I said I would tell you what it meant next time, and that’s today. What is it you ask? When I asked another home schooling mom to teach my daughter spelling, my daughter sat attentively, managed to spell the words within a try or two, and was done with the lesson in record time.
What does this mean? Well, I think it means she is trying to pull the wool over my eyes. I’m not saying that she is being dishonest when she complains that spelling is difficult. On the contrary, I can see from her writing that spelling must be very difficult for her.
What I am saying is that I think she thinks that if she stone walls long enough, I will give in. Add to that there was serious incentive for her to finish the lessons with the other mom. My daughter’s two best friends waited in the wings to have much needed play time as soon as the lesson was finished.
The end result was that the other mom, after a couple of weeks said she thought it was a waste of time for her to teach my daughter spelling, because my daughter was spelling so well, and cooperating so well. She thought that perhaps the cycle of poor spelling performance had been broken. Could she be right?
I promised to share some things that I’m doing to help improve not only my daughter’s spelling, but her attitude about spelling. I know that she doesn’t have much confidence when it comes to spelling. I know that my patience with her lack of confidence is, well, let’s just say it has worn really thin!
It seems to be a vicious cycle, she doesn’t spell well, her excuse is she can’t, she gives up, I get frustrated, she gets mad. I ask her to try harder, and give her yet another way to learn how to spell, she doesn’t use it, I get mad, she gets frustrated. Whew, did that make you tired? It makes me tired.
One of the things that I tried was getting a fellow home school mom to “teach” my daughter spelling. This mom is very patient, and has a lot of tools in her arsenal regarding spelling, since one of her children is dyslexic. My daughter sat at the table, very attentive, very polite, and spelled all of the words the other mom asked her to spell. Ok, it might have taken a try or two, but she spelled them right! What does this mean?! I’ll tell you next time!
Ok, I might have made it sound like my daughter didn’t spell at all. The truth is, she can spell some things. The biggest problem with her spelling is actually her confidence in herself that she could spell if she tried. She gets so mad at me because I get frustrated with her. Am I a bad parent because I get frustrated? Let me explain my frustration.
When I ask my daughter to write something, she responds with , “You know I can’t spell.” Really?! My response is to tell her to try, we can correct the spelling later. Of course, she has a quickie answer for that, too. “But Mama, you know I hate spelling it wrong.” Ok, what I want is for her to try to spell, learn to spell. What I don’t want is excuses why she can’t write because she can’t spell, and she hates that!
Not spelling well has become a crutch, or excuse, to not do other work. And I let her get way with it! When the school year started last semester, I made an effort to improve her spelling, or at least improve her attitude about spelling. I’ll try to share some of those things with you soon.
Happy New Year! Are you ready for your kids to go back to school? Yeah, me too! The catch is, for us at least, is that school is at home. So, we return to school, not just my daughter. She’s a sixth grader, and I can tell you that spelling is really, really, really not her cup of tea! Spelling is something she struggles with. I have to admit that I may be partially responsible.
She was an early reader, which at the time I had hoped meant we would have an easy time of spelling. She went to public kindergarten, and half of first grade. Due to circumstances that I might go into later, I pulled her to home school her in the middle of 1st grade. She seemed ready to move on to harder material so I moved her straight into second grade work.
I’m not exactly sure what they covered in the second half of 1st grade. My guess is that it must have been phonics and spelling because my child seems to have no talent in either one! Asking her to sound out a word is like asking her to speak Greek.
Join us for trials, tribulations, and tips as we try to learn how to spell!
It is the holiday season again! As we near the end of the calendar year, it gives us the opportunity, as homeschoolers, to look at what we are doing. We can reevaluate what is working, and what is not. With a little thought here at the end of the years, we can figure out what direction we will head into as the new year dawns before us, like a clean sheet of paper.
I just love clean sheets of paper. For me, it is a clean slate, full of potential. know for some people it is not, for some people it is a plate, to be filled as soon as possible, heaped to overflowing. For some people it is an artistic venture.
Enjoy the holidays, take a deep breath, evaluate your direction, and change course if you need to, or want to , for that matter.
Happy Holidays, and prosperous New Year!
In the end, will you teach spelling?
Is spelling part of your home school? In the end, some parent choose not to include formal spelling in their curriculum. Perhaps these parents decided that their child is a good speller already, or is a very effective reader. Sometimes those parents allow the children to learn spelling words as needed for particular assignments. Unschoolers sometimes decide not to include formal “workbook” spelling. Whether or not you decide to teach spelling in your homeschool depends on your homeschooling philosophy and your child’s own personal learning style. You have to take into account your own teaching style as well. Over the course of the previous articles we have talked about many methods of teaching spelling, and helping your child retain what they learn. Hopefully you have found something that works for your child, and your home school. If you have not found something that works, yet, do not despair. Spelling doesn’t have to be painful or unlearn able. And while the English language may be evolving into something else, influenced by the abbreviated spelling of instant messages and texting, we are unlikely to see that evolution complete in our children’s time in school. Spelling well will remain important during their academic career and eventually in their work environment. Model to your children that spelling well is important, help them learn, by whatever methods your can come up with. Share with other homeschooling parents, and get advice from those who have successful spelling programs in their schools. Make spelling fun, and you are likely to see greater success. Enjoy, and spell well!
