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Behind on Spelling
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My son is in grade 6, and we have been using Spelling Wisdom/Using Language Well for about one year. We started in book 2, and he is only on lesson 44, after working in it for almost 4 terms. He spends about 15 min per day, 4x per week working on this. I only choose a selection of the passage to dictate to him. I’m not sure why we are so far behind, and how we should “catch up”. Is it important that he do every lesson? Should I try to complete the book in the grades specified, or allow him to go at his own pace?
There is no need to push to get your child to grade level. Doing so has the potential of frustrating both of you as he may need to digest the material at a slower pace. It could also kill his love of learning. The grade levels are only a guideline. It is best to work at your child’s pace because that is when real learning occurs. This is not about checking boxes to say you did it. It is about helping your child learn the material. Completing all three levels before graduation will give your child an excellent grammar education.
You state that he is working on SW/ULW 4 times per week. Are you doing 4 lessons per week or are you spreading 2 lessons over 4 days? If you are having him do 4 lessons each week, I recommend that you back that down to 2 lessons per week. If you need to have him do the grammar lesson one day and dictation the next, that is acceptable and something many families do. The reason for only doing 2 lessons per week is to give your child time to “digest” the material being learned. That time of “digesting” is what helps the student really learn the material.
I would just like to encourage you. “Behind” in the book is not necessarily behind in spelling ability. My 9th grader is just now finishing SW/ULW book 2 (we came to SCM a bit late). Copywork, transcription, dictation, and narration have been the only language arts he has done. Although book2 would be quite behind for a 9th grader by the grade recommendations, he scored beyond 12th grade in spelling and grammar on required standardized tests last spring. We also do 4 lessons a week to get him “caught up,” but we only do dictation on 2 of the passages. So grammar 4x, spelling 2x. But he is much older. In 6th I think you could just plug along at 2 lessons a week. Lime Karen said, book 3 will complete grammar instruction and you are on track to finish that by 9th grade. That gives you 3 years to complete books 4 and 5 (hopefully ULW 4&5 will be out by then). I am still holding out that I can use the full ULW sequence with this last child (fingers crossed).
Thank you both for the encouragement!
To clarify, he has been working on the SW/ULW four days per week, but he has often been completing less than one dictation per week. Some of this is due to attention/effort issues, which we are now addressing. We’ve set a new goal for him to complete two lessons per week, just doing dictation for one of them. He is working on Analytical Grammar this year, too.
Hopefully if we plug along at this rate, he will be proud of his own progression and we’ll work through the book without forcing him to finish in a certain amount of time.
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