mimi's new thing is spelling words. she is really getting into spelling. our day is a smattering of "guess what? i know how to spell ___." and then she'll spell it for me.
even before she started kindergarten, she had a few words that she could spell correctly- love, from, mom, dad, mimi, ozzy, kaya, happy, good and most three letter words and common sight words. but once she started kindergarten, her teacher started to teach her about word study and how when they are writing they can, in mimi's words, write it "any way they want to." so one day i see her writing and she writes "love' L-O-V and then says out loud to me, "mom, i'm going to leave the E off the word because my teacher says to stretch out the word and write the letters you hear and you dont have to worry about it being spelled correctly."
riiiiiiight. when i was a teacher, i had come across that bit of confusion before. so i corrected her and said, yes, IF you dont know how to spell a word, you can stretch it out and then go back and fix it later, BUT if you know how to spell the word, you spell it correctly.
"but...but...but...my teacher said i could!" she sputtered, her elation at being free to spell how she liked without worry about it being wrong and never having to do anything about it completely shattered by what i was telling her.
i answered her, "i guar-ruh-huh-hun-tee it, that any teacher would say, and remember, mommy was a teacher, ANY teacher will tell you that if you know how to spell the word, you have to spell it correctly."
she sat and pouted over that and for a while i wasnt sure that she was going to listen to me and started to think this is one of those things that she is going to decide her teacher knows better than me. so when i met with her teacher at the parent teacher conference earlier this month, i told her about this and she told me that she would be sure to set mimi straight.
since then, mimi has been on a spelling kick, which has also been more recently inspired by school since they have started pulling her out of her kindergarten classroom for reading and word study with some older kids for 90 minutes every day. and BOY does she loooooo-huh-huhve getting to hang with the bigger kids!
so, she comes home with a fistful of leaves and tells me she is going to design a picture using the leaves. she sets to work on it and when she is finished she shows me the finished product, which is a bunny made from fall leaves and a caption that reads: "Mimi made this picture", but even as i was commenting on her work, my eye is caught by something else next to the finished work...
first, she had drawn out a plan (the teacher in me loooooves that she did this), and then when she was writing the caption to her artwork, she couldnt spell picture, so she, as we'd say in the classroom, "had a go at it" by writing it different ways.
even before she started kindergarten, she had a few words that she could spell correctly- love, from, mom, dad, mimi, ozzy, kaya, happy, good and most three letter words and common sight words. but once she started kindergarten, her teacher started to teach her about word study and how when they are writing they can, in mimi's words, write it "any way they want to." so one day i see her writing and she writes "love' L-O-V and then says out loud to me, "mom, i'm going to leave the E off the word because my teacher says to stretch out the word and write the letters you hear and you dont have to worry about it being spelled correctly."
riiiiiiight. when i was a teacher, i had come across that bit of confusion before. so i corrected her and said, yes, IF you dont know how to spell a word, you can stretch it out and then go back and fix it later, BUT if you know how to spell the word, you spell it correctly.
"but...but...but...my teacher said i could!" she sputtered, her elation at being free to spell how she liked without worry about it being wrong and never having to do anything about it completely shattered by what i was telling her.
i answered her, "i guar-ruh-huh-hun-tee it, that any teacher would say, and remember, mommy was a teacher, ANY teacher will tell you that if you know how to spell the word, you have to spell it correctly."
she sat and pouted over that and for a while i wasnt sure that she was going to listen to me and started to think this is one of those things that she is going to decide her teacher knows better than me. so when i met with her teacher at the parent teacher conference earlier this month, i told her about this and she told me that she would be sure to set mimi straight.
since then, mimi has been on a spelling kick, which has also been more recently inspired by school since they have started pulling her out of her kindergarten classroom for reading and word study with some older kids for 90 minutes every day. and BOY does she loooooo-huh-huhve getting to hang with the bigger kids!
so, she comes home with a fistful of leaves and tells me she is going to design a picture using the leaves. she sets to work on it and when she is finished she shows me the finished product, which is a bunny made from fall leaves and a caption that reads: "Mimi made this picture", but even as i was commenting on her work, my eye is caught by something else next to the finished work...
first, she had drawn out a plan (the teacher in me loooooves that she did this), and then when she was writing the caption to her artwork, she couldnt spell picture, so she, as we'd say in the classroom, "had a go at it" by writing it different ways.
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