spelling help

[elizawill]

my dd is in grade 1 & age 7. she reads better than she writes. i'd like to help her with spelling. i am open to a curriculum, as long as it's not tedious or lame. she spells some words from memorization, while other words she spells phonetically (and as we know, this method is often incorrect). i know this is normal of course, but i want to help her learn the correct spelling of words. for example, she was googling something this morning and this is what it said: "power rangers culring pajis" - which translates power rangers coloring pages. it makes complete sense that she would spell it that way, as it sounds like that in her mind. next year i'd like to focus a little more on spelling though. any ideas? thanks for your help.

[elizawill]

well i'm glad no one else's kids spell crazy, lol. but certainly someone on this forum has advice, right? i mean seriously, NO ONE has taught their kids to spell? even if you didn't use a curriculum, how did you help them along? i'm looking for something to start next fall when my dd will be 8 (in oct). TIA.

[theretohere]

One of my friends uses and swears by Natural Speller. I've paged through it and the lists look good, but we haven't tried it.

[Lysa]

I have used Spelling Workout, but am finding that I don't think it is really serving to teach spelling... so I am thinking of switching to All About Spelling. AAS uses verbal, auditory, and tactile learning methods. Not totally sold on it yet, as I haven't seen a book IRL.

[Theoretica]

We play with scrabble letters a lot, do crosswords, find a words, that sort of thing.

I find that 'doing spelling' is tedius and boring. And DD doesn't like it either

But word GAMES...THAT we could do all day!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by elizawill

well i'm glad no one else's kids spell crazy, lol. but certainly someone on this forum has advice, right? i mean seriously, NO ONE has taught their kids to spell? even if you didn't use a curriculum, how did you help them along? i'm looking for something to start next fall when my dd will be 8 (in oct). TIA.

Well, I don't consider her spelling "crazy" - just what I'd expect for her age . My son couldn't spell his way out of a paper bag when he was 7 - and he was in school, where the 1st graders did phonics workbooks and spelling lists with tests, and all that sort of stuff. But we did none of that once he left school after that year. It wasn't until he was much older that he began to pick it up through reading - and it was in his teens, through a lot of creative writing to his friends back and forth in emails and IMS, that he really became a very good speller just by oberving the errors his spell checker picked up. Before he got active with a computer word processor, he had a cool little Franklin electronic spell checker to refer to - you can get one now for under $20.

The one thing we did do when he was around 9 or 10 was the Lindamood-Bell Auditory Discrimination in Depth program where he learned with a speech therapist how words and their letters feel in the mouth ("lip coolers," "lip poppers," tongue whatevers...stuff like that). He'd been diagnosed with Auditory Deficit Disorder - which he may or may not had, and which may or many not have been helped by the program, but it was something that even schools were incorporating into main classrooms at the time in order to be able to help all the different kinds of learners, so it was probably helpful... Lillian

[ikesmom]

My ds has been playing with this

http://www.spellingcity.com/

I let him make the grocery list to go shopping

We try Scrabble but he needs lots of help and sometimes the other kids get impatient

Hangman is fun

You could make a word wall with common words when she wants to write something

[Marsupialmom]

I vote for spelling power it gives list and rules. I would modify some of the writing. Also do Spelling City. My girls insert their list. I double check it. Then they can use that to study with.

Know if your child is dyslexic I have a different program. Just send a private message. I can't remember the name at this momment. LOL Mommy brain.

[AAK]

We are using "Making Sense Out of Spelling". It is quick and simple using word searches, etc rather than just rewriting each word a dozen times. The author breaks down the words by vowel/consonant patterns. My dd thought it was silly to use a method when she knew how to spell most the words at the beginning already. We ran through it anyways so that she has a tool to use when confronted with a new word. Even though it isn't "tons of fun" it only takes a few minutes to do. And, I really think it does make sense! It uses the 500 most commonly used words in the English language. I guess there is a video too to explain the method but we haven't used it. I got the book used for about $5, read it and got to understand it myself before I presented it to dd. We spend about 5 min./day.

Amy

[Melis]

Hello there

I think spelling is one of the toughest subjects/curriculums to recommend early on. It is still so phonics-based in the early years and there seems to be differences of opinion as to when exactly a formal spelling program should begin. I am very eclectic in that I use a mix of classical, Charlotte Mason and traditional approaches to learning and we use Spelling Power. It works very well for my son who is an advanced reader and has an amazing memory. He, too, would spell phonetically in first grade if he was unfamiliar with a word. Spelling Power is not a workbook approach to spelling. It requires 15 minutes per day (for us it takes more like 20-30 because my son does not write/work quickly). Before you begin, you review the rule for the word list you are going to be working on. You spend the first 5 minutes quizzing (my son loves to be quizzed on words so this is not an issue with us, but I know some children do not do well with Spelling Power for this reason alone), 5 minutes studying the words the child did not know and 5 minutes doing a variety of activities to commit the word to memory. These words will then be quizzed the next day. This works well for us because we do not spend time out of our week studying words he already knows. It's very easy to implement this into our day.

If this does not sound like something you would be interested in or your daughter would not enjoy, I have also heard wonderful things about All About Spelling, Spell to Read and Write and Spelling Workout!

Happy Spelling!

[mom2ponygirl]

My dd was not fond of Spelling Power. She finds Sequential Spelling painless and her spelling has improved dramatically. Of course, just time may have something to do with it!

[Mizelenius]

I think teaching spelling as a separate subject is generally a waste of time. I think spelling should only be emphasized when it counts-- like when your DD does a Google search and can't find what she wants, then she will learn how to spell what she needs to spell. If you want to work on WRITING, give her opportunities to write. I don't mean penmanship, either. I mean WRITING.

