Teaching Spelling/phonics to a natural speller

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  • April 3, 2018 at 6:03 pm
    Rebekah P
    Participant

    Hello,

    My son is 10 years old and he’s a great speller. Honestly, he’s better than I am , lol. I only did phonics with him through 2nd grade (mostly orton gillingham method.) The funny thing is if I ask him to tell me the sounds of the vowels, he’s lost. I think he has developed a method that really works for him, but I get a little concerned that he should still have at least a basic knowledge of phonics. I’m wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and has any advice as to whether I should give him a basic review of phonics or just let him keep going with what he’s doing.

    Thanks 😉

    April 7, 2018 at 8:35 am
    Rebekah P
    Participant

    Bump

    April 7, 2018 at 9:38 am
    psreitmom
    Participant

    I don’t think you need to go back to ‘phonics’. You could teach/review sounds of vowels/digraphs as he does his spelling. I have a spelling book called “Natural Speller” which uses sight and sound patterns for the list of words being studied. It also includes some grammar skills. If you use sight and sound patterns in your spelling lists, your son can see/hear what vowels/digraphs and sounds go together. I would say doing that is basically teaching phonics.

    My daughter has a learning disability and there is no consistency to spelling. She can spell something correctly one day and then spell it incorrectly the next. We are currently using Spelling Workout. It has more activities for practicing the words. They also use sight and sound patterns in their spelling lists. When I showed Spelling Workout to my evaluator, she really liked it and thought it was a good program for my daughter.

    If you are interested in Natural Speller, I am selling mine. I bought it new and hardly used it. It’s a good spelling program, but given my daughter’s learning difficulties, I will not be using it. My email is psreitmom4 at gmail dot com, if you are interested.

    April 7, 2018 at 10:24 am
    Rebekah P
    Participant

    Thanks so much!! I actually own natural speller and will look over what you mentioned. ; )

    April 7, 2018 at 6:30 pm
    psreitmom
    Participant

    No problem. Just thought I’d offer. If you have it, but aren’t using it, that may be a good fit for your son. HTH

    April 8, 2018 at 9:47 pm
    HollyS
    Participant

    I did Spelling Wisdom with my natural speller for awhile.  I figured she was at least getting in some handwriting practice.  We continued it lightly through 8th grade, then dropped it altogether. She has a few weaknesses that our time is better spent on (like math and writing).

    If he’s reading well, I wouldn’t worry about phonics.

    April 9, 2018 at 4:43 pm
    Rebekah P
    Participant

    Thanks Holly!!! I agree that if there are other things you need to work on, it’s best focus on those. We only have so much time, right? ; )

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