Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: dictation, spelling

This topic has 13 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 6 months ago by suzukimom.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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November 7, 2012 at 10:36 pm
suzukimom
Participant
I am starting to get worried / confused with the whole spelling thing. Delta is 9 (boy), so is at an age where you would normally start dictation. Originally my plan was to use Spelling Wisdom from SCM – but even the first couple of quotations in level 1 are too difficult for him.
He generally doesn’t write anything except copywork – which has become a problem at places like church and scouting. I’ve tried to get him to visualize each word in his copywork, and then write it without going letter by letter – but he says he can’t.
And he can’t seem to spell the simplest words. For instance, after examining the word “ice” then trying to spell it – he came up with “ian” or something like that…. no relationship to the word he is trying to spell… not a “phonetic misspelling” or anything. The kid can even misspell “to” (and I don’t mean with “two or too”… something way off…)
I’m not sure what to do now. I have spent the last couple of days looking at spelling programs (not that we can afford to buy anything… I’d have to see what I can do to arrange something…). I don’t just want a list of words with no relationship to anything…
I know that the main ones recommended are Sequential Spelling, and All About Spelling. Mind you – one of my main complaints is it would be US spelling, not Canadian…..
So, I’ve looked at Sequential Spelling – and it looks cool – using word families etc…. but I’ve heard a lot of people say that it doesn’t seem to get into the child’s own writing?
I look at All About Spelling – and it sounds – well – time intensive… expensive, and like it is memorizing a bunch of rules (which might be harder for some kids….) but seems to work well for a lot of kids…?
I also (being conscious that spelling has been taught for a long time) looked at http://www.archive.org hoping to find something useful (and maybe Canadian) – and found The Jones Spelling Book – which has word lists based on the words that kids USE in their own writing (well, in 1913…) and arranged by difficulty… and once they have done it for a while – they make up their own sentence for each word (which I think would really help them use the correct spellings in their own writing….?). The world lists are short (3-5 words each day)…. but the words have no relationship to each other….
I keep going back and forth between the 4 options and methods… (Spelling Wisdom/dictation, AAS, SS, Jones Spelling) – and wonder if maybe there is something else I’ve missed?
I seem at a total loss as to how to teach spelling at all…. especially since my kid doesn’t seem to get it at all!
November 7, 2012 at 11:10 pm
momto2blessings
Participant
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but we’ve liked using Spelling Workout: http://www.learningthings.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=PE%2D0813628156. It was rec. in The Well Trained Mind. I like that it gives a phonics review tip for each lesson, and the words are based on that tip. I also like that my kids do it independently, except for me reading the list. It only takes them about 10 min./day. Some of it seems like busywork, so we don’t do all activities. Since I’ve discovered Spelling Wisdom here, I now alternate and do ea. 2 days/week. I think my kids are pretty natural spellers…don’t know if that makes a difference. Hope you find something you like! Blessings, Gina
November 7, 2012 at 11:50 pm
heatherma
Participant
Just a bit on my short experience with All About Spelling. My boys are 7 and 5 and we have started into level 1 this year (going much slower with my 5 year old- he has his own bookmarked spot! but he doesn’t want to be left out). I am using it not so much for spelling alone, but as a way to combine reading/writing/spelling to get me going. As a fluent reader and thus proficient speller myself I was at a loss as to how to actually teach these things and couldn’t afford Delightful Reading.
I like that they do go over some “rules”, use phonics, manipulate the words with tiles, sight words to practice reading daily, incorporate a little dictation. I can just grab it and do it, which I like. I break each lesson up into 2 or 3 days if needed at 5-10 min 4x week and go at their own pace (if one is totally confused we back up, or take it slower, etc.) I have to say, just being consistent and only 2 months into the school year, they are Both reading short words and even some sentences and can hear a dictated word and write it correctly. Plus, the pretty affordable price worked for us. I’ve been terribly pleased so far. (For me being such a visual learner, I had to See the word correctly and in a sentence for context and to spell it. Reading really good quality books aloud and/or on his own should help eventually.) My sister has used several levels of AAS as a nanny of a 10 yr old girl whose mother requested she work with her daughter who speed reads and misses much of the content and context of stories and was a horrible speller. After 2 years and several levels, her reading comprehension was much better as well as her spelling.
