I have a serious dilemma every Monday afternoon, do open Trey's backpack the minute he gets home or should I give myself a few extra precious minutes of blissful ignorance? You see, once set my eyes upon the list I am fully aware of the minutes ticking away until Friday is upon us. Yes, I'm referring to Trey's dreaded spelling list. Every Monday I get to see what new and torturous words Trey's teacher dreamt up and expects the kids to spell. This would be fine and dandy if they were in middle school, but I must remind you that Trey is only seven. Not seventh grade, but seven years old.
The list this week did not disappoint. To be honest it nearly made me pass out. I had a hard time spelling the words. I quizzed my parents and they both slowly spelled out a few, surprised at the difficulty.
It was going to be a tough week. How could it be easy trying to spell:
Turquoise
Persuade
Urchin
Surgeon
Perspire
Swerve
Quirk
Thought
Curtsy
Affirm
and five other words, plus five random word wall words.
Trey was up for the challenge, but was I? I have so many things demanding attention- the girls, the sports, the girls, the laundry, the girls, making dinner (scratch that one), microwaving dinner- it's hard to find time to help Trey get all the words down. I am really dreading the day when Josh and Matt have spelling lists too. I can barely get their sheet of homework and reading done each night after Trey's hour long work fest.
Monday night Trey has to take a pretest and then write every misspelled word five times. Trey's hand was cramping and tears were flowing by the time he scratched out his SIXTY words.
Trey was a trooper all week and thankfully wasn't cursed with his mother's inability to spell. He worked and worked and I quizzed and quizzed and by last night, I felt like he had done his best, had studied hard and while getting 100% was possible, I would be proud of him no matter what he got.
At pick up he said he felt good about the test and then asked if you spell laugh L,A,U,G,H. I told him that was correct. He gave me a big smile and looked relieved. What a cute kid! We treated him to a trip to Blockbuster tonight to rent a possible birthday present game. He deserved it.
I should enjoy the weekend because I only have 63 more hours until next week's words kill my joy! I just hope I don't spot 'lieutenant' on the sheet!
4 comments:
Oh, that is something I hadn't even thought of...frustrating homework. Poor Trey...makes you wonder if the teacher realizes how much time and stress it is for the families.
I think it is great that at least his hard work pays off.
Ugggghh! I don't look forward to that for sure! Keenan starts getting homework tomorrow but I think it is meant to be easy and just get him in the habit of doing homework. We'll see.
Urchin? When will a seven year old use this word. She should be teaching them words like fish, shark, pumkin, or some other word that pops up in a everyday conversation.
Good luck with it! Luckily Trey has you to help him with his school work.
WOW!!! Those words are crazy hard for most people, let alone a 7-year-old. this teacher is crazy! You are such an amazing mom. Good luck today with your new set of words. :)
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