I have a good program for Americans/Canadians if you have a kid that just doesn't get it and is really frustrated by spelling. This program I'm recommending is a BEAST and takes several years to work through, but for a certain type of kid (i.e., mine) it's been a lifesaver. She was just not able to learn spelling through memorization or familiarization. It's called Logic of English. The younger kids' program is called Foundations, and the upper elementary/middle kids' program is called Essentials. It's based on The Logic of English book by Denise Eide. It works through the origins of English words and WHY they are all spelled so differently, coming up with a list of spelling "rules" that must be memorized initially, but quickly become intuitive. My daughter is a fantastic reader at age 10, thanks to the "All About Reading" program, but her spelling was dismal. She gets very frustrated and wants to know "but WHY is it spelled like that?" She has come along incredibly well since we began LOE Essentials a year ago. It's a lot of work for the parent, but it has been so worth it and has had the side benefit that I've become rather interested in the structure of our language myself. It also covers grammar and vocabulary, and can be modified to include handwriting as well, if that's needed.
We don’t really do much spelling but my son has picked an enormous amount up naturally (I should also say he is hyperlexic as part of his autism so our methods will not work for all!). We’ve been working our way through a poetry book called The B on Your Thumb which looks at spelling rules and exceptions in a fun way. He really loves correcting spellings so that is one thing I can do to check his knowledge!
I appreciate you bringing this up. My oldest is 8, middle is 6.5 and we are about to need ot be more intentional with spelling. I appreciate your post and the comments here!
We’re having good success with Doodle spell. It’s a paid app but the only thing we use an app for and I’m happy to pay to not have to worry about spellings!
The most important tool for good spelling is simply caring about the issue. I often see documents where something is misspelled and the spell checker is flagging it, but the author didn't take the time to fix it. It takes approximately 10 seconds to do an internet search and find the correct form of a word if you're not sure, and even less to use the computer suggestion, but many people are unwilling to invest even that small amount of time because they are just indifferent to getting things right.
One thing I like to do is have kids find all the words with a given sound on one page of a book they are reading or in a short story (Aesop is good for this) and then sort them by spellings. The goal is to help them notice spelling patterns and when certain spellings appear for certain sounds. Sometimes those patterns are apparent visually (like letters that tend to double at the end of short words - f, s, l - or that the /k/ sound is spelled "ck" at the end of short words), but other times we talk about the etymology behind certain spelling patterns. Once you've sorted the words by spelling, you can use that to quiz - give your child a word orally and ask them which spelling it has. The book Words Their Way also has a lot of useful word lists for sorting like this.
That being said, I have also definitely seen a correlation in my children between reading fluency and spelling. Most of my older children's spelling improved enormously without any extra work after they had been reading fluently for 2-3 years. These days I treat spelling more remedially - we don't really do spelling unless a child has been reading chapter books for a couple of years and is still struggling with correct spelling.
Spelling is such a bugbear for us and I love hearing what works for other people. We flit between things like Nessy and Sir Linkalot, plus lists from Twinkl with some of their explanatory powerpoints, and also some CGP books with explanations of the spelling patterns from Fulford's spelling rules. The jar might help with retention. I have one kid (the younger one) who can retain the rules fairly well, and one kid (the older one) that struggles and may be dyslexic. It's tricky!
Great post, lots of good ideas and I especially like the lucky dip jar. Another method children used to love for irregular words is using a mnemonic: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. They would then draw the most graphic picture of the mnemonic and stick it on the wall. Better still if the mnemonic includes the focus word. Works best if they come up with the mnemonic themselves and it’s humorous/ridiculous.
Child would be starting year 1 as nowand spelling has appeared on the radar.
I was thinking about the spelling test way but started a CPG spelling workbook and we were looking to see what looked right. He looked at each word and somehow from all these months of looking at words learning to read he was recognising by himself the way to spell.
I was relieved feeling he may be a natural speller.
His mum, my eldest child and the most obsessive reader, has never been an able speller but she definitely is not dyslexic. My brother is the same. The only thing in common btge two have are being Virgo!
So I had thought I'm not going to start spelling tests yet let's see how we go.
After reading this post and the comments I feel reassured and that is what is great about this community. Thank you.
I never really did formal spelling work with my now 10 year old. We just did a lot of copywork, and then dictation. I dabbled into a bit of spelling rules and all when we were using "the good and beautiful" language arts curriculum. But its been mostly daily copywork and prepared dictation.
This is my approach too. I don't know if it will work for all of my children, but my eldest is an early (and very keen) reader and I suspect he'll just pick up correct spelling through lots of reading. I've always been good at spelling and I attribute it to being a bookworm since very young. If children are infrequent readers then learning by rote makes sense as they need that extra exposure.
