Spelling the Latin words correctly--how important?

[Brooketopia]

I started my 3rd grader on Latin this year. It's been one of our roughest homeschooling years to date, and not a lot of Latin was done--we're on Lesson 9. My daughter took her Lesson 9 quiz yesterday, and eight of the ten vocabulary words were spelled incorrectly. Some were blatant misspellings and some were spelled correctly, but without the dashes above the certain syllables.

 

I'm thinking about starting over at the beginning, seeing how we're not that far into it anyway, and really working the spelling as we go along. Is this crazy? Am I expecting too much?

 

She's not a natural speller, and I am, if that helps explain anything. I started her over in spelling this year, and she's doing much better--she's about halfway through Level 2 of AAS at the end of this 3rd grade year.

 

She knows the vocabulary and can whip through the flashcards easily. Spelling the words on paper, though…not really happening.

 

It’s pretty much the same with English words; I’m still spelling a lot of words for her, but it’s improving.

 

Would you tie Latin ability to spelling ability?

[K&Rs Mom]

She knows the vocabulary and can whip through the flashcards easily. Spelling the words on paper, though…not really happening.

 

It’s pretty much the same with English words; I’m still spelling a lot of words for her, but it’s improving.

 

If she's improving, I'd keep going but maybe a little slower to allow more emphasis on the spelling. With both of mine, we did LC1 at the pace of two weeks per chapter.

 

I have one natural speller and one who clearly isn't (also my 3rd grader). I just keep correcting, making her practice that way - not making her copy word lists, just that she has to fix it when she has mistakes - hoping it will sink in over time. I don't want mechanics to hold her back when she's clearly ready to move on to bigger concepts. She's trying to write stories in Latin, and I want to encourage that - looking up words in her text is going to help her remember them later. I don't correct spelling in things she writes on her own, only in schoolwork.

 

When they were small, I'd often scribe for them because their ability to understand and verbalize was ahead of their fine-motor skills and it was hard for them to get things onto paper. I see this as kind of an extension of that, hopefully the last bits before competent independence.

[SarahW]

Not sure how much grammar you've covered by now, but the most important part is to spell the grammar-parts right. So the endings have to be spelled correctly and it's eventually important to know what the last letter of the stem is.

 

Other than that, familiarity will cause accuracy over time. For now, I would just show her the correct spelling and have her rewrite the word once or twice.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Latin at that age is all about building up a bit of vocabulary. It is ok to have that knowledge be more of the "recognize the word and match it to it' meaning" variety. I would not let them spell the word incorrectly. It makes really bad habits for later on when the spelling is important down to the small details because otherwise it changes the meaning of the word. I'd rather have them do everything orally or by matching than to let them learn the spelling wrong.

[Dmmetler]

I think it's worth it. My daughter is moving towards spelling bee prep, and a lot of higher vocabulary/spelling words are Latin-derived. Learning them with Latin now will make spelling those big words easier later.

[Jayne J]

Do it orally. Until your dc has a better grip on English spelling, just make Latin an oral subject. Have the child look at the words--we did flash cards--but don't have her write much if anything.

[Guest Apricatio]

I am a Latin teacher (also a Mom, though not officially homeschooling :)). The macrons (those dashes over the words) are not particularly important. I have never required them of my students. They are relevant for pronunciation and for deciphering the forms when grammar becomes much more advanced. I do think spelling is important and I would encourage more attention to that. If she is really having trouble with spelling, you might consider Latin to English quizzes for a bit. I would hate for a child to get bogged down in the spelling and macrons and not enjoy Latin.

[happypamama]

I voted that I wouldn't start over, but I'd take a few weeks to work on spellings. (Actually, at that age, I'd just do it all orally.) If I were doing it written, I'd work on the spelling a bit more so that she didn't get incorrect spellings ingrained in her head.

 

As for the macrons above the letters, I agree with the PP that they aren't that important, but I probably would work on them in certain spots -- the ones that come at the ends of the word, because, at least in our Latin curriculum, it's necessary to know which cases have macrons in the endings. For instance, it'll have multiple choices and want you to choose between a without a macron for an ending and a with a macron; which one you choose depends on the case you need. Other than that, I don't think they're terribly important as of yet. Mostly, I'd just want to make sure that I wasn't encouraging bad habits of not paying attention to details.

[Georgiana Daniels]

I wouldn't start all the way over with what you've already covered, but I would slow down and pay more attention to the spelling going forward.

[ElizabethB]

Latin is much more phonetically regular than English. I wold review the sound/spelling correspondences and back up a bit in your Latin, emphasizing spelling and the sound spelling correspondences of Latin.

 

It will later help her overall spelling as well, many of the 2+ syllable words in English come from Latin and follow Latin spelling patterns.

[Farrar]

I say this as someone who opted not to bother with Latin but... as it's only a written language, wouldn't the spelling really matter more?

[Nomen Nescio]

It is important to spell Latin words correctly, and the macrons are part of spelling. Spelling determines pronunciation, and pronunciation is the breath and heartbeat of the language. The link between spelling and pronunciation is much easier to learn in Latin than in English. Why not take advantage of that? Teach spelling by speaking the words out loud.

[kiwik]

Schools here let the young kids do invented spelling. I think the majority of them learn to spell as well as the majority did when I was at school. Maybe it is the same with Latin.

 

Having said that I think more oral and less written would make things easier.

[ElizabethB]

Schools here let the young kids do invented spelling. I think the majority of them learn to spell as well as the majority did when I was at school. Maybe it is the same with Latin.

 

 

Actually, if you look at the historical data, spelling has declined.

 

The first drop was the worst, about two grade levels from the 1900s to the 1950s with the decline in teaching of phonics and the phonetic teaching of spelling, and the advent of Dick and Jane.

[happymomofboys]

Other. It's important, as spelling is important in any language. However, if she knows the correct answers but not the correct spelling, I would consider that a spelling problem, not a Latin problem. I would have her correct her work with the correct spelling, then add the misspelled words to her spelling list. If that wouldn't work with your spelling curriculum, then I would add a spelling component to your Latin lessons. This could be anything from writing misspelled words 5 times each to using something like Spelling City.

[Laura Corin]

Is she pronouncing Latin consistently? Whether you use Ecclesiastical or Classical pronunciation, Latin is a regularly-spelled language. I'd check pronunciation and go over the relationship between pronunciation and spelling.

 

Laura

[Brooketopia]

Thank you so much for your replies! I needed your comments and support to help me out in a moment of thinking that I had a really big problem on my hands. (Why is it so easy to go to "that" place?!?) I'm going to just focus on the spelling a little more and keep doing what we're doing. Thank you all again. :)

[PollyOR]

My dd is 11yo and we use Lively Latin 1. My focus is on dd learning the vocabulary and how to use those words (declensions and conjugations). For written work I hand my daughter a list of the vocabulary words or her flash cards. My dd struggles with spelling as a subject so we'll have to focus on Latin spelling later.