School Daze

 It's getting to be that time of year again.  Close to the end of the school year.  Boredom setting in.  When it becomes harder for the kids to continue their work because, after so many months of working in the same books, they are ready for something new.

That, to me, says it's time to whip out some fun stuff to liven things up a bit.  It's tempting to just get caught up in all the Spring book fairs and focus too much on the excitement of the new curriculum we're choosing for the upcoming year.

But with so many kids to keep focused, that's not really an option.  So, we've broken out the word games, the math board games, and even created a few silly sports like "reading baseball".  We set up bases around the family room carpet and to move to the next base a kid has to read or spell a word.  I keep a pack of sight words that Shane and Kevin are learning to read.  For the older girls I usually just come up with words that are right for their ability level.

Danya is the most fun because she is really hard to stump.  We've thought several times about enrolling her in a spelling bee, but it seems so impractical.  I like my kids to have a large vocabulary and be able to spell anything they are likely to encounter.  But those spelling words in the bees are highly unlikely to ever be in common usage.  On the upside, we have enough kids in our family that we can have our own spelling bee.