Spelling Challenge

I am spelling challenged. I have trouble with common words. I have even been known to spell my own name wrong (of course that instance was when I was really tired and feeling lazy). I complained at the time, but thank you dad for making me edit my own papers after you typed them when I was in junior high (he turned off the spell checker and made me find the words!).
We have started playing a spelling game in our family modelled similarly to a TV game show called "Cash Cab". Basically, we have 15 words (3 rounds of 5 words each) which get progressively harder. If the kids get 3 strikes, then they are out and have to wait to try again. If they make it to the last round, they get one "shout out" - that means they can ask for help once. If they make it to the end of the game they get a small reward. Last night they were offered a bonus challenge question: Spell "noodle". They could work together and it was fun to see them do so.... Here's how it went:

• G quickly wrote down "n-o-d"


• E was more slowly sounding out the letters and said "n". Then "oo... that's o-o"


• G thought about it and said "oh yeah, oo like moo." Then he changed the word to "n-o-o-d". After some more sounding out he quickly finished the word as "n-o-o-d-i-l".


• Then he looked at the word, looked at E, and E looked at the word. "I don't think that looks right," G said. E replied "Me either." So they removed the "i".


• After a quick reminder to think about what must go into a syllable, G recalled that each syllable must have a vowel. Finally they put an "e" at the end of the word coming up with the correct spelling of "noodle".


• Now, we asked them if this was their final answer! It took them a bunch of hemming and hawing, but finally they said yes and they were so relieved when we told them it was correct!

Good job kids, and good team work!

In my observations lately, I think E is going to be our spelling bee child. She is so cute as she sounds out each part of the word and slowly spells the word out loud.