Learning to spell?

[LoudmouthMormon]

How did learning to spell work for your kids? My girl reads and writes probably years ahead of the public school system, but spelling is coming very slowly.

LM

[Babbi-Dan]

I never had a problem with spelling and neither did my kids. I always taught them to just say the word like it is spelled when they were getting ready for their spelling tests. Of course, there are rules to spelling, many of which I can't remember. I have worked for many bosses who couldn't spell worth a darn though. That's why they had me for a secretary! Seems you can either or spell or you can't. Those that had trouble with spelling when young still have trouble when they are older. At least that's been my experience.

[LarnaE]

I think that some people have a gift for spelling and some do not. I do not have a gift for spelling. It takes me forever to write something because I have to look up words in the dictionary. Even when I think I have them all spelled correctly my husband still finds mistakes. If you have noticed most of my post are edited by my husband. Anyway, I look forward to being a perfect speller in the next life. My spelling isn't as bad as it was when I was a child and so it has improved. Don't be too hard on your children if they can't spell, just teach them to use the dictionary. I use spell checker first to get most of my spelling errors and then I use the dictionary and then I have my husband correct the rest. Those of us who can't spell just have to work a little harder.

[signseeker]

My girl went through some "creative" spelling kick where, I kid you not, every single word in her made-up stories were misspelled. I'm not sure if she was getting into codes or what her deal was. Anyway, hopefully she's not having too much pressure about it which is giving her a mindblock or something.

Ass lung ass yew kin reedit, whut ells maddrs?

[JayE]

Ass lung ass yew kin reedit, whut ells maddrs?


Penalty flag - profanity.

Where's a referee smiley when you need one?

[prairiemom]

Children who learn to read with sight method are poorer spellers than those who learn to read phonetically. Even so, phonetics is not a guarantee.

First, we made sure that they read a ton of good books. Just becoming familiar with words helps.

Second, we used Victory Drill Book for part of their learning to read because it introduces the most common spelling rules.

Lastly we use English from the Roots Up for both vocabulary and to help spell the more difficult words (anything with Latin or Greek roots).

I wouldn't worry about any spelling though until they were 8-9 yo.

[signseeker]

Huked on fonix werked for me.

[LEVE]

When I was a kid I taught myself to read and in the 2nd grade was reading at a 12th grade level. The problem... I couldn't spell my way out of a wet paper bag. It was grueling, every week a spelling test... and every week... barely passing. It wasn't till I got my first spell-checker on a computer that I started to enjoy writing. I could finally write as fast as I could think and check the spelling later. What a joy, and that doubled when I found a grammar checker.

I only wished it hadn't come at the age of 35, earlier would have been much nicer.

[Buffie]

prairiemom, if you can try to teach your children Latin. I know it's archaic, but for an English speaker it's a very important vocabulary aid. I had three years of Latin in high school, and I'm convinced it helped me ace the SAT and ACT. So many long, difficult words have Latin roots, and thanks to Caesar and Virgil I could usually dig them out. It's also a great help in learning Spanish, French, or Italian, which are direct descendents.