1st grade spelling

Jeremy and I were just talking about the spelling words that Damaris has had for the last two weeks.  Her 2nd week of 1st grade here was her spelling list:

three

one

four

six

nine

ten

two

eight

five

seven

How do you teach a 6 (mostly 5 yr. olds by the 2nd week) yr old how to spell eight without it just being by memory.  It doesn't make any sense phonetically!!  "E I sometimes makes an 'A' sound..."  What!!??  We are very fortunate that Damaris likes to be busy with things so going over spelling words at night is actually kinda fun for her!  (and me if I must admit!)  Last Friday she got a 9 out of 10 on her spelling test, what word did she miss do you ask??  Well, actually none.  Her pencil broke and in her words, "someone was up using the pencil sharpener and teacher didn't see me raising my hand."  Guess she didn't get my big mouth!  Here are the words for this week:

and

here

where

at

look

what

seven

eight

four

one

what

Yes, 'what' is on there twice, is that to trick them?  They did have to write it twice on their "practice" test earlier this week.  Seems like the 1st couple of weeks of a 1st grade spelling test should look a little more like: cat, bat, rat, sat, mat...  

I guess that's why I'm not the teacher! :)