Building the Moeum School Word Pool

Yesterday I uploaded the 5th grade, 1st semester word pool to Moeum School.
In March this year, the 5th and 6th grade textbooks were revised, which delayed updates to the teaching site — and my uploads along with them. Since I don’t have the textbooks myself, I pick words directly from the teaching site.

1. Gemini Writes the Hints, Claude Reviews Them

After selecting the answer words, I compare them against previously used words to make sure no word appears twice, removing any duplicates.
Once the words are chosen, I hand the hint-writing over to Gemini, which is good at clear explanations. Gemini normally has usage limits, but educational tasks don’t seem to count against them. After that, Claude reviews everything. If Claude flags something odd about a word or its hint, I check it and make corrections.

2. A Month's Work on Moeum School 1st grade Wasted Effort

I made Moeum School 1st grade twice.
The first time, I combined Korean language with integrated subjects, which resulted in 1,400 words. It seemed like too many, so I even asked about American 1st grade curricula. I heard they use 300-500 words.
When I was making 1st grade, even though integrated subjects included words like 'infectious disease,' 'mumps,' 'tick repellent,' kidnapping prevention content, and earthquake evacuation, I put them all in the game.
But when I got to 2nd grade, the word sexual assault appeared. I realized this word didn’t fit a fun game playground like Soosooland. And I realized my mistake: I didn’t have the actual textbooks, so I was picking words from online teaching sites, which is why there were so many words.
So I decided to put integrated subjects on hold and just make the Korean content directly from the textbooks.
That’s why I ended up making the 1st grade again. 

3. The Ripple Effect of “Ripple”

Yesterday, the word “파장” (wave/ripple) came up in the 5th grade Korean language unit. Gemini had written the hint as “the wave-like flow of ripples, sound, or light spreading outward” — but Claude flagged it, saying “파장” has multiple meanings and asked which one was intended.
So I went back and listened to the audio material twice more, but couldn’t find it. I suspect I made a typo and the memo app autocorrected it on its own.
But listening again, I caught several words I had missed the first time. That led me to do a full review going all the way back to 3rd grade, 1st semester, checking for any missing words. Most of the time there were hardly any gaps — but occasionally, as if I’d completely lost focus, whole clusters of words were missing.
I also discovered that I hadn’t extracted any words at all from the Korean language activity sections, so I pulled words from those too. New words were added to the word pool, and several words ended up moving around — some that had been filed under 4th grade science were reassigned to 3rd grade Korean, and so on.

4. Want to Age Faster? Try Making a Game.

Yesterday, the 5th grade 1st semester content was added to Moeum School, and testing it took two hours. After days of hard work, I told myself to take a break from game-making today — but instead, here I am writing a blog post.
The games aren’t going anywhere, so I’ll get to them when I feel like it. Moeum Chaos and Moeum Dict are both sitting at the idea stage with no development yet, but I’ll build them when the mood strikes.
Reading through all those textbooks turned out to be harder than I expected. The texts in the Korean language book were occasionally interesting, but mostly just dull. “Could you write something a little more engaging? Why is everything so bland!” The curse of a dopamine-addicted brain.
Speaking of which — suddenly, chills. How did Claude know that “파장” was out of place? It must have inferred from the word list what kind of text the words were drawn from, and figured out that “파장” didn’t belong there. If Claude hadn’t said anything, I would have let it slide right past.