What do you do to help your kids.....

[Pooh93]

In 1st grade the teacher would give out the spelling words a week before the test, so I would give dd a little pretest to see how many she knew. Depending on how well she did, we would take a practice test every night or every other night and the ones she'd miss, I'd have her write 3-5x. By the next friday, she knew them all and never missed a spelling word the entire year.

Now, in 2nd grade the rules have changed. Teacher gives them a pretest on monday, sight unseen. If they get them all correct, the kid does not have to take the test on friday. She's missed one the last couple weeks, so she's had to take the friday test. So, the same theory and rules apply. So far it's worked well.

 

[Mishetta]

My DS & I do the same as you Pooh93. As soon as he comes home on Friday & I see the words, I give him a little quiz to see which ones he knows & which ones we need to work on. I write each one out on a 3 x 5 card anyway & then as he spells them off, I put the card down. (Even tho he knows them, I quiz him daily on those too ~ just in case he gets a brain hiccup & forgets them). Anyway, the ones he is learning, I have him write them 5 times each & I also "sing" him the spelling of the words. That usually works but for some reason the word "answered" was just so tough for him to pick up. We will probably continue along as usual unless he has a real stumbling block word which he can't figure out (like "answered") & try it Browneyes' way of breaking it down. It worked this morning. He saw it ONE time & that was it, he knows it now.

He got an "A" in spelling last year. I hope he gets another "A" this year!

He seems to be breezing through math this year so far (yep, a whole 3 weeks into school ) so I guess the Math homework my DH gave my DS daily throughout the summer really worked!