“The funniest way to do dictation EVER”

Barnyard Buzzer Dictation board - Wendy blog

Hi Julie,

I enjoyed your talk on the Not Back to School program and just had to write because I came up with the funniest idea for dictation yesterday with my 10 year old.

I was reading a passage from Peter Rabbit to her, and she was trying to write it on our big wipe board. Well, I had found these Barnyard Answer Buzzers at a teacher store while traveling, and I wanted to find fun ways to use them. So we decided to assign one animal to the following:
Barnyard Buzzer Dictation - Wendy _blog

Cow Mooing: meant you missed a capital letter

Dog Barking: you have a punctuation mistake

Horse Neighing: you spelled a word wrong

Rooster Crowing: that word is RIGHT!

 

Well, it was the funniest way to do dictation EVER. I was hitting the ROOSTER on almost every word, but when she’d pass up a place for a comma, the DOG would bark and she’d start laughing and go back to figure it out. And the HORSE was hilarious because the neighing was really loud, so I’d hit it and hit it again at each attempt to change letters for spelling, until finally she’d get a ROOSTER crowing and she’d crack up.

I couldn’t think of anyone who would appreciate this home education triumph….except YOU!

Barnyard Answer Buzzers: Every Brave Writer family should have a set.

Love,
Wendy

If you’d like to purchase you’re own set of Barnyard Answer Buzzers, they are available at Amazon.com (affiliate link). —BW Staff


Brave Writer's Arrow and Boomerang

4 Responses to ““The funniest way to do dictation EVER””

  1. Joyfulmomof6 says:

    Thank you for sharing that. What a great, concrete, sensory way to interact. My youngest boys would love this approach. It disarms the perfectionist with humor!

  2. Julie Bogart says:

    I loved this idea too! It’s fabulous!!

  3. Joyfulmomof6 says:

    I was actually able to use this idea yesterday without the buzzers, which we didn’t have.
    My 7 year old didn’t want to do his copy work . Everytime there was supposed to be a comma, I mooed like a cow, for a semicolon I clucked like a chicken, etc.
    We all laughed and he loved it. Then we switched and I let him make the noises. Seven year old boys and noises go together like milk and cookies!

    So glad you posted this…sometimes the simplest ideas infuse so much life into an otherwise monotonous exercise. This is truly one of the joys of homeschooling!

    Nanci

  4. wildrootswoman says:

    Thank you for this post! Sometimes I find myself taking life and homeschooling so seriously, that I forget to lighten up and let it get silly. My son would love this, especially with the buzzers, and I am getting ready to get some of our own…it will surprise and thoroughly delight my kids when they see what their sometimes-serious mama has up her sleeve!