Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

I am sitting next to my six year old in church yesterday I look over at the coloring sheet she is working on and see this...

Wii Love God?  At first I chuckle to myself thinking she knows it funny to spell "we" as  "Wii".  When I point it out to my husband he asks if me if she really thinks that is how you spell "we"?   So I ask her and sure enough she thought she was spelling it right!  Now, there are two was I could look at this.  I could get down on us both.  "Why have I not taught her the right way?  How could she not know how to spell "we"?"  Or I could be proud as punch that she took what she learned out in the real world and filled in the blanks of what I have taught her!  I choose the 2nd one!  I wrote a post not too long ago about Invented Spelling.  This I guess you could call Environmental Spelling?  She learned to spell Wii from living with her 13 year old brother (Her environment.) and she used it to write on her church coloring sheet!  Awesome!  I would much rather have a child who is trying and not getting things 100% right, than a child who doesn't try and only wants to do things if they are right!  She was a little upset with herself when I told her it was wrong.  But, then I explained to her how happy I was that she was using the knowledge she had to learn and expand what she knows.  That is what learning is all about!  There is no way I will ever be able to teach my kids every single thing they need to know.  So finding out they are putting two and two together on their own is GREAT!

Wii are proud!!!!

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Comments

Posted by Maleah

This is a great story. I totally agree with you about not stressing about the kids doing everything by the book.

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Posted by writmm

I definitely think you picked the right option. My daughter (7) is spelling a lot of things phonetically. She is writing all the time. Her father is stressed out about it. I am ot. I am tickled that she is creative and is always wanting to write down her own stories and songs. Meanwhile, we work on spelling a bit at a time:)

Melissa
www.melissaomarkham.com

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Posted by Diane

Wii love your blog. :)

Come visit my blog whenever you get a chance, i've nominated you for an award.

Have a great week!

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Posted by Anonymous

good for her! i would be proud, too! my oldest DD is like your "other" example...she does not want to do it unless it's right. I truly believe it is a product of being in the PS system for 3 1/2 years. She is now discovering the JOY of learning from mistakes :) Yay!

Thanks for the good reads on your blog!


http://thehundacademy.blogspot.com/

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Posted by Jennifer

My kids just got a Wii last Thursday. When I saw your blog entry, I asked my 6yoDD how to spell "we". She said the exact same thing yours did, "wii". She also gave me this look like I was stupid or something. They were in there playing it when I asked her to come in the room. LOL

Have a nice labor day wiik!!

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Posted by kellieann

The other day I was cleaning out and labeling some things in my pantry, and I wrote Wal-nuts on a label. So I totally get what you're saying....I just automatically hyphenate things that start with wal because I spend half of our income at Wal-mart. It's sort of a homage, I guess.

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Posted by skdenfeld

My youngest daughter is the same way. Her sister is the one that needs to know it is correct. How great that you feel confident enough to let her be free to feel her way through it.

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Posted by Anonymous

You have such a great way of looking at things!
Dana, www.alexml.blogspot.com

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