Starting Spelling Wisdom earlier than 3rd grade….

I feel confident that my younger son could handle SW, he is probably already the best speller in the house; however, I will be holding off until next year at least — partly because he will be starting grade 3 then, partly because I’d like to give his brother (struggling speller) a head start on SW first.  I am not concerned about it because as he continues to read and do copy work he is still learning to spell correctly by seeing and copying the words correctly.  I feel very comfortable waiting, and the fac that Charlotte didn’t start dictation until 4th makes me feel all that much more confident about the whole thing.  He already has a great deal on his plate for his young age and short attention span, why add something early just because he’s good at it?

One other thing comes to mind: The material is written for grade 4+ so you might run into concerns with passage length or word comprehension if you start in 2nd.  You would know if that’s a concern for your child or not.

I have never begun studied dictation this early, despite my kids being early readers and good spellers already.  I can’t tell you what to do, but I want to point out what is involved in studied dictation and you should carefully consider whether this menu of requirements might frustrate or discourage her at this age:

1.  The child must be able to listen, attend, and remember passages spoken;

2. “see” it in her mind as she prepares to transfer it to the paper;

3. Think of the spelling of the particular words in the passage;

4. Do the mechanical task of WRITING each word, properly spelled,

5. And do all of the above before she forgets the phrase you dictated.

My kids were a little slow in the writing process, and I decided that this sequence would be a bit much for them at 9 and I waited a bit (until fifth grade for one son)

There would be no problem if you simply used the passages as copywork, excepting Robin’s point that she would quickly move up to the next books which might be challenging for her to prepare and write as dictation.

I’ve had three bright kids, two that were very far ahead of the curve in what they COULD do and in some of their abilities.  The first one I confess I allowed myself to push a bit, since after all he’d been reading competently since age 3, but he did experience some burnout and frustration, then, when he was a little older, and we had to overcome that.  I was more cautious with the next one and did not try to lead him but let him lead us and I discouraged a few things that I thought might lead to “eight year old burnout” like his brother had had.  Remember your daughter is much more than just a good reader and speller–she is also a young child in many emotional and developmental ways and you do need to take all these things into account and pray a bit and search out when to encourage, when to allow and when to gently hold back a bit so that the whole child can have the experiences she needs right now to learn and grow.

I don’t use SW for copywork.  Our copywork comes from various sources such as catechism, poetry, hymns, etc.  I have the entire SW set but will save it for when we actually begin in a year or two.  And I agree with Bookworm, especially after reading her wonderful post.  (There’s so many years between my oldest son and my youngest two boys that I forget what it was like.)  Dictation is a “whole ‘nother” process.  Thanks for the permission to wait, especially since I have BOYS.