The Walrus Test

Here's a run-down of our homeschool day, including a test for you, written by Benny, on a very important topic: Walruses.

The first thing we did was the walrus test.

The children have been avidly reading all about walruses. This was an area of inquiry that was prompted by Benny's memorization of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," by Lewis Carroll. We still haven't found a decent book about oysters.

Anyway, here is the walrus test, for your enjoyment, with Benny's spellings intact. I still can't grasp why he misspells things that are spelled correctly in a book right in front of him. I gather it'll be one of those things over which I have no control, which end up working out fine, like when he used to refuse to write lower case, and now he does it just fine. See how you do -- this test was delivered to us as Benny wrote it, and I have to tell you that he set his parents against each other in walrus-trivia cometition. I won. But I think Dan threw it.

1. Do Walruses Kill Humens?
2. Dose a Walrus (symbol for male) have pups?
3. Dose a Walres Have Wiskers?
4. Can Walruses Dive?
5. Can A Walus Hunt?
*at this point we had a conversation about yes-or-no questions and how it would be more challenging to have other kinds of questions too*
6. How Meny pups are there?
7. What are Walruses Like?
8. Waht are these:(picture of two bananas hanging from a hairy shelf)?
9. Do Walruses live in the North or Soth?
10. Is a (symbol for female) Walrus a cow or Bull?

After walrus class, we made muffins. Benny did almost all of it himself, but he did let Sadie help. Then Benny practiced his violin, and Sadie surprised us all by picking up his instrument (which is WAY too big for her) and managing to play Tuka-Tuka-Stop-Stop on the A string. Astonishing. And we all thought she was still under the weather today!

After lunch, we went to Ahno's house for a while. Benny did a poem show for Ahno and made it *almost* all the way through "The Walrus and the Carpenter" without any prompts. I'd say I gave him about 3 words, but really, that is the best yet.

When we got back home Benny practiced his multiplication using his "Garfield's Third Grade Math" software, and then finished his curriculum for the day by doing a few Rosetta Stone lessons.