After a week of putsing with a unit's worth of spelling words, the students are ready for their test, and if you can swing it, some FUN! How about combining the two! Homeschooling parents know that this can be done. Right? Let's prove it! It's time for WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

Put a fresh spin on the ol' chalk board and a deck of cards. Teachers draw underline marks for every letter of the spelling word on the board.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __--would be equal to one of my son's spelling words this week, 'pacifist'.

Have your child 'spin'. He picks from the deck of shuffled cards. Each number card is equal to that number times 100. So the 3 will be worth 300 points. Here are what the other cards mean:

Jack=Free spin
Queen=Extra 2000 points (if they get the letter correct)
Ace=Miss a turn (if you have more that one student) or bankrupt.
King=Free vowel
Each vowel costs 200 points.

Of course, if you have younger students who would be discouraged by the miss a turn or bankrupt, by all means, skip it.

Now, your student 'spins' until he gets all the letters in the spelling of the word, or two or more players (.er.. test-takers) can take turns. And you keep score. For older students you'd want to put a time or spin-limit on each word. At the end of the 'test', tally the score. Subtract 100 points for every word not spelled correctly.

Now for the incentive/reward program:

You refer to a special tally card that you made up in advance. For example: 200-500 points gets the student a new pen. If they earned 2000-3000 points, they'll receive some tokens to play the basketball game at the arcade. 600-800 points gives them the privilege of choosing what the family will watch for the evening.

You can customize the incentives/rewards to the family's groove, and to what your students enjoy most. Have them SAVE their points for some hamburger and fries at the theater showing that new Walt Disney cartoon, or for not having to do dishes.

You may have to play a couple of games to get the feel of how many points to give each incentive. We want to challenge our students enough to allow them to feel a sense of accomplishment, while not making things too easy or too difficult for them.

After taking the 'test', your student may want to play with the entire family with the different phrases underscored on the blackboard. That's fine!

Ah, but then the teacher of the house has found an avenue for teaching students different phrases and sayings. After all, we never stop, do we?!