Don’t know if that helps or not… hope so!
November 8, 2012 at 12:15 am
pslively
Participant
We have used Sequential Spelling and it has been very successful with my 10 y.o.s. He spelled like you say your son spells before we started S.S. I am honestly astounded by how much my son has improved. We are just about to finish up book one. I don’t know if it’s the curriculum or the fact that he’s maturing, but he has made vast improvement in his spelling. He doesn’t do much “writing” as a school subject, but when we do dictation and narration from our Writing with Ease, he is spelling most of the words correctly. So, I can’t promise anything for your son, but it has worked wonders for us. I think you can download the first few lessons from their website. For my son it has been wonderful. BTW, I have looked at Spelling Wisdom and I think it looks GREAT, but I know that it would not work for him.
November 8, 2012 at 12:21 am
Tristan
Participant
Couple of things, none may help 😉 And as Joseph is now starting Cubs at church we’re seeing similar things pop up – needing to write things out or read something at a level he is not at yet.
1. AAS is time intensive but can help with lots of things as mentioned above. I don’t have time right now, so ours is on hold.
2. What kind of learner is he? What I mean is does he pick things up best if he:
-read it
– watches it (pictures/video)
– hears it (with rhythm or music possibly)
– physically touches, tries, and interacts with it
Use that to his advantage. For example, I’ve had to help Joseph say a word’s spelling while he’s writing. If he asks me how to spell when I say it and have him repeat it “w-h-e-n”, then he starts writing it while repeating again “w-h-e-n”. This is helping him remember a bit better. If he is sounding out a word to write I have him say each sound and write what letter makes that sound. No, it’s not perfect, but phonetic is closer than what it sounds like your son is doing at the moment.
3 – Have you considered using his own frequently mispelled words as his list, doing 2-4 until he has them? Or even working through Dolch words for his spelling lists first?
November 8, 2012 at 4:11 am
jmac17
Participant
We are not at the stage to worry about spelling and dictation yet, so I don’t have programs to recommend, but I had an idea after reading Tristan’s post.
I am a very tactile learner. I simply think better when my hands are moving. Whenever I have had to practice spelling for any reason, whether in school, or simply to learn a new person’s name, I have always had to make it tactile. Usually I air-write it. As an adult, in a social situation, I air-write in my head, by imagining my hand moving to spell the name of the person I was just introduced to. My hand probably ‘twitches’ a bit, too, writing the word in tiny motions. Then I remember their name. If I don’t, there’s no chance.
The other thing I have found very useful is the ASL alphabet. I fingerspell new words to cement them in my brain. I know you are learning ASL, so perhaps that would be an option for Delta. It could work in a formal ‘learning to spell’ context, or you could find reasons to use finger spelling in a casual way. Send secret messages to each other by fingerspelling while waiting for appointments, or to set up a surprise for a younger sibling. It might get him thinking more about spelling and paying attention the letters in words more. You could even do ‘copywork’ in fingerspelling, by spelling out a poem or verse of scripture that you are memorizing. It would take the focus off of the physical task of writing (which if I remember right, wasn’t a strong point for Delta) and make it more interesting. I don’t mean to replace copywork entirely, of course, but as an occasional alternative to get him thinking about spelling in a different way.
A related idea is to ‘send’ messages by writing on each other’s backs. That really makes you concentrate on putting a string of letters together to make words, thinking about how the letters are formed, etc. It’s a fun relaxing way to wind down for bed, or maybe a way to spend some ‘quiet’ time.
Anyway, hope that gets you thinking about possible ideas.
Joanne
November 8, 2012 at 4:16 am
suzukimom
Participant
Thanks so far for the help/suggestions everyone. I just keep going around and around in my head…
To tell the truth – I still am not sure what type of learner my son is! weird, huh? I know he has learned a lot from reading books on his own about Space etc… he really loves videos too. But he seems to do well with music (not sure for learning facts etc with music…) and he does enjoy making/doing things… so I’m not sure at all
He doesn’t do enough writing for me to get a mispelled words list from him at this point – as he generally only writes copywork. He doesn’t want to write – I think partly because he doesn’t know how to spell. He is a perfectionist.

