Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 2 months ago by Sonya Shafer.

Viewing 3 posts - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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April 5, 2010 at 7:32 am
simplicity
Participant
Hi, all! I have a nearly 13 year old that has always had GREAT difficulty with spelling. We have not had her tested, but I’m quite sure she would probably be labeled as dyslexic if we did. She still has problems with short-term memory, confusing “b”, “d”, “p”, alphabetizing, etc. I have been homeschooling her since she was 8 1/2 and have had her doing copywork daily since then. Because of her struggles, we have not yet moved on to dictation (well, actually, I’ve attempted it a few times and it was a disaster!). I have been having her use Spelling Wisdom Book 1, but just as a resource for copywork (I have her copy one selection perfectly per day). The first few exercises (the shorter ones) in the book would probably be doable for her as dictation exercises, but after they become longer, it seems there are just TOO many words that she doesn’t know how to spell in one passage. Should I just continue doing copywork for now, in spite of her age, and not attempt dictation for a while?
April 5, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Richele Baburina
Participant
Hi Simplicity,
It might just take a bit to get through each dication. There are some simple exercises I’ve found in Visual Spatial Learners by Alexandra Shires Golon (can get through the library) to help with spelling such as rather than writing the problem word(s) in a straight line, make a set of “stair steps” for each word with each letter on a “riser” running from top to bottom. Sorry, the exercises probably really need to be seen.
Another exercise can be downloaded at http://www.visualspatial.org – found on the right-hand side called A Visualization Approach to Spelling.
I hope those might help.
Richele
April 5, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
Another possibility might be to use the shorter passages that you think will be doable, then select some other passages about the same length from the living books she is reading for other subjects. You can then gradually move into longer passages at her pace and as she is ready.