So confused about Spelling

Sounds to me that perhaps something like All About Spelling might be a good fit for her. I am about 2/3 of the way through Level 1 with dd6 and I have already seen definite improvement in her confidence about spelling (as evidenced by the fact that she is now trying to write a lot and figure things out on her own, before she WANTED to write things but usually didn’t want to try because it was too hard), and I’ve also seen improvement in her ability to break down larger words to sound them out in reading. AAS DOES go into the rules, but it’s in a very incremental way so I don’t think that it’s too overwhelming with a huge list to memorize or anything. It is also mastery based (as in you stick with a lesson dealing with a particular sound until she’s got it), so eliminates the problem with memorizing the word list and then forgetting them as soon as she’s taken the test. I also really like the way it teaches segmenting – breaks that down into tiny little steps – which may be helpful for your dd if she gets overwhelmed by trying to sound things out. AAS may not be purely CM, but I think helpful for those who may not be natural speller. We plan to use Spelling Wisdom later on down the track when dd is the right age for it, but I am pleased with the foundation this is giving her to start out with.

HTH some,

Jen

I like the tiles because they do have the different blends and syllable tages and such.  I don’t use the word cards.  I’m lazy that way!  The teacher’s manual tells you what “cards” you are going to use (the spelling list IS the cards).  If they are having a hard time in that section I just put a post-it note that they need to do the reinforcement words and we work on those over the course of a day or week.  We’ll revisit the spelling list again if that’s the case.  I DO use the cards that have you review the rules….every day we read the cards they’ve been working on until they have them cold.

At one point I noticed one son was missing a lot of words I thought he should know so I grabbed all the cards that I’d previously ignored.  We took a few weeks and I had him spell 10 to 15 words a day, in the order the cards were numbered.  If he spelled it correctly, I moved it out of the pile.  If he had a hard time, it went to the review pile and we talked about the rule and worked on the word every day until he had it.  Once he’d gone through the stack, he was doing a stellar job and hasn’t had a problem since.  My two other boys pretty much never misspell a word once they learn the rule.

The kit with the tiles is a one time purchase.  After that you just need the teacher’s manual for each new level (and perhaps a student pack if you don’t already have one for that level).  I have often had two in a level at a time and have never had a problem juggling it or sharing the resources.  It’s completely non-consumable so all my kids will benefit from the purchase.

AAS is supposed to be great for kids with learning issues like that. I think I need to break down and buy it for my APD kids, I just haven’t done it yet.

If you want to also look into a purely CM approach, an easy introduction is to watch Sonya’s video on prepared dictation for teaching spelling, if you haven’t already. You can try out the techniques with any literature you like or even with our Spelling Wisdom free samples. (I’m not trying to push SW over other things. You can do this at no cost with any good literature.)

By the way, Charlotte Mason did not teach spelling rules beyond basic letter sounds for learning reading. I think CM was wise in that regard, because I’ve seen so many children struggle, stutter, and stop and start while reading because they got so bogged down trying to process all the rules.

But when it comes down to it, the English langauge has so many exceptions that we end up recognizing words by sight and context anyway. In fact, there are some rules that would be impossible to understand until you know the word well anyway. Some examples:

1. Cat has a hard ‘c’ sound, while city has a soft ‘c’. The rule is that c is hard before a back vowel and soft before a front vowel. What is that, you ask? Well, ‘front’ and ‘ back’ refer to the position of the tongue when you say the word (which you must already know to be able to say it.)
2. Anyone know a rule for when to use “ance” vs “ence” suffixes? Many are determined by which of the four classes of Latin verb conjugation the word came from. Others originated in Latin but were changed along the was through variations of French and then English. Sure, teach that to your eight year old.
3. How about the most common rule all of us know: “I before E exept after C.” Do you know the rest? Here goes… or when it sounds like a as in neighbor or weigh; and except seize and seizure; and also leisure, height, and either, forfeit, and neither; or when it sounds like ear, as in the word weird.
   Now try to spell science … policies … atheist … caffeine. They all break the rules.

Just a little food for thought that impacts both spelling and reading. If you’re interested, we also have a video on basic vs intensive phonics with some more information, but it’s mostly geared towards rules for reading.

Age 8 is on the young side for prepared dictation. We usually recommend 9 or 10 years old based on what CM did. But the key is not a particular age but that your child is able to read well first. If your child is still working out decoding words then spelling is going to be a chore and a frustration. It’s something that can wait a while without causing any problems, so be sure to hold off until he’s really ready.

Agree so much with Doug!!!! I’ve been down a hard road trying too hard with my first child with spelling and it truly is more simple than I thought. Kids need time and consistency with spelling. A heavy amount of rules can be way too confusing for many kids, especially my son.

I’ve tried so many recommended expensive programs, and the most successful has ended up being just simple dictation, along with some homemade flashcards for review. Effective and so much easier for a busy mom! Trusting in this method really works.