November 8, 2012 at 4:21 am
ServingwithJoy
Participant
I am wondering what his reading skills are like? Does he enjoy reading and read fluently?
My 8yo son is also still at the stage where he is having trouble getting the words down on paper, but I see it more as an issue of using the words and paper more often. If you think about it – we learn the skills that we NEED to learn :0).
So, for him, I am just adding some simple writing assignments to his copywork and dictation. And I mean SIMPLE! Starting with: give me two sentences with about the book you are reading, or what you are looking forward to most this week. He writes, I (gently) correct spelling with him, and we move on. Sometimes they just need to use the words on paper to get the hang of it, IMO.
I should also say that I have an extremely logical 10yo son who was also a terrible speller. He reads really well, but it wasn’t translating into his spelling/writing. We went to Rod and Staff spelling. It is logical, sequential, cheap. He loves it, and his spelling is much, much improved.
Not jumping off the CM philosophy, but you have to give the kid what works for him – and for this particular kid the old fashioned list did work.
November 8, 2012 at 4:30 am
ServingwithJoy
Participant
Also, I would point out that natural spellers probably know the least about the ‘rules’ of spelling. They are mostly visual learners and get a picture of the word in thier minds.
There are so many exceptions to the rules of spelling that I think we can easily overwhelm and confuse children if that becomes the focus.
I second Tristan – once you find out how he learns best, you can really begin searching for the techniques that will work for him.
Isn’t it ironic how we can’t teach what we intrinsically know? And awesome how that causes us to reach out to others for wisdom and support.
So encouraging on this forum…
November 8, 2012 at 4:42 am
LDIMom
Participant
You might want to consider Spelling Power. I’m not sure if the Canadian spelling is like British spelling? If so, the Spelling Power manual does provide the alternate British spelling where applicable right beside the American English spelling.
The program is non-consumable (unless you buy the optional student workbooks; they are not necessary though), and it is to be used until you feel your child has mastered spelling.
I have found it useful with all of our older children. I can easily make it fit our schooling and their learning styles. It can be labor intensive, but I just didn’t do everything she suggested.
I have taken spelling out of our schooling this term and it is really showing. I plan to add it back 3 days a week after Christmas.
http://www.christianbook.com/spelling-power-fourth-edition-with-rom/beverly-adams-gordon/9781888827392/pd/827394
November 8, 2012 at 5:00 am
Jenni
Participant
suzukimom-
I don’t have boys so this might be off, but I would suggest two things:
1. quit stressing. He’s doing okay. If he is reading and gaining knowledge, he is obviously not having issues with comprehension. Let the “formal” spelling go for a while and give him a dictionary to use while he is reading. When he comes to a word he’s not sure of, or just an exciting new word, have him look it up and copy it and the definition as his copywork. Let him choose which words and how many each book/week. Maybe put a small requirement on it like 5 per week or even 3 per book. Make it small and managable and very achievable at first. Let him know it will increase as the challenging words in his books incease.
2. Take the stress of writing away and have him choose sight words from a list. You say “tomato” (haha) and have him pick from several like words (tomorrow, potato, etc). If he is choosing the right word in that situation, his issue is likely not with spelling per se, but maybe with writing, or maybe just getting his brain to remember what order the letters/sounds are in, and then correctly telling his hand about that….?
Did you mention if he is a tactile kind of kid? Treat-motivated? (my dd8 has informed me that she is) If so, write the words in Sharpie (gasp) on LEGOS! (Use a dry erase marker over the top to remove)
JSYK, I have NO formal, documentable, professional experience with this at all! These are just coming to my mind and I thought I’d share. I do have one dd5 who is a kinesthetic learner and needs to move, move, move all. the. time. (yeah, she’s that kid that falls off chairs and climbs everything) so I have really had to try to think differently about how to reach her well.
3. oops, I said only two things. But let me also reiterate Charlotte Mason’s approach. She emphasized having children look at the word, study it, visualize the correct spelling of a word, then try to picture it in their mind’s eye, followed by “copying” it (from their brain) on to the paper. In their very best penmanship of course. Maybe stick to just a very few words first, or start with him picking words he wants to be able to spell well, like names of friends and places, books of the bible (use easy ones!), addresses/street names, favorite foods? Endless ideas there.
We did a little warm-up to this with Picture Study, having them really peruse the painting before then taking it away and letting them sketch what they could recall. Sometimes we checked and compared the two, but oftimes we didn’t. With spelling, I’d guess you’d always want to compare/correct, but maybe not right away. Let it sit for a day or a week, even… and then do it again the next session (or longer?) and then compare all three, four or five, especially if there is some progress. Make a point to stress that spelling and art are inherently different in that art is free and individual, and that spelling is nearly absolute and accuracy is key.
We did our spelling this way for about 3 days, before I realized my dd7(at the time) was a natural speller and she really didn’t need the training that often. I may return to it with her anyway (she’s now almost nine also), because even though she is a natural, she doesn’t think so and could use some confidence in this area.
With dd5, we will likely use a lot of the tips I just made up and posted here. So many thanks for asking your question and getting my brainstorming truckin’!
Also I sincerely hope that helps. Just remember he’s *only* nine and the “range” of “normal” is huge. He’s in it. He will be ready eventually and hopefully so will you be. Take comfort in knowing that he is NOT going to get lost and ignored in the crowd of a classroom. You are doing fine!!
This pep talk brought to you by the fitting words “reciprocal” and “applicable”… to me also. I sure needed that boost!
Blessings, suzukimom!!
November 8, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Doug Smith
Keymaster
How well is he reading?
November 8, 2012 at 3:33 pm
greenebalts
Participant
We are using All About Spelling and we really like it. I do not think it’s time consuming or too much “memorizing rules”. I’m currently using Level 2 with our 9 year old. (She completed Level 1 last year. It is important to start from the beginning regardless of age.) All About Spelling is a leveled program, not grade specific.

