This morning, we applied spelling rules in an exercise to piggy-back on yesterday's lesson. We discussed unusually spelled words, such as asthma (sneaky "th"), colonel (even though we pronounce it "kernel'), conscience (even though we pronounce it "con-chense") and handkerchief, (even though we pronounce it 'hankerchief'). Mercer did well, considering the difficulty level of these 'outlaw' words. His queries about the choices indicated he was aware of spelling rules as he attempted to apply them. We went over the few errors he made and then reviewed other rules of Standard conventional English, primarily to refresh his memory. When we finished the lesson, Mercer asked if he could look up geodes and artifacts on the computer, and his comments to me as we watched the clip suggested Mercer has an excellent wealth of information about topics in geology and Earth science.