spelling question – creative child

Hi Rebecca,  thank you for asking this!

We are having the EXACT SAME scenario over here with my 13 year old!  We have been working with my oldest dd on improving spelling for years.  It is SLOW!  So slow that sometimes I am sure there has actually been NO progress at all!  I have to go over work from a couple years ago to see that it has indeed improved…just at a snail’s pace.

We have recently (since midway through last school year) started a multi-faceted approach and simply started covering spelling from every possible angle that we can think of!  Word roots, spelling rules, phonograms, whole word (using spelling wisdom), typing with spell check on, spelling out loud, spelling games, correcting spelling in written reports and narrations, etc.  We have tried to incorporate the improvement of spelling all throughout her subjects and schooling.  It is getting better, but it is still as slow as molasses!

If anyone has a brilliant idea to help make spelling easier for these types of kids, I would LOVE to hear it! If not, then I guess I will just keep going with what we have been doing and take the improvement in small amounts!

-Miranda

Welllll, let’s see.  The list is long!  I’ll try to remember it all!  ?

For phonograms and spelling rules we use The Logic of English.  Not their printed stuff, though.  No workbooks.  I printed out their free list of spelling rules and had her do a homemade course that I designed based on those rules.  This was over a year ago, now.  Each of my kids are doing this same course around grades 4-5.  After that I have just had her read over and try to remember the rules.  We also downloaded the logic of english phonograms app.  This is somewhat “young” in it’s presentation, which is fine for my younger girl, but I don’t want my 13 dd to feel silly, so I usually get her to “help” a younger sibling with it or test them, etc.

For word roots we use the computer software Word Roots by Critical Thinking Company.

For specific spelling programs we use Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well.

For general spelling practice and improvement we correct written narrations and other written work.  Have her practice her typing in a document with spell check on.  Making sure to correct all words with red squiggly lines.  Whenever she asks us how a word is spelled, we tell her and then ask her to repeat the spelling back.

For games we use different apps until she gets tired of them, hang man,  bananagrams,  scrabble,  free online spelling games, must whatever we come across that strikes our fancy!

That’s all I can think of right now.  If I remember something that I have not included I come back.

Like I said, though,  it is still going SLOWELY!  But, overall, progress is continuing.

-Miranda