I have a good program for Americans/Canadians if you have a kid that just doesn't get it and is really frustrated by spelling. This program I'm recommending is a BEAST and takes several years to work through, but for a certain type of kid (i.e., mine) it's been a lifesaver. She was just not able to learn spelling through memorization or familiarization. It's called Logic of English. The younger kids' program is called Foundations, and the upper elementary/middle kids' program is called Essentials. It's based on The Logic of English book by Denise Eide. It works through the origins of English words and WHY they are all spelled so differently, coming up with a list of spelling "rules" that must be memorized initially, but quickly become intuitive. My daughter is a fantastic reader at age 10, thanks to the "All About Reading" program, but her spelling was dismal. She gets very frustrated and wants to know "but WHY is it spelled like that?" She has come along incredibly well since we began LOE Essentials a year ago. It's a lot of work for the parent, but it has been so worth it and has had the side benefit that I've become rather interested in the structure of our language myself. It also covers grammar and vocabulary, and can be modified to include handwriting as well, if that's needed.
We don’t really do much spelling but my son has picked an enormous amount up naturally (I should also say he is hyperlexic as part of his autism so our methods will not work for all!). We’ve been working our way through a poetry book called The B on Your Thumb which looks at spelling rules and exceptions in a fun way. He really loves correcting spellings so that is one thing I can do to check his knowledge!
I love the lucky dip jar idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate you bringing this up. My oldest is 8, middle is 6.5 and we are about to need ot be more intentional with spelling. I appreciate your post and the comments here!
We’re having good success with Doodle spell. It’s a paid app but the only thing we use an app for and I’m happy to pay to not have to worry about spellings!
The most important tool for good spelling is simply caring about the issue. I often see documents where something is misspelled and the spell checker is flagging it, but the author didn't take the time to fix it. It takes approximately 10 seconds to do an internet search and find the correct form of a word if you're not sure, and even less to use the computer suggestion, but many people are unwilling to invest even that small amount of time because they are just indifferent to getting things right.
One thing I like to do is have kids find all the words with a given sound on one page of a book they are reading or in a short story (Aesop is good for this) and then sort them by spellings. The goal is to help them notice spelling patterns and when certain spellings appear for certain sounds. Sometimes those patterns are apparent visually (like letters that tend to double at the end of short words - f, s, l - or that the /k/ sound is spelled "ck" at the end of short words), but other times we talk about the etymology behind certain spelling patterns. Once you've sorted the words by spelling, you can use that to quiz - give your child a word orally and ask them which spelling it has. The book Words Their Way also has a lot of useful word lists for sorting like this.
That being said, I have also definitely seen a correlation in my children between reading fluency and spelling. Most of my older children's spelling improved enormously without any extra work after they had been reading fluently for 2-3 years. These days I treat spelling more remedially - we don't really do spelling unless a child has been reading chapter books for a couple of years and is still struggling with correct spelling.
Spelling is such a bugbear for us and I love hearing what works for other people. We flit between things like Nessy and Sir Linkalot, plus lists from Twinkl with some of their explanatory powerpoints, and also some CGP books with explanations of the spelling patterns from Fulford's spelling rules. The jar might help with retention. I have one kid (the younger one) who can retain the rules fairly well, and one kid (the older one) that struggles and may be dyslexic. It's tricky!
Great post, lots of good ideas and I especially like the lucky dip jar. Another method children used to love for irregular words is using a mnemonic: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. They would then draw the most graphic picture of the mnemonic and stick it on the wall. Better still if the mnemonic includes the focus word. Works best if they come up with the mnemonic themselves and it’s humorous/ridiculous.
Child would be starting year 1 as nowand spelling has appeared on the radar.
I was thinking about the spelling test way but started a CPG spelling workbook and we were looking to see what looked right. He looked at each word and somehow from all these months of looking at words learning to read he was recognising by himself the way to spell.
I was relieved feeling he may be a natural speller.
His mum, my eldest child and the most obsessive reader, has never been an able speller but she definitely is not dyslexic. My brother is the same. The only thing in common btge two have are being Virgo!
So I had thought I'm not going to start spelling tests yet let's see how we go.
After reading this post and the comments I feel reassured and that is what is great about this community. Thank you.
I never really did formal spelling work with my now 10 year old. We just did a lot of copywork, and then dictation. I dabbled into a bit of spelling rules and all when we were using "the good and beautiful" language arts curriculum. But its been mostly daily copywork and prepared dictation.
This is my approach too. I don't know if it will work for all of my children, but my eldest is an early (and very keen) reader and I suspect he'll just pick up correct spelling through lots of reading. I've always been good at spelling and I attribute it to being a bookworm since very young. If children are infrequent readers then learning by rote makes sense as they need that extra exposure.