They do.

Sunny has always disliked spelling assignments but frequently mentions that she thinks a spelling bee, like she read about in Little Town on the Prairie, would be fun.

So I did an online search and came up with BigIQKids which has 40 spelling lists (each) for grades 1 through 8. It also has other word lists in the left column but I went with the spelling. I printed out 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Sunny started with third grade and Posy with second, and they don't write the word 5 times or put it in a sentence, or write it at all. I ask them to spell it out loud, like in a spelling bee. Just doing that, they've both knocked out over 10 lists with only one or two errors total. I mark the words they get wrong and at the end, when we finish all 40 lists, then we'll go back over the errors. I'm sure there will be more - the words do get progressively harder. But if this is how we're going to knock out a spelling curriculum, as required by the State of Connecticut, then so be it.