Have I said that I love the internet?

Well, just in case you were wondering if I'd changed my mind, I still do!

I decided to add spelling to our "Things That We Do In School" because....well....it seemed right. I've gone around and around in my head about it, wondering if we should buy an official curriculum or just learn by "osmosis" - meaning correcting things that she misspells when she writes, etc. etc.) and I could not decide what was best. So I went online (shameless internet plug #1 ) and downloaded the weekly spelling lists from some first grade teachers website in who knows where school and we've been using those. I print out the list on Monday, have Bear write them out, review them daily Tuesday through Thursday, and then have a spelling quiz on Friday. The first week she missed two of the words, so I put them on the list for last week. During the daily review I have her write them in different ways - once it was in shaving cream, she's written them with a pencil in play doh, she'll write them in marker (which is a big deal to her!). THEN, yesterday, I was looking for more ideas of ways to practice the words, and I went online (shameless internet plug #2) and found two fantastic websites. One takes the words and puts them into a crossword puzzle and the other takes the words and puts them into a word find, both of which are activities that Bear loves to do!!

I know, I know, I'm a SOOPER JEENYUS!! OK, not really, I'm sure someone else has done this, but it is SO EXCITING to me when I'm given ideas like that and I make it happen. (I had asked the moms at the homeschooling board at JM for advice)
On another note, my mom and The Kids and I are going to go to Ohio in a couple of weeks to visit my aunt. I'm very excited about the trip, although I'm a little afraid that the drive will kill us!