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Spelling with younger kids
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Hi all! I’ve been wrestling with this question for a while now…I just can’t decide what to do!
From what I understand, in a CM homeschool, I shouldn’t start spelling lessons until 3rd grade. Here is my problem…
My dd 7 writes all the time, and has since she was 4 and started reading. (Stories mostly, to go along with her pictures, and signs for play, etc.) She spells phonetically – always has, of course, and I know this is a natural thing…but, what about not wanting them to see misspelled words? I mean, at this point, she surely thinks that certain words are spelled the way she has always spelled them. Now, some words, like “you, the, Daddy” she has learned to spell correctly. I guess I’m just afraid that she’s forming a habit of writing these words incorrectly, and making mental pictures of them.What have some of you done with your kids before 3rd grade? Does it just work itself out eventually, or should I go ahead and start working on some spelling with her now, because of her interest in writing?
Thanks so much!
MeganHi Megan,
I’ll jump in with what we do since our dd 8 sounds a lot like your kiddo.
This is our first go round in CM methods full on. I thought I’d wait on the spelling but I too was concerned about all the misspellings. Just this past week or two I’ve incorporated spelling in with the English lesson. I’m using a book called The big book of ideas for L.A. by Scholastic. Got it at the teacher’s store for $23 bucks and I really like it. More importantly dd loves it and looks forward to L.A.
There are several categories of things to work on and recently we switched to spelling. We started by creating characters that would eventually be part of a story she makes. Once two of the characters were created, each one took a day with our 20 min. per subject allotment, she moved on to drawing a picture of them and writing a few sentences about the drawing. She loved it! i didn’t correct any misspelled words that day.
Next day I wrote her sentences correctly and had her write them during L.A. She barely finished in the 20 min. I corrected her misspelled words. Next day she wrote it again. Then a third time. The next time I had her write the 7 misspelled words 5 times each and did a little test to finish off that time. I dictated her story and wanted to see punctuation and correctly spelled words the next time. A few mistakes but it was paying off. today was the second day of dictating and by now she knew her sentences by heart and finished them in 9 min! A few mistakes but as we went over them, she could see where she went wrong in most places. I feel like it was a success and plan to do the same with the second character she created way back in the beginning.
The other thing I want to incorporate some how is have her write in her journal every so often. It’s a journal made just for this reason, to get children to write. I haven’t decided how to go about correcting the misspelled words 🙂 because I don’t want to squelch the fun in writing. (if you’ve got ideas, I’m all ears!)
That’s what we do and I hope it sparks something that will work for you.
Yolanda
I just let mine 7 write how he wants to when he is playing etc. When we are doing school work though he has to spell correctly. His nature hournal is the only exception becuase I don’t over see that too much.
I say a sentence and have him write it. We don’t do this daily though. I make sure he knows how to spell all the words except 1 and then we can work on the 1. I talk to him about the word and sound it out. I remind him of blends and see if he can correct himself.
What Yolanda is suggesting sounds fun. Creating characters and stories. It sounds very creative.
Thank you both for your help! It’s tough to figure out how to help them, while not squelching the fun in writing, as you said, Yolanda! That book sounds great, thanks for mentioning it!
Megan
Great question! I wonder about this as well. My oldest is in 3rd grade now but handwriting has been a challenge all along for him. So we are still working on copywork and haven’t started dictation yet.
He does write on his own now and then, especially letters or emails to family. I don’t correct him unless he asks me for help, but I do keep a list of words he spells wrong. Then I’ll make up a “spelling sheet” for him now and then. Just a list of five words or so that I ask him to copy. That’s all for now. I only want to be sure he sees the correct spelling, because, like you said, I worry that seeing it wrong in his own writing will imprint the wrong spelling in his mind.
Out of curiousity, I’ll sometimes ask him to underline the words he thinks he misspelled from his own writing – often he knows exactly which ones “look wrong”.
Joy
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