We are in the process of making a major move, from one state to another, things are just getting a little crazy. School is something that gives us a constant, gives us something to do that is normal, and ordinary.

It would be easier to just stop schooling. The reality is that we need to continue, at least some of her subjects. Science, well, she is at least a year ahead, a few months off will not be a problem there. Social studies, there are not enough hours in the day to do all the social studies, history, and geography I would like.

Her math work is on level, her language arts is pretty much on level. The thing that remains is spelling, and she is just border-line there. Well, I guess I just answered my own question. We are going to continue spelling through the summer, with maybe some light review in other subjects. After all, she needs the work in spelling, and she can use the normal-ness of a bit of school to help keep the move from being so totally unsettling.

Last summer we took off because of extended family issues. Basically, my child’s brain sat idle for the summer. It was like brain rot set in. We normally go to school all year long, but last summer just didn’t work out that way.

I understand why public schools spend the first couple of months back to school in review, trying to recover what went in one ear and out the other during the summer. I also understand that if you spend the first couple of months of the school year reviewing, then you have to play catch up because the work that should have gotten done didn’t.

And this is the place that we are in now. We still have more work to do, but the school year will be ending soon. Do we continue into the summer, get everything caught up, so that next school year starts on a good footing? Or do we go ahead, call it finished, not work on school for the summer? Decisions, decisions, decisions…

I find this…trying. Let me give you an example.

Suppose the word is “great”. In her mind that word is spelled “grat”. Fortunately, she is not yet into texting, partially because of her poor spelling, otherwise she might spell it “gr8”. (That is not even a word, and don’t let anyone tell you it is!) Now, what I need to get her to understand, is that there are a couple of ways to make that “a” in the middle of great say its name proudly.

One choice might be to add a silent “e” at the end of the word, sure enough, “grat” becomes “grate”. Sounds right, but it is the wrong kind of great/grate for the context. The other way is to add the “e” before the “a”.

Remember, I told you that she has a great memory for some things? Her home school program, Time4Learning, had a great little cadence that an animated drill sergeant made his letter troops march to regarding vowels. “When two vowels stand side by side, the first one says its name with pride.” Of course, she remembers that cadence, and applies that to the word great. According to the cadence, great should be spelled “graet”. Try explaining that there are exceptions to every rule to my daughter.

English is such an interesting language. Ain’t it great?!

Hard-headed doesn’t begin to describe my child. Don’t get me wrong. I love her intensely, she is extremely smart, (I often wonder how long I will be able to stay ahead of her) and on some things she has the most amazing memory. On other things, like spelling, not so much.

So, in an attempt to get her to quit leaving letters out, especially when the letter is silent, or combines with another one, like -ck, or doubles like in the word letter, when we first learn the word, I make her pronounce every letter. So, as we try to learn the spelling of the word letter, it becomes “l-e-t-t-eh-rr” in pronunciation. That way she doesn’t end up leaving out a “t”, or forgetting to add the vowel between the “t” and the “r”. In her mind, letter is spelled “letr” until I make her sound out every letter.

Once she has spelled a word using this exaggerated pronunciation, then she remembers what the correct spelling of the word is and we can drop the exaggeration.

I can tell you that I am kind of amazed at the words my daughter can spell. Alibi, for example. Now that is a sixth grade word. Of course, it is not difficult, but it is different. In the same lesson was the word “subtle”. Ok, that one is difficult! You can sound out alibi but you cannot sound out subtle.

Here is something we have tried in the past on words that can’t really be sounded out. We do “exaggerated” pronunciation. Subtle becomes “sub-tl-eh”. What?! Well, remember I said that my daughter apparently missed phonics? This is my home grown attempt at getting her to sound out letters, and figure out spelling.

If I can get her to pay attention to what letters make what combination of sounds, then she can use this as a learning aid to work through words that have difficult spelling. I know, why don’t I just go back and teach a tried and true method? Because my daughter learns in such a way that laughs in the face of tried and true!

Will I elaborate? Sure, keep checking back!

So here is what we are trying: We are using Vocabulary and Spelling City. This is an online spelling and vocabulary site which allows you to use your child’s own spelling lists, say from a book they are reading, or unit study. Then you can input those words and then pull activities using those words, like word scramble, or other word games.

There are a few other things I really like about using Spelling City. Anything that gets my child to practice spelling words is a good thing. And anything that makes her think of a game or playing will hold her attention longer.

Improving spelling is not always about getting my daughter to spell more words correctly. Sometimes improving spelling is getting her to have a better attitude so that she will try harder.

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?

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!

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.

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 1^st 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 1^st 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!