mathnmusic Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 We're using Spelling to Write and Read, and this week's spelling list (list M) has the word "sew" in it, but not sure how to explain why the "ew" says long O in this word, since the book just says this pronunciation is an exception to the usual rule of "ew" saying /oo/ as in 'flew' and long U as in 'few'. Anybody have any thoughts on how to explain this spelling? thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 I'd go with their explanation. It's a rule breaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 When my dd was learning phonics and we would run across words like that I played a little game with her. I would say this is a naughty little word who doesn't obey rules. She would get a kick out of that and then later she would tell me about words that were being bad and disobedient. Hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punchie Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 When we come across words that don't fit, I've always told DD that it's b/c a long time ago, the word was probably pronounced they way it was spelled, but over time we started saying it differently even though we didn't change how it was spelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 When my dd was learning phonics and we would run across words like that I played a little game with her. I would say this is a naughty little word who doesn't obey rules. She would get a kick out of that and then later she would tell me about words that were being bad and disobedient. Hehe Yep. My kid gets a kick out of swatting the naughty words with a fly swatter, and explaining to it why it's naughty. This past week, "You should be spelled mutch, because you have short vowel u, but you're not. You're a bad word! We spell much m-u-c-h." Seems to stick with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnmusic Posted April 16, 2013 Author Share Posted April 16, 2013 Those are great ideas for dealing with these rule breakers! I bet my kids'll have fun with that. Thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 With SWR, I like to show my kids the list of rule-breakers on p. 80-82 of the manual. There are only 27 of the 2000 most common English words. The manual also suggests that sew is spelled that way to differentiate it from so and sow. From my point of view, that is not a very strong explanation, considering all of the homographs we have. I also like the explanation that our pronunciation has probably changed, and the spelling has not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnmusic Posted April 17, 2013 Author Share Posted April 17, 2013 With SWR, I like to show my kids the list of rule-breakers on p. 80-82 of the manual. There are only 27 of the 2000 most common English words. The manual also suggests that sew is spelled that way to differentiate it from so and sow. From my point of view, that is not a very strong explanation, considering all of the homographs we have. I also like the explanation that our pronunciation has probably changed, and the spelling has not. Bless you for telling me about this. Can you tell I haven't read through the manual? lol. Maybe I shouldn't have given up on the manual in the first few chapters! Thanks again, Tracy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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