Leaving the teaching to the experts....

Monday evening after a full day of shopping, Darcy announced that she and Sarina were having two tests the following day. Since it was time to shower and get ready for bed they only had a few moments in between teeth brushing to study. I promised to help them the next morning.

The next morning Sarina was first out of bed and dressed. She and I sat in the kitchen. She ate and I quizzed her on her vocabulary. She passed. Darcy came in next and she too passed. I moved on to the spelling words for their spelling test. I started with Sarina again. When she missed a word I would go to Darcy. If they both missed it, Madison got a chance. Funny how great Madison was since she can't spell worth a darn any other time.

Sarina got stuck on the word, "brief". She kept wanting to spell it b-r-e-i-f. I would say no and she would try again, b-r-e-i-f-e. I passed on to Darcy who spelled it the same way with the "e" in front of the "i". The spelling words were words with long "a" and long "e" sounds. I was annoyed because they had told me they had no homework over the three day weekend, so I wasn't as patient as I normally am when helping to study. (hmmmm...)

After listening to Sarina do the b-r-e-i-f again I said, "Hello? "i" before "e" except after "c". Turns out she had never heard of this before so I begin explaining how words that have have an ie following the pattern of the "i" first, followed by the "e", with the exception being if it comes after a "c". Sarina was quite interested in this. Darcy apparently already knew this little rule so she chimed in with a few words that she knew. We finished up the words, and off to school they went.

When I picked them up after school I asked how the tests had gone. Both girls had gotten in the 90's on the vocabulary test, and we discussed what had been missed. I asked about the spelling test and both girls responded that they had missed two words. Two words that they hadn't missed at all when spelling them that morning with me. When I questioned why in the world they missed those two words.......

Sarina: "Because I was using that rule you told me about today. I spelled "seize" and "sleigh" with the "i" first because there wasn't a "c".
Darcy: "Yeah, those are two words must be the exceptions to that rule. I didn't know that."

Just another reason why I'm not a teacher.....