Need spelling help for 8yo

[mattemma04]

My dd is having a hard time with spelling words. What can I do to help her improve with it.She is spelling everything out using phonics.That worked great with 2-3 letter words,but now most words she uses are not following that. I came across funbrain.com and am looking for others games/books. She finds copying words over and over or using them in sentences to be super boring. I have her write journal entries and the spelling is horrid in them.

[MonicaS]

I have found that the more my DDs read, the better their spelling gets. My 10yr old used to have HORRID spelling, but she LOVES to read. I rarely find spelling mistakes for words her level anymore. Aside from a year when we "did workbooks" and did weekly spelling words, we haven't done spelling "work."

My 8 yr old DD, on the other hand, is still misspelling quite often, but I'm not terribly concerned, yet. We talk about misspelled words in what she has written. She wants to spell correctly and use proper punctuation, so she will ask me to proofread her stuff. (I'm not about to tear up her creative work w/out her consent.) My older DD would shut down and run away if I tried to proofread her work. I'm really finding that when I let go a bit, my kids seem to flourish in their reading/writing skills.


All kids are different, and you will find what works for your kid(s).

[frogguruami]

We are totally loving sequential spelling. DS1 is 8 (3rd grade) and just started SS1.

[mangopassion]

That sequential spelling looks really cool! It might even help my hubby!

[swellmomma]

We are using sequential spelling, and while my kids asked for some other workbooks which I bought for them they made me promise not to stop sequential spelling.

[7kiddosmom]

I have to add that we are using Sequential Spelling as well. All 3 of my older girls (ages 15, 14, and 11) misspelled beginning the first day, but day 5 they spelled it PERFECTLY without hesitation. In fact they haven't misspelled any of the words in the last few days I am thinking about doing 2 lessons a day instead of 1.

Some pluses are there is no studying or memorizing and it is SUPER FAST, about 10 minutes a day tops. The program is very inexpensive at $9.95 a level (each level has 180 daily lists) and $2.95 for the Student Response Book (which you don't really have to buy).

[mattemma04]

Thank you for the ideas. I will give them a try and see what works for her.

[robin4kids]

Sequential Spelling Question

My son is in 4th grade. Do you think I should order 1 or 2. 1 looks very easy. Does it get harder fast, or should I go to book 2?

[7kiddosmom]

I would start with level 1. The levels are not based on grade level. The first couple of lessons are fairly simple with just 4 or 5 words beginning with in on the 1st day and then by the 8th day you have the word disagreeing. The program is based on learning spelling patterns using word families. If you find that he is breezing through the lessons without mistakes, I would do more than one lesson a day.

Here is the link to AVKO the makers of Sequential Spelling. http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html

[swellmomma]

my kid are 8&9 and we are using level 1. It picks up fairly quickly so I would stick with level 1 then move on. YOucan always o 2 or more lists a day if your kids are doing well with it

[7kiddosmom]

I wanted to add a little more about sequential spelling. We just started the program and are on day 9. I took a little extra time today and looked through the Level 1 book a little closer. As I said before the program is based on word families and learning spelling patterns. Some pps were wondering about what level to begin with. When a new word family is introduced the words are fairly simple, then they base word is built upon and the words become very complex having more than one "family" base in the word (ex. beginning). So you would start with "in", go to "inning" seeing that you need to double the n before an ending, then learn "be" and "begin", then see that if you combine the skills you've learned you can now spell "beginning".