When do you start correcting spelling?

[Wabi Sabi]

My 6 year old loves to sit with paper and pencil to write little stories, keep a diary/journal, etc. Here's an example: 
 

I am having a porety i hope evry buty can com. ther is goinge to be food vary goad food. It is going to be so fun wif deckrashuns and moosic. 

 

At this point I don't yet correct her spelling, obviously. When doing school work I remind her about starting each sentence with an upper case letter and ending it in punctuation, but otherwise let the rest go. For now I'm happy just letting her write with her own phonetic spellings, but just for the sake of looking forward, I'm wondering: when should I start gradually pointing out errors and making corrections? I can't remember how/when I started that process with my older child... 

(FWIW, I don't plan on starting a spelling program with her until maybe next year.) 

[mathnerd]

I would start correcting now at age 6 - but not all of it and not when she has just written the words down. I would gently ask her at a later time how she would spell the word "party". And then teach her how to spell it and ask her to spell it back to me. If you correct the simpler words now, you can tackle the larger ones (like decorations) later on. 

 

PS: That is a very cute birthday party invitation :)

[Dory]

I make note of the words my kids are getting wrong and add a couple of them at a time into their spelling list along with the other words in their R&S spelling.

[sbgrace]

Did you do/do you do formal spelling with the older? Are you correcting his spelling now?

 

My two aren't much older than your oldest, and both still mis-spell some things in their own writing. I think it takes a while for spelling to transfer when a child is focused on composition.

 

Anyway, I have kept those two skills separate, and so far that seems to be working well. We do spelling with spelling, and I see the transfer to their writing as they improve in spelling and grow in age. eta: when we have an important to them, or me, piece that we type up to keep, we correct spelling and similar things together. I don't make a big deal about it, but we do edit.

[Arcadia]

I started at Kindergarten for my boys for "school work" but not for personal journals. After they are done writing whether it is for LA, science or history, I point out the misspelled words. One of my boys used to spell water as wate until he remembered to check his writing.

[ErinE]

Personal journals and writing on their own time, absolutely not. Letters and academic writing, every time. I started in K, but dd's writing was copywork then. She's in third now and all her writing for school is corrected.

[Dory]

Did you do/do you do formal spelling with the older? Are you correcting his spelling now?

 

My two aren't much older than your oldest, and both still mis-spell some things in their own writing. I think it takes a while for spelling to transfer when a child is focused on composition.

 

Anyway, I have kept those two skills separate, and so far that seems to be working well. We do spelling with spelling, and I see the transfer to their writing as they improve in spelling and grow in age. eta: when we have an important to them, or me, piece that we type up to keep, we correct spelling and similar things together. I don't make a big deal about it, but we do edit.

 

My oldest still mis-spells words although not as often as when he was younger. The words he misses now tend to be a little harder words and usually it's because he attached the wrong spelling rule to the word, no. I don't see phonetic spelling mistakes from him anymore. I correct him the same as I do the others. I have found that his Beginning Root Words study helped his spelling as well as his spelling programs have.

All three of my kids do R&S Spelling. I have found it to be a fairly solid program and it doesn't take forever to get done.

[Targhee]

Do not correct anything in a journal :-/

 

If they are doing spelling lessons, correct spelling. If they are doing copywork with the correct model in front of them, correct spelling. When they are old enough to "submit" a multiple draft writing piece, correct spelling. Otherwise, encourage their fledgling attempts at writing.

[Okra]

Generally, for the sake of writing, I wouldn't correct the spelling.  Things like this should be for the love of writing.  You do not want to stifle it.  You can add in spelling later.

 

BUT, I do think that in the course of everyday conversation when it seem appropriate you can correct a few things.  If a kids is always spelling of, "ov" then you might point out, "Oh, by the way, funny thing about the word "of, " it's really spelled with the letter f not v!"  OR, when you are reading to her, or vice versa, you might point out the word "very" on the title of a book.  Say you are reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, you might say, "Look at that!  You see how Very is spelled v-e-r-y?"   

 

Sometimes it's the little FYI moments in life that are really helpful.

 

By the way, those inventive spelling pieces are so cute to read later......make certain you save some.

[Farrar]

It took me awhile to figure this out. When I taught middle school, I would just matter of factly run through all the spelling and move on. It was rarely a big deal. But oy, my own kids. What a mistake. Even now, at age 10, I'm hesitant to do it in original writing. Only if we're going to revise, which we only do with a portion of the original writing. Mostly I just work on it via spelling lessons and dictation and it has improved that way.

[SemiSweet]

Never, with creative work the kids did off their own bat - unless they asked.

 

Often, with work I asked them to do.

Yep, that's what we do too. When they are writing for fun I do not critique it no matter what, even if it takes every ounce of self-control I have, which it does, I'm a perfectionist. :(

[Coco_Clark]

Yep, I leave it alone if its on their own time.

 

During "school" I require correct spelling but I ALWAYS provide a model. I use a white board and we sound it out together before they write.

 

I'm just now starting my 6yo in spelling lessons with the hope that next year he can do some writing without a model. At which point trouble words will be corrected and then adding to his spelling list.