What are you using for spelling in your home school?
I’ve homeschooled my oldest from the start. I say we started at the day she was born. ; )
She has really stuggled though with spelling. Early on I was told to relax by other moms and used the Charlotte Mason method. I was told she would catch on by doing copy work. Sadly she didn’t so I moved on to using phonics to help her learn to spell. This helped a little but still she struggles.
I have tried a lot of different things. The past 2yrs I have used “A Reason for Spelling” but still I haven’t seen much improvement. Almost a month ago I found SPELLING SOLUTIONS & decided to give that a try. I wrote to the author about how much my daughter has struggled and she agreed that this would help. So I will start using this next week.
What are you using for teaching your child to spell in your homeschool?
Link to the Spelling Solutions – http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/Spellingsolutions.html
Tagged with: Charlotte Mason Method • Different Things • Homeschool Link • moms • Spelling
Filed under: Homeschool
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hey im lee im 14 and have ADHD…. i usally will take notes on somthing and when i get home write all those notes over neatly on another peace of paper.. or with spelling i take index cards and write the word and definition on each…. then study that and have my mom say the word and i say the definition or the other way around…. it helps you rember things…. i usally gotta do it more than once so i understand things but thats just my ADHD but maybe it will work for her good luck!
Sequential Spelling is supposed to be a good program for kids who are having a tough time with spelling. Instead of having them rely purely on visual memory, it focuses on spelling patterns.
I am using ezspell.com .My son is doing great.
by the letting the child write the words on a sheet of paper then checking it after. the errors or mistakes must be taught or corrected with the proper attention of the child. sounds to be an old fashioned way but it is of great help specially to slow performing children…
We usually don’t use spelling tests in our home. The kids have to write little essays on one subject a week. If I notice the boys are having difficulty with a few words I will create a test for them. I have them copy each word five times.
Write out the definition(s) of each word and a sentence per word. And if they have spelled a word wrong on the test, the word(s) will be on the next test and continue on each and every test until it has been spelled right.
Then I will sneak in a word they found difficult in another test later on.
My oldest son is dyslexic and finds spelling, and just reading and writing in general difficult. I stressed about it and so did he. I ended up making school a game. We played schoolhouse when he was younger, and I didn’t make him read but left reading material on all his favorite subjects around the house. Throughout the years his spelling, reading, and writing improved on its own. So I pretty much stopped testing him.
Perhaps you should just give your daughter time and patience. I found that pushing something a child finds so very difficult only makes it worse for the child. If she still enjoys writing let her write her own stories, she will find that spelling is an important part of story writing. That might help her relize that she needs to learn to spell in order to have someone understand her stories. Perhaps you can have her play Hangman..its fun and she must be able to spell to play. Have you tried computer games? She can learn to spell using a few games you can find on the internet. I will try to add a few links on here. But, more than anything, relax Mom. If you stress, she stresses..make learning as fun and entertaining as possible.
funbrain.com
funschool.kaboose.com
spellzone.com
Hope this helps you.
I have a spelling text book that I got for free at my county’s obsolete books warehouse. My son has a weekly unit and spelling test, and he is a fine speller.
I have used the old tried but true, spell it when it concerns them. I know from experience that children are nosy and want to know everything that is being said, so from early on my husband and I spelled everything we wanted to keep from our children, and they picked up early on. Know it is a challenge to keep up with them due to they are better spellers than we are! Good luck, and God bless!
I can SO relate to you struggles with spelling. We live in the Czech Republic, and our children attended Czech school for several years to learn the language. This really messed up their English spelling skills as Czech is very phonetic and no letter ever changes its sound.
We were recommended the program AVKO and we LOVE it!! Please visit the website and take a look at it. In the year that we have been using it, all four of my students spelling has dramatically improved. It was originally created for dyslexic students, but has proven successful for homeschooling and teaching adults as well.
Another tip my sister gave me which has been excellent was to make a spelling recipe box . Every time one of my children has particular trouble spelling a word, we make a card for that word and file it alphabetically. Then, when they are writing, if they come to a word that is troublesome, they can look for it in the “spelling box”. This has not only helped their spelling but also their skills in alphabetizing and is a good start for dictionary skills.
Hope that helps some!
Blessings in your school and home!
Homeschooling Mom of 5 with one more on the way
When we first started homeschooling, everyone of our 4 children were behind in reading and spelling by no less than 2 years. One of the was even worse. We used traditional spelling books and it never got any better. It wasn’t until 2 years ago when I had a breakdown at my best friends house because I was worried about it. She homeschools also, and loaned me Spelling Power to try. She had been using for several month with amazing results. She made me scan and email her all the lists she would need while I had her book:-)
Everyone of my children has improved in their spelling and are VERY CLOSE to finally being on grade level finally after 4 years! I would strongly reccomend finding someone with this book to try it out first because not every spelling program is going to work for every family. This one works for us because each child works on their own level, with their own lists that they are personally having problems with. They learn spelling “rules” and it will help identify any specific areas that they are not “getting”.
I have been SOOOOO thankfull for this book. I purchased one within 3 weeks of see improvement in their spelling. Yes, it was that fast.
I have included the website that can give you more information. Just don’t get discouraged!
I use a spelling workbook for children with dyslexia since my son is dyslexic. We tried 2 or 3 regular programs that didn’t work out (Abeka, Spelling Workout, and one from epsbooks) and then found Target Spelling by Steck-Vaughn and it’s been great. It is phonics-based and the first few books also include the Dolch words which are the 200 most commonly used words in reading & writing. It uses a variety of different types of ways for the children to practice the words, like crossword, word search, fill in the blank, and about a dozen different activities. Every five lessons they have a review lesson also. One unique part of the program is they only cover 6 to 8 words a lesson instead of the standard 15. I had found my son could not learn 15 words a week, and I would rather have him really learn 6 to 8 than not learn 15. Plus when I would retest him he actually retains the words a month later which was important.
A link to some sample pages for anyone that wants to look at it is at: The Lesson 10 pages (they have 6 of them) show the first workbook in the series which is from Target 180. We have used most of the workbooks in the series and only have two left at this point. It starts at about 2nd grade level and goes to 8th grade level.
I have ordered mine from which is the publisher.
A new edition of The McGuffey Speller was published about 10 years ago. It is basically a word list starting with easy words and progressing to more complicated ones.