I had a child who struggles with spelling. After 3 years (we started spelling late), I’ve come to some realizations. Please note that my kids are homeschooled and we delayed teaching English reading till they were quite old.
1. You don’t have to use a spelling curriculum.
Only after Babel School mentioned they don’t use a spelling curriculum did it cross my mind that “Of course I don’t have to use it!” The kids can learn spelling as they write.
Learning to spell as part of writing fits Thumper so much better. The reason why spelling curriculum didn’t work for us is that Thumper gets concepts quickly. So, you teach her the CVE rule, she can apply it to all the words you dictate to her in that lesson. But ask her 3 days later, she doesn’t remember and she still misspells.
Do you have one of those kids? They seemingly get concepts and can 舉一反三 in class; they’re able to complete their practice worksheets quickly and accurately. But ask them some critical thinking questions on the concept, or ask them again a week or a month later, they can’t answer.
For Thumper, she learns best when she learns through repeated doing. You don’t have to teach her much, she just has to repeat do. And this is where Anki comes in.
2. Spelling should be taught when you teach writing
This may seem like a “D’uh” concept, but we delay teaching English in our bilingual household. Thumper didn’t learn to read till 3rd grade. So really, I shouldn’t have tried to teach spelling until we were ready to start writing, which was more 4th and 5th grade.
3. You don’t need to teach spelling in first grade. Spelling is easier to teach after you’ve read for a year or two
Related to #2 is that it is so much easier to teach spelling when the child has read for a year or two. The kids seem to remember the pattern of words they have read and it is much easier for them to suggest how to spell something or retain how to spell something.
4. It is okay to give them the answers or do copywork
I learned this from doing Writing with Ease with Thumper and saw it with Bebe as well. WWE has a lot of dictation and copywork. Once a week, the child copies sentences that you write out. They also write down their own narration once a week, where the parent is supposed to just tell them how to spell something when they don’t know.
And the world didn’t end when I gave Thumper or Astroboy the answer or they copied. They learned how to spell these words just fine. Bebe also did some copywork first while learning to read and with so much reading and copying, when she started on All About Spelling, she was able to spell words she didn’t know pretty well right off the bat.
I can’t tell you what a relief it was to see that copywork and giving answers worked with Thumper and being able to apply it to Astroboy. There is so much less yelling (ahem) and frustration on my end.
Why does it work? Because English is a language FULL of inconsistencies in spelling. Ultimately, there is memorization involved.
5. Teach the sound of the spelled word, which can be different from how you pronounce it.
When we speak English, we shorten sounds sometimes. That’s why many syllables end up with a schwa /ə/ sound, and it often confuses kids who are trying to spell the way words sound.
For example, when you want to remember how to spell the word “pencil”. You break it up into two syllables, ‘pen’ and ‘cil’. The child often hears ‘sul’ for ‘cil’. So I can tell Thumper, it’s spelled ‘pen’ ‘sil’, where I make the i a short i sound instead. It makes it easier for her to remember.