Thank you so much for all your help! Turns out she loves sounding out words in order to write them. Of course she wants to use her own words. (Currently making her birthday list :laugh: ). So we are working on phonics in a strange order. But she actually knows many of the rules already. I couldn't find the spelling programs at our used curriculum store, so I am just going to keep going with encoding, and continue to try decoding, since she is still only 4. In a month or so I will decide if I want to invest in SWR or AAS, or if we can go back on with OPGTR since I already have that.

Thank you. I checked out those programs online. They look like they may be helpful. I am going to check our used curriculum store tomorrow. She does know most of the phonograms. She just would rather guess, and I don't want her to get that habit. She frequently asks how to spell things, so I think she may really enjoy learning that way. :001_smile:

(ETA: That is supposed to say "memorizer" - stupid auto correct) Hi I am new here. I hope it is ok to ask this question here. I think it fits this board best. My 4 (almost 5) y/o is good at memorizing. She has memorized many of her books and then sits and "reads" them. We are starting k and working on reading as she knows all the letters and sounds etc... I am having a hard time teaching her to sound out words because once she sees a word (in isolation) a few times she knows it. She gets frustrated when I try to make her sound it out because if I just tell her what it is, it is easier to just remember it. Although I suspect she is gifted, I am HG and dh is at least bright and gifted in math, she is not teaching herself to read or anything, just memorizing books by ear, and words in phonics lessons. Any suggestions? I suppose I should probably just be patient and it will come.