Help With Spelling
Language Reading:
Take a look at a writing sample to determine which types of words your child
is able to spell. Do not correct all at once because this often will turn the
child against writing and they will only write words which they know to be
correct. This creates very boring writing. Work roughly in the order below,
allowing for variation for the individual, of course. If a child is really into
dinosaurs or some other topic, they will want to know how to spell words
important to her/him.
1. If they spell phonetic words incorrectly, stick to those (words that can
be sounded out with no tricks). Give lots of practice with these.
Example: bat, leg, bin, log, nut, ham, tub, mat, dog
2. If they can do these, check longer phonetic words: (no long vowels yet in
which the vowel says its name—NOT—“name, bike, boat”)
frog, basket, flag, nest, banana, hot dog,
Next come word families with the same spelling:
3. Then the next type of words are long vowels made with silent e:
bake, like, tune. The way I word this is “the ‘e’ jumps over and makes
the ‘a’ (say it phonetically) say ‘a’ (say the letter name—the long vowel).”
When a child spells “like” as “lic”, “lik” or “lick”, I joke that they are “licking
their friend.”
4. Check for digraphs:
bl, br, cr, cl, dr, tr …
ch, th, sh, wh, ng, ll We use the “Fun Family Phonics” song for these
to the tune of “This Old Man”.
5. Then vowel combinations:
coat, rain, meat, found, book, soon, boil
For example, if your child spell train incorrectly, do – train, rain, sprain,
again, refrain (NOT “name” that day).
6. Vowel-consonant sounds:
say, girl, down
Note—if the spelling is not too difficult for your child, do not refrain from
teaching words such as “refrain”. Use it as a vocabulary builder. Tell the
meaning and use it in a sentence.
I use spelling for printing practice too. Talk about correct formation as
they write. For each letter of the alphabet, I have a phrase to describe its
formation. For instance, for ‘a’ I say, “Start under the ‘waist-line’ [the
dotted one], around, up and down.” I also say it starts like a ‘c’ and keeps
going.
7. Lastly, but also sometimes done with the others depending on the need
are what Dr. Montessori called the “puzzle words” (words that follow no
plan): e.g. the, was, once, because