Inventive spelling...

[genifer]

I know this has been discussed before but I cant find it and need some quick answers from some veteran unschoolers. Does a child who uses inventive spelling need help learning how to spell or will it just be something that they will eventually grow out of? We arent strictly unschoolers/autonomous hsers. We're more eclectic. Im just wondering if I should leave my dd alone (she's 7) or if I should implement spelling lessons?

[Dar]

Rain has never had any formal spelling lessons, unless you count the brief period when she was 7 or so when she wanted "spelling words", so I gave her some. The other day I was listening to her talking with a (schooled) friend as they worked on writing something together, and the other girl was asking Rain how to spell a whole lot of words... and Rain knew. When she was 7 or even 9, she was probably "below grade level" at spelling, but now she can spell quite well.

She reads a ton, but her spelling ability has always lagged years behind her reading ability...

Dar

[moominmamma]

What a topical question! Just today my 3yo surprised me by using magnetic letters to spell FIONA CD MIX PNT ("Fiona could mix paint" -- she wanted to start painting and I was putting her off fussing around in the kitchen). Anyway, it reminded me of the invented spelling my eldest used until about the age of 6 1/2 (she also began reading at the age of 3). At age 6, having been reading fluently for 2 or 3 years, she was still spelling everything without vowels, or with random vowels. I didn't do a thing. She never got a spelling lesson, or a correction that she didn't specifically request, a rare situation.

My eldest is now 12 and is a better speller than I am. Whether it's 'pneumomediastinum' or 'Fahrenheit', she's bound to be able to help me out with my spelling.

So for many kids, it just comes. I've heard it said, and seen it with my own children, that spelling ability often lags behind reading ability by 2-3 years. In other words, a child can often only spell at the level of what he could read 2 or 3 years ago.

Miranda

[RedWine]

Originally Posted by moominmamma

So for many kids, it just comes. I've heard it said, and seen it with my own children, that spelling ability often lags behind reading ability by 2-3 years. In other words, a child can often only spell at the level of what he could read 2 or 3 years ago.

Wow, that's really interesting, Miranda. We're not there yet with our kids, but that's good info to know.

[Dar]

I think Rain's spelling ability lagged at least 4-5 years behind most of the time... at least, when she was 10 I think she could spell at about the same level she could read at when she was 5. She just did not write... but now she does.

dar

[AuntLavender]

My middle child makes spelling mistakes

but I don't think it's inventive spelling. She'll make mistakes like "aple" for "apple" or "cusin" for "cousin". She asks if she made any spelling errors and if she did we tell her and she usually remembers them. She's 8.

My 6 yo dd when writing will ask how to spell something before she writes it if she doesn't know how to spell it.

I realixe this doesn't answer your question but I wanted to share my experiences with spelling. We don't do spelling worksheets or practice. I have no idea how to teach it formally. We've always assumed the children would learn it naturally through reading books they choose to read and writing the letters and lists and other things they choose to write.

Sincerely,
Debra, homeschooling mom of 4 ages 10, almost 9, almost 7, and 3 1/2

[genifer]

Well. We've been doing things a bit more formal these days but the inventive spelling thing is making me kind of reconsider unschooling. Ive been looking at the charlotte mason approach and I like the book lists but not that bothered about anything else, the schedule or the bird study, ykwim? Anyway, that was ot but.... I guess the inventive spelling thing just got me thinking. She always asks if her spelling is right and I always say something like the fact that I like how she is sounding things out. She says 'but is it spelled right?' So I tell her no and give her the right spelling.

[caned & able]

The public schools used to do this in my area. The results are what made me consider homeschooling in the first place.

Please teach your children to spell correctly. Misspellings can keep them out of a good job or position.

[genifer]

caned & able, Do you mind me asking what approach you use? Do you use a specific curriculum. My dd is only 7, but I do agree that it is important.

[genifer]

Thought this was interesting... you might have read it before...

Why the English Language Is Hard to Learn

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does strange things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong for us to wind the sail.
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly:

Boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of either one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
By the way, how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?
And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly? Where did the beauty who was OUT OF THIS WORLD go?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible. However, when the lights are out, they are invisible.
Why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

Confusion, thy name is English!

[Dar]

Originally Posted by genifer

She always asks if her spelling is right and I always say something like the fact that I like how she is sounding things out. She says 'but is it spelled right?' So I tell her no and give her the right spelling.

I did talk to Rain about how standardized spelling was a fairly modern idea - for much of history, any phonetic, readable spelling was fine in English... it was kind of like having different handwriting styles, and as long as people understood what you meant, it was fine.

Also, in some languages (like Arabic) there is only one possible spelling for each word, because each sound is represented by only one symbol.

But I did always tell her how to spell stuff. Actually, once I was distracted and asked if she could just sound her out, but her response was not very positive so I gave up on that....

Dar

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by caned & able

The public schools used to do this in my area. The results are what made me consider homeschooling in the first place.

I think that we should pin down what we're talking about in this thread. I always considered inventive spelling to be part of the natural strategy used by many children during the emergent literacy phase. It's not "spelling mistakes" made by children who have attained fluent decoding (say, at a 4th-grade-plus level?) and who have mastered the basics of written language communication. Perhaps I understand the term differently that others do.

I don't think that supporting inventive spelling as an early reading/writing strategy means pretending words have been spelled correctly when they haven't. I think it means reassuring the child that by using their rudimentary spelling skills they can learn a lot about how letter-sounds are put together into words, and they can often communicate with reasonable effectiveness.

If I had a child who had attained fluency in decoding text, whose had difficulty with "spelling mistakes" then failed to naturally improve with continued reading experience, I would encourage that child to work on spelling proficiency ... probably by using something like this as a basis. But to my way of understanding, inventive spelling is a different kettle of fish. It's what my 3yo does when she writes WNT DZRD ("want dessert") -- learning to read by writing according to her rudimentary understanding of phonetics.

Miranda

[genifer]

Miranda, thanks alot, thats the kind of answer I was looking for. I needed to understand if this was something that she would learn later on or if I needed to, at 7 when she isnt a proficient reader, work on with her. Thanks for that.
gen