Spelling help???

[hearttender4]

Know any great materials or techniques for a 10 year old who struggles with it and it doesn't come easily?

[lumpofclay]

What about Spell to Write and Read with the WISE Guide for Spelling?

Warning: It is teacher-intensive and takes a little while to get the program down.

[hearttender4]

Thanks for the suggestion. :) I don't know if I can handle teacher intensive, but I'll have to look at it and see

[Mama Bird]

There are a ton of different ways to teach spelling on your own. First, let go of the idea that you have to have a spelling test every Friday.

Second, get a list of words that have to do with your reading assignments for the week, science, etc.

Then...have fun!

Here's how we practice:
*write the words on a window or the side of the fridge wtih Crayola Window FX markers.
*write them on a mini chalkboard
*"paint' them onto a sidewalk, etc. with a brush and water.
*trace them onto a fogged-up mirror.
*trace them in a saltbox. (Take a school pencil box and put enough sand in it to cover the bottom. Trace the words into the salt. It gives a good tactile representation of the word as well.)
*trace them into lotion bags. (Put enough lotion in a ziplock to be able to lay it flat and trace.)
*Do letter butterflies (or whatever.) We bought some bulletin board cutouts that are in the shape of butterflies. I wrote letters on them and laminated them. She spells the words by letting the butterflies "hold wings.")

[hearttender4]

Thanks Haley, those are fun ideas. :)

[Mama Bird]

You're welcome, Becky. I taught first grade before I had my children, so I gleaned a ton of great ideas from my education. It is nice to share them! :hug

[Gretchen]

What about Spell to Write and Read with the WISE Guide for Spelling?

I just looked this up because I hadn't heard of it before. It's based on the Spalding phonograms (Writing Road to Reading). My dd goes to a public charter school that uses Riggs Phonics, which is also based on WRTR. I think it's an excellent program for teaching spelling. Understanding the phonograms seems to really help the kids understand why a word is spelled the way it is. I can see that it would be very teacher-intensive to start, but worth looking into IMO.

Gretchen

[Heather]

Great Suggestions Haley!!!

[Mama Bird]

Thank you, Heather. :O

[hearttender4]

I need to get back to those different fun ways of having her write the words. She used to do that , but she decided she wanted to just look at the words and says them to herself.

Part of the problem I think is that spelling has always come so easily to me! I'd study a list of words for 5 minutes and know them for life. But my dd can focus on a list of words all week long and not remember half of them. I seems that she's not automatically seeing the pattern and remembering to apply it. She's at the point in her writing too where she can write long and coherent essays, but it's frustrating for both of us that there's always all these spelling mistakes. :shrug

[jujubnme]

I'll share with you some thoughts and ideas I gleaned from a thread on this topic on another unschooling board I read:

- Spelling typically lags behind reading up to 3 years. That is, they can spell accurately the words they were reading accurately three years ago.
- Calvert has a Spelling and Vocabulary CD-ROM for different grade levels that tests on 10 words and then has the child do some exercises for the misspelled words and retests, etc.
- Read, read, read
- Start a "Words I Can Spell" journal (organized like a dictionary). If she misspells one of the words in her book, have her look it up in the book.
- Play Scrabble, Boggle, Upwords
- One boy practiced writing by IM'ing his dad at work and his grandfather. If he misspelled something they would send back a phrase using the word spelled correctly (indirectly correcting him)--which was how he requested he be corrected.
- Recommendation for the book "Spelling Power"

HTH!

[4blessings]

My son loves to practice his spelling in shaving cream I squirt on the shower door.

[hearttender4]

That does help. Thank you. :)


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- Spelling typically lags behind reading up to 3 years. That is, they can spell accurately the words they were reading accurately three years ago.


That's probably right. It makes sense not to expect them to spell every word they can read. It's amazing how advanced some of the typical spelling lists for 5th grade are though. :wow

[ArmsOfLove]

For the last year or two my friend has been using (with her now 12 yo) a curriculum we'll probably used called (I think) Spelling Power. The idea is that you take a test at the beginning of the week and only have to study the ones you miss. It doesn't waste your time learning things you already know. It recommends writing with your finger on the carpet and other things that have already been suggested :)