More memory games for spelling
We all want our children to remember what they have learned, especially when it comes to spelling. If your student’s learning style indicates that they learn better when doing something with their hands, then by all means, let them do something with their hands while spelling. We have already talked about using letter tiles, and singing the spelling words. Here is one other method that will help your physical learner to remember. Try the bean bag toss, or stuffed animal toss, game. Another plus to this game is that you can use it with multiple children. Start by tossing the bean bag to an older student. As they catch the bean bag, ask them to spell one of their spelling words. If they get it right, they can then toss the bean bag to another child. As the parent here, you will want to ask each child spelling words according to their lists, or abilities. Your kindergartener might be spelling “red”, your fifth grader might be spelling “establishment”. The rules are the same regardless of age an ability. Another benefit of this game is that all students are exposed to the spelling of the other words. They might not learn them, but the exposure is important, too. If the older children need a longer session to get all of their words done, allow the younger ones to drop out of the spelling part and toss the bean bag without requiring them to spell. You can probably think of other ways to use physical games to help your child retain their spelling words.
Sing-song spelling
If you have ever witnessed your child forgetting words she once knew how to spell, then you might be looking for another way to teach spelling so that your child has better retention of words she learned previously. One way we are working on that is to put spelling words to songs. Here is an example: the word is patriot. Have your child pick a song, like “Mary had a little lamb.” The first phrase of that song has seven syllables. Now have your child sing the letters of “patriot” Once your child can sing the letters to the tune, you can then ask your child to spell the word, if she needs a hint, tell her “Mary had a little lamb”. The additional memory jog of knowing that the word patriot has the same number of letters as the first phrase of Mary had a little lamb has syllables, means your child knows if she doesn’t have enough letters, or too many. This may seem like a lot of trouble for every spelling word, but this is just a hint to go the extra mile. Maybe every word doesn’t need this level of attention. Use it for the words that do. The ultimate goal here is to increase your child’s spelling memory and retention. A perfect example that this method, singing spelling, works is to think of Aretha Franklin. She sang a song in which she spelled “respect”. While you may not know the words to the rest of the song, you will probably never forget how to spell that word!
Is spelling an antiquated subject?
Is it important for us to still teach spelling, and expect our students to learn spelling? Some people would argue that learning to spell is like studying calligraphy. It is a wonderful skill to have, but learning it takes up time that could be better used on learning keyboarding, or computer programming. Additionally, learning to spell, like learning calligraphy, has been replaced. When you have your choice of 1000 fonts on the computer, is it necessary to learn the art of fine penmanship? When you have spell checkers on many everyday devices, why learn the rules of spelling? We further devalue spelling because texting seems to be here to stay, and it uses abbreviated and alternate spellings for many words. Some people would argue that perhaps the English language is just undergoing a much needed overhaul. I do not disagree that standardizing the spelling of English would make it easier to learn. I would argue, however, that when a people can not even spell its own language, it is in danger of losing that language identity. Learning to spell still has value in our society, ask the guy who made an obvious spelling error on his resume, then printed and distributed 500 copies of it, but got no job offers. Our world is becoming more competitive, and our students are going to have to compete more globally than our parents did. Learning to spell is just part of being well educated. Making time in our homeschools to teach our students spelling can only make them better spellers, better readers, and overall, better educated.
Using syllables to teach spelling
Teaching spelling by using syllables is just a way to make spelling easier. The first thing that must happen to use this method is that your student must be able to figure out what a syllable is. One way to do this is to have them clap out a syllable. Puppy is a two syllable word. Have your child clap when they say “pup”, then again when they say “py”. Then teach them to spell each syllable. After they have figured out how to spell each syllable have them put the word together, spelling both of the small, syllable divisions. It is less intimidating to child to spell smaller word segments than to try to spell an entire multi-syllabic word. Remind them that each syllable must have a vowel. This helps them round out their spelling, remembering to put a vowel in the mix. Once they can clap out single syllable words, and two syllable words, they are one their way to spelling much bigger words. While trying to spell “elephant” is a daunting task, elephant is a long word, after all, learning to spell “el-e-phant” is not nearly as scary. Another way for your child to work out syllables besides clapping, is to tap it out on the desk, or their leg. Or have them place their hand under their chin and say the word. Have them notice that if their chin drops, they have spoken a syllable. Learning to spell using syllables makes spelling small words easy, and large words less frightening.
