In spelling, is it a good idea to introduce homophones together or not?

[Annabel Lee]

I thought I read somewhere to never introduce homophones together, such as bale/bail, weed/we'd, etc. Natural Speller does exactly that though, with every possible homophone combination (see the contraction used in the ex. above). Am I remembering what I read incorrectly? Maybe it was to never introduce the different sounds that the same letters make together (ow in owl, ow in bowl) at the same time. Or maybe it was the same sounds made by different letter combos (ou in out, ow in owl...).

 

If any of you know what I'm talking about - the rule of never introducing something that is the same (spelling of sound, or homophone, etc.) simultaneously - do you know what the reasoning is behind that? Is it that it causes confusion where none may have been previously?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[MerryAtHope]

Is it that it causes confusion where none may have been previously?

 

I think this is the key--did your child already know one or both of the words and have a strong association between the meaning and the sight of the word? If not, then you are introducing 2 words that are very similar with different meanings--and it's hard to remember later which is which.

 

Sometimes one word is used much more frequently than another (as in which vs. witch), and it's easy to say, "Learn "which" first, you'll use that one 90% of the time." Words like "bale" and "bail" though...neither one is used all that frequently & they could be very easy to confuse. I'd focus on the one your child knows first if possible, or the one they'd be most likely to relate to, and then teach the homophone when the first one is solid.

 

But if they already know the meaning of at least one, then go ahead and work on both together. I think it's important to see them side by side & point out the differences and reinforce the meaning.

 

HTH!

 

Merry :-)

[chepyl]

Spelling Plus did that this week. We spent 20 minutes on spelling yesterday for that reason. We looked at the homophones, used them in sentences out loud and he pointed to the word used, then wrote correct sentences on the board. Then I wrote sentences where some were wrong. He corrected them. He was pretty solid on them by the end. We will do dictation from that list next week. I will be able to see if he really gets it then. I think introducing them together was best for my son, but he is a natural speller. I don't know about struggling.g sellers and I dont remember how I learned. I am NOT a natural speller!

[Annabel Lee]

Well, I've seen it done in little bits in grammar curricula or other spelling programs. Abeka does it with both sounds (ex. /ow/ in owl and /ou/ in out together) and with some homophones, but not all. the. time., only with words that generally do get mixed up.

 

I was curious about this because the program Natural Speller does this with multiple sets of homophones in every single lesson. It's part of the program. Complete lesson plans for it came with my Illuminations program, and while it looks very good and thorough, I don't know that it would ever be the right fit for my boys. I could see it causing rather than preventing my dc from getting most of those words mixed up - esp. for word combos where neither is high-frequency, like you said, Merry.

Natural Speller is not what I bought Illuminations for though, and I'm glad for that after going through it. Natural Speller for Illuminations does seem very well laid out and the progression from 1A - 3B ends w/ foreign roots, meanings of affixes, and has plenty of dictionary/thesaurus work throughout. Parts of it remind me of Sequential Spelling, where you make multiple words from ea. spelling word using affixes.

 

Anyhow, just thought I'd put that out there too, in case someone else's child would benefit from this program. For my little homeschool, we're going to stick to our same 'ol same 'ol. Sometimes I wonder why I bother looking. All that happens is that I learn a lot about curricula I don't use. :tongue_smilie: A lot of good that does.

[Tracy]

You remember correctly. But I suppose that wouldn't apply to natural spellers.:tongue_smilie:

[nikkid]

Not sure if this is on topic, but All About Spelling makes a book called All About Homophones with fun games and activities to teach kids the difference between them. I just received it in the mail this week and it looks like fun.

 

Nikki