Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Chaffinch

This term my daughter began spelling tests at school.

From the start they have seemed a peculiar bunch of words. What six-year-old uses the words 'blot' or 'lung' or 'squid' on a regular basis? 

My daughter struggles with them all, common and uncommon, succeeding last week in getting 0/10, which the teacher seemed remarkably undisturbed by. I would have thought she would want all her children to get at least half marks! Still, we persevere with daily practice and praise my daughter for everything we possibly can. She would get top marks for effort (or perhaps her parents should!). 

This week she has done really well, able to spell most of them out loud when she brought them home on Monday. That is, until the end.

red
win
drum
off
cliff
stiff
cuff
said
here

then number 10:
chaffinch

Be delighted to know that by Friday there will be 30 children who are able to spell the name of a common British bird - won't know what one is, probably haven't ever seen one, but at least can spell chaffinch!!

7 comments:

Working Mum said...

It's probably on a Key Stage 2 test, she says, with heavy sarcasm!

Catharine Withenay said...

Didn't dare ask the teacher on Friday how she did ... !!

Troy said...

My son is in Year 3 and they have suddenly gone from very simple words to quite complex ones such as translucent, circumstances and inflammable. And before you ask, he's in the State system.
We struggle to get him to learn his twelve new spellings each week for a Friday test.

Catharine Withenay said...

Translucent, eh? Blimey! My son's also in Year 3, but currently limited to libraries and decide. Thankfully he flies through them all with the greatest of ease: that is partly what makes it so much more difficult with my second child.

Have you tried Troy Jnr with chaffinch?

Catharine Withenay said...

SHE GOT 8/10 !!!

We are so proud of her.

Didn't ask which two she got wrong ... We guess it was 'chaffinch' and the one after it (whilst she's still trying to work out how to write chaff...)

Well deserved chocolate cake treat for her!

Local Girl said...

My daughter is six and we have the same words. I was a bit bemused with Chaffinch as well! At least this week's was snowman - a bit easier!

Catharine Withenay said...

Hi Liz - welcome!
We didn't have snowman - we had 'll' words, culminating in windmill. Much more accessible though, thank goodness!

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