Never bet your child one hundred bucks...............

...durring a spelling test because there is a chance you could lose!

For spelling we use AVKO's Sequential Spelling, which I think is a wonderful program (I like it so much that I've actually blogged about it before). It gives a list of 25 words a day that you test your kids on. A lot of words, yes, but the words build on eachother ( ex. in, sin, pin, spin) and a lot are repeats of words they have already learned before. But they also throw in a few new words, and new spelling rules every so often. Yesterday was one of those days. The words to spell were: it's too bad. Simple and easy, yes. But only if you know whether to use to, too, or two. We have not yet covered that rule. So I just knew , KNEW , KNEW that they were all going to get it wrong and then I could teach them when to use the correct spelling. So I give the words and wait for them all to spell it.

Then, after they are all done and waiting for me to give the correct spelling so they can see if they got it right or need to correct their paper, I open my big, fat mouth (because I'm just so sure I'm right and they all got it wrong) and say " I'll bet $100.00 that none of you got it right ".

Brooks-8yr. starts jumping up and down with his hand shot up in the air and yells,"Let me spell it! Let me spell it! I know I got it right! " I am still VERY confident that everyone had gotten it wrong and put to instead of too so I tell Brooks-8yr. to go ahead and spell it. He very loudly says " I-T, apostrophe S, skip a space T-O-O, skip a space B-A-D". My face went white and my jaw hit the floor. All I could manage to say was "How did you know when to use T-O-O?" His reply (while jumping up and down and all around) was, "I dunno, I think I read it somewhere and you owe me ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!"

Moral of the story: Never bet your homeschooled child that he doesn't know something just because you didn't "teach" it to him. Chances are he might of learned it on his own.




*and no, I didn't give Brooks $100.00. He was a bit disappointed to find out that his mom was not rich and did not have a one hundred dollar bill in her wallet. He settled for a new pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards instead.