I dunno. I think the emphasis on spelling, penmanship, etc. is a carry-over from our school days, when teachers pushed these topics on us . . .not because they were actually very important, but because they were easy to grade.

But, since you asked for a method . . . my daughter learned how to spell by reading, reading, and reading. When she is writing and occasionally needs help spelling a word, I just tell her. I have also taught her how to use the dictionary, in case I happen to be busy.

[elizawill]

thanks everyone! i appreciate everyone's thoughts. spelling & writing do matter to me & i don't find it a waste of time. that's why i asked for information. "reading, reading, reading" is not working for us. thanks again to all who have replied.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by elizawill

thanks everyone! i appreciate everyone's thoughts. spelling & writing do matter to me & i don't find it a waste of time. that's why i asked for information. "reading, reading, reading" is not working for us. thanks again to all who have replied.

Although I just have to blurt out that some of us who suggest reading, reading, reading really and truly do think in terms of it being a steady path to eventual mastery of spelling and writing. But I understand your wanting to do something more specific... Lillian

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by elizawill

thanks everyone! i appreciate everyone's thoughts. spelling & writing do matter to me & i don't find it a waste of time. that's why i asked for information. "reading, reading, reading" is not working for us. thanks again to all who have replied.

Correct spelling and strong writing skills matter to me, too. But I feel that-- at the age of SEVEN, emphasizing learning spelling in isolation is generally a waste of time (at best) and may inhibit a child's desire to truly write (at worst). You say that reading, reading, reading doesn't work-- may I ask, what are your expectations for your child in the area of spelling? Are you worried that she is behind?

But-- I have to keep in mind that what works for my child (direct instruction/assistance only when asked) isn't what you feel is working for yours. Personality comes into play, too. My DD resists (and for now, seems to thrive without) direct instruction, so that colors my view as well.

This is an interesting article-- but the research is SO OLD-- keep that in mind. http://www.avko.org/Research/trad_sp_summary.htm

[elizawill]

well, i am looking for next year & i said my daughter will be 8 then. i don't think it's too early to help her with spelling then... that's why i am looking for advice and suggestions. in my first post i said i was not looking for a tedious or lame curriculum & that i am open to game suggestions & all ideas. i don't mind people suggesting that i read more, but it's not helping her become a better speller. i don't think my educational goals or my approach in how we homeschool is unrealistic. my expectations are very age appropriate and go out of my way to find engaging ways to teach my daughter and follow her cues if something isn't working. anyway, i've got some time yet before i need to decide. thanks again for your help everyone.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl

My dd was not fond of Spelling Power. She finds Sequential Spelling painless and her spelling has improved dramatically. Of course, just time may have something to do with it!

I'm about ready to purchase Sequential Spelling. DS has reached a point that when he writes if he doesn't know exactly how to spell a word that describes what he wants, he'll reluctantly choose an easier one. For example, instead of gorgeous, he'll just write pretty, but he's not *happy* having a limited choice of words that he can spell accurately. He's beyond trying to use invented spelling because he *knows* that the words aren't always spelled correctly when he does that. And he gets frustrated with having to ask me how to spell it because it slows him down. So, I think that adding spelling would be a very good thing for him.

[Lillian J]

It just occurred to me that I might have some spelling threads bookmarked, so I checked and found these:
Gentle Spelling?
Do spelling lists (on their own) really work?

And I had another thought for something to try. What if you were to just comment with interest when you see misspelled words - as in "Well, whattaya' know - I'd never thought about it before, but that word isn't pronounced the way it's spelled at all. You sure did a great job figuring it out by the way it sounds, but it's actually spelled like this... I know - kinda' funny, huh, the way we pronounce the 'o's in 'color' so differently than in lots of other words? Hm..." <--In fact, come to think of it, look at all the different ways all the 'o's in that last sentence are pronounced?

And there are some general rules of thumb about when 'g's are soft or hard and when a 'j' is generally used rather than a 'g' (with exceptions, of course). I remember my son learning about some of those general rules of thumb, but I honestly don't think they actually had as great an effect as just his reading. It just made for some thinking about it and realizing there are actually some patterns that one can eventually put together. Here's a Dyslexia.com page on them:
spelling rules

I really thought she really did a great job with colring and pajis, by the way - it would indicate to me that she's on the right track and will be a whiz at spelling with more time and experience seeing the printed word. As I said, my son couldn't have done that at her age at all - even though he was in school at the time and having to study phonics and spelling and take tests.
- Lillian

[elizawill]

thanks lillian. that is very helpful. i'll look forward to looking through your links. i think gracie did a wonderful job spelling "coloring pages" as well. even when i can't figure it out, once she tells me what a word is supposed to say...i'm like, "OH of course!!!". it really makes perfect sense once she tells me what it is *supposed* to say. it's usually phonetically perfect. she's so sweet.

currently, i very rarely correct her when writing. she does ask me how to spell things a lot & i always answer her. but, she will ask how to spell the same words over and over.... it just doesn't stick. i do believe she will "get" spelling over time of course, but i also want to help her get it and understand it. i'm not looking to have a power struggle or anything, lol ....or add some pointless task to our day. i just want to help my little girl become a better speller. that's all

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by elizawill

i do believe she will "get" spelling over time of course, but i also want to help her get it and understand it. i'm not looking to have a power struggle or anything, lol ....or add some pointless task to our day. i just want to help my little girl become a better speller. that's all

I think we all get that - you're not the type to be looking to drive her crazy - we're just trying to encourage you in the faith that it's already happening. - Lillian