I recently called the company regarding All About Reading, which we are using with our 7 year old dyslexic son. In talking, the rep stated spelling should last approx. 20 minutes per day. However, we do not spend that amount of time as it’s just not necessary with the 9 year old. (We have not started spelling with the 7 year old yet.)

Level 2 has 25 steps. We typically spend about 10 minutes per day and complete about 1 step per week. I spend Mon/Tues reviewing previous concepts and introducing the new concept. The rest of the week is practice, which includes spelling from dictation of individual words, word phrases, and sentences. Our 9 year old is not keen on the letter tiles. She prefers to just write the words and get on with it. I do use the tiles for teaching new concepts, then she uses a dry erase marker on white board rather than tiles. She does the end of the week practice in her spelling notebook/composition book. There are rules per say, but they’re very systematic and really make sense with the concepts being taught. (I compare AAS with Math-U-See in the way of teaching new lesson, practice, systematic review, and then move on when the child masters.)
I was concerned about the fact that 9 year old does great with the spelling lessons, but is unable to transfer that knowledge to every day writing and that spelling is not yet automatic. Here is the response I recieved on this issue from another AAS rep.

I found that my children started putting more skills together after finishing All About Spelling 3. They had done longer dictations by that time (Level 1 only has phrases, 2 has phrases and sentences, 3 has 12 sentences per step. This increases the number of words they are holding in their minds at one time and gets them used to writing longer passages.) Also, Level 3 includes an activity called The Writing Station, where students make up their own sentences with words they have studied. After level3, students have mastered about 1000 spelling words, which also makes writing easier.
The writing station and dictation are both excellent opportunities for working on editing skills. Use these for working on editing for now, unless you need to have her polish a piece of writing for one of her other subjects. I usually put a light pencil X next to a line for each spelling error, or simply say, “There are ___ spelling errors,” and see if my child can find the mistakes. Praise for any she finds and for any that she is able to correct. When she struggles to identify or correct words, go ahead and help walk her through this process.
As she becomes more adept at editing her dictation and writing station exercises, add more editing to her other writing assignments. Just make sure you are only having her correct words that use patterns she has learned up to that point. The more difficult words will come later, as she masters more skills.
Any time you see a mistake in her writing, though, you can make a note of it and add a card into her daily review tab. I keep a stack of blank index cards in the back of my box for just this purpose.

We have used Spelling Workout in the past, but it didn’t feel like a good fit for us. I really like AAS and plan to continue it. As mentioned we are also using All About Reading with our son and he is making small gains. In addition, I asked when we should introduce spelling with him and I was told that he should be reading fluently and wanting to write. Keep in mind this particular child does have a reading disability, but I thought the answer made sense for most kids.
I wish I had more time to compose this post, as I’m in a rush right now. I feel like it may be a bit disjointed. I apologize. But feel free to ask any further questions and I will try to check back later. Also, the folks at All About Learning Press have been a wonderful resource. Dont’ be afraid to call and ask many questions before committing. I believe they offer a 6 or 12 month money back guarantee. They seem sincere in their approach, much like the wonderful folks here at SCM. 🙂

Blessings,
Melissa
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/
November 8, 2012 at 6:14 pm
suzukimom
Participant
Ok, thanks for the resources/thoughts everyone…. I have decided to breathe deaply, and continue on… I don’t think that Spelling Wisdom is a good fit for us YET (hopefully soon) – and have decided to go with the Jones Spelling Book for now (I like that it is free – and seems designed to transfer into the child’s writing fairly quickly (hopefully!). I am going to use our flashcard program (Anki) to give us review recommendations, as well as keeping a list of misspelt words as suggested in the book.
I also printed off the suggestions for learning a spelling word from the Spelling Workout Book’s sample pages – to give my son more direction on how to learn the words.
To begin with I’ll have him do the spelling on the whiteboard, so I can quickly erase any mistakes (ala CM).
btw – he did a lot better with the new words today… maybe there was just somethine weird about “ice” for him? I’ll see how he does with today’s words tomorrow….
I hope to transition into Spelling Wisdom once he has some words under his belt – we shall see…