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

Tagged: first grade, free writing, spelling

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

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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Posts
March 11, 2010 at 2:36 am
Megorunna
Member
My dear 1st grade daughter has a free writing question that I give her each day (Ex: What is your favorite game?). She can verbally answer easily, but she gets stuck trying to spell the words.
Does this mean that we should start spelling to build her vocabulary? The CM method does not have you start spelling until 3rd grade.
Thanks so much!
March 11, 2010 at 3:39 am
missceegee
Participant
I wouldn’t worry about spelling yet. One idea, have her dictate her response to you and then she could copy what you’ve written. Otherwise, I would focus on copywork and point out spelling stuff as you go along.
My fave spelling program is Spelling Wisdom combined with All About Spelling, if that helps.
March 11, 2010 at 4:22 am
lgeurink
Member
My daughter is also in 1st. She likes to write in journals and write notes to friends for play. Her words are very much sounded out phonetically with lots of misspellings (our cat Lucy is Loosee) but she improves as we learn more phonics rules. She is expected to spell correctly when she is doing her phonics work but that always applies to her lessons. As for her free writing time, we usually read a picture book (like Uncommon Traveler for Mod 1) and then I ask her to describe her pretend trip to Africa. I want her to include as much as she likes so I write while she dictates. I do not correct her grammer as I write either though this is less and less an issue as she learns more as well. It is neat to see how much she is improving. My 4 year old’s dictations are far more humorous with incorrect grammer but they show her personality and I love reading them to my husband when he gets home so we can have a good laugh. I am starting to trust more and more Charlotte’s methods and it is very hard for me to wait on formal spelling and grammer, especially as homeschool friends are not, but I see such improvement that I feel her methods are working better than I expected.
March 16, 2010 at 1:05 am
Megorunna
Member
Thanks all!