Making it fun

In reading/phonics, the boys have been learning their "blends". CH, SH, SM, SN, TH, WH... you get the idea. After a week and a half of studying about 10 of these blends, I gave them some letter cards and had them play a game. The boys each got some select cards with letters on them. I had them work on their own (with a divider so they couldn't see each other) to spell a word. I gave them each a metal bowl, turned upside down, and a spoon. This was their buzzer. It wasn't a race, but just making a noise on a bowl when you're done is enough to make a game totally fun. If they spelled the word right, then they won an M&M. As if the bowl noise wasn't enough... you get an M&M, too!

Yesterday was the first attempt at this game. They tried really hard, but had a difficult time spelling the words (that, shop, chat, etc). They can read these words very well, but to recall it and correctly create it was a whole different story. They did get a few, but it wasn't easy.

Today, after our phonics lesson and review, I decided to try again. Wow, what a difference a day makes! They both did fabulous! We even branched from 4 letter words to do a few 5 letter ones. It was really cool to see them be able to spell the words, but even cooler to see that they were having an awesome time doing so!

(And, yes. Asa decided to go to school today without a shirt. Ahhh... homeschool freedom.)