HELP! 3rd/gr very poor spelling

[Nonie]

I have a girl starting the 3rd grade this year and I have no clue which spelling program to use. She is a slow reader, but does read at grade level. Again, she reads slow. This is a child who has to really work for everything. The main problem is her written spelling, it is simply not close to 3rd grade. In the past we've used SWO and BJU. (we had to shelf SWO in 1st gr) She did fairly well last year with her weekly spelling list. But if we all study one pattern for the week, we can remember it come Friday as well. The following week, she can recall very little.

 

I do not know if she is dyslexic, she does not write words backwards. NEVER. She does still reverse those common letters. She wrote a little story this week about our vacation and misspelled several words that she should know. For example, she spelled the word "shell" as sell (more than once) she spelled "ocean" as ocen, she spelled "necklace" as nekles, she spelled "chimes" as chimse. She did spell the words wind, panda and remember correctly.

 

We used Phonics Pathways last year and ETC. I am considering going back to Abeka phonics 2 this year but am still undecided.

 

I will gladly take any and all advice. Whether on spelling or phonics. If you have anything to offer please tell me. I still haven't order this years books.

 

In case you're wondering, she seems to be right at an average level in her math skills. Her motor skills are slow, meaning she still writes and cuts rather messy. (I'll take HW advice also, should we venture into cursive this year or wait? She does notice that her friends at church write in cursive)

 

Thank you in advance,

Nonie

mom to:

Annabelle, 10yr old

Gracie 8yr old

Clara 6 yr old

Maggie 4 yr old

Hughes and Laura 13mo.

[wagnfun]

I can only tell you what has worked for one of my kids. Two of my 4 were natural spellers and two had a hard time. We used spelling power. You start at the childs level regardless of age. I used it for a 9th grader. I can say it took at good 4-5 months of steady use to see GRET improvements. Now as a newly graduated high school student, she is a better speller then I am. I am planning on using it with my 4th grader this year b/c I see he is weak in spelling.

[hsmamainva]

My oldest son has done very well using Natural Speller.

 

(He also has had issues in the past with letter reversals, etc.)

 

Natural Speller is a thin book with spelling lists, broken down by phonetic or spelling rule, and then divided up into grade levels. My son started with the 2nd grade lists and then went on from there (most of the lists are brief).

 

So it's everything you'd need for spelling through the 8th grade (and you likely wouldn't need a spelling curriculum after that anyway).

 

Not bad for a $25 book!!

[rafiki]

.

[dawn of ns]

I've given up on spelling curriculum. I just take the words my daughter kas misspelled and have her write them out several times. Also, she revises her writings several times too and has to use her spelling list to keep the trouble words spelled correctly.

[Ellie]

Phonics is not the same as spelling. Because a child reads well does not mean he will also spell well. For example, phonics will teach your child that ai and ay are pronounced the same; spelling will teach her that ai is never used at the end of a word.

 

My recommendation would be Spalding (Writing Road to Reading is the manual for the Spalding Method). It teaches dc to read by teaching them to spell; it also teaches penmanship, basic capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition. It can also teach in-depth grammar and composition.

[Tree House Academy]

My son is in 4th grade and his spelling is just pitiful. Today, for instance, he misspelled the following:

 

They (thay)

hundred (hunderd)

wood (woud)

 

And so many more that I can't think of right this second. His spelling is beyond terrible. We are trying to use Calvert and OMG - it is just laughable. He is not on 4th grade spelling level at all...even though he did test there in spelling power. We do spelling power as well, but apparently we haven't been working with it quite long enough just yet. Poor kid...it really gets him down too. :( I will be reading this thread diligently to see if I can get help in this area too.

 

His handwriting is a mess as well.

 

Sadly, my youngest ds is a natural speller and he often will spell the word for my oldest. It helps further defeat my 9 year old when my 5 year old spells a word for him. :(

[FO4UR]

Check you library for The Writing Road to Reading (WRR)by Romalda Spalding. That's a great book - though not a pick up a workbook and go type of book.

 

I have Spell to Write and Read (SWR) by Wanda Sanseri, and it's WRR spelled out for easy use. This method will not allow your dc to memorize a pattern one week and forget the next.

[Homeschooling6]

My son is in 4th grade and his spelling is just pitiful. Today, for instance, he misspelled the following:

 

They (thay)

hundred (hunderd)

wood (woud)

 

And so many more that I can't think of right this second. His spelling is beyond terrible. We are trying to use Calvert and OMG - it is just laughable. He is not on 4th grade spelling level at all...even though he did test there in spelling power. We do spelling power as well, but apparently we haven't been working with it quite long enough just yet. Poor kid...it really gets him down too. :( I will be reading this thread diligently to see if I can get help in this area too.

 

His handwriting is a mess as well.

 

Sadly, my youngest ds is a natural speller and he often will spell the word for my oldest. It helps further defeat my 9 year old when my 5 year old spells a word for him. :(

 

Hey, are kids are the same;) My older ones spells horribly and my younger one is more of a Natural Speller.

 

I decided to go with All About Spelling this year for my boys. Hopefully this will help my son.

[carol]

I second using the Spalding curriculum for spelling.

I have a sixth grader. I dicovered this program last. Feb.

and started at level 1. It has been a slow mountain to climb to get on track but we finished level one and almost half-way thru level two last year. I'd recommend skipping the reading in level one if you have a third grader. My son retained about 80% over the summer and we are currently reviewing before continuing. she teaches both people and leopard in level one. There are many easy words in level one yet some challenging ones.

When you complete level 4 your child should have a middle school spelling level. I hompe to complete this in 7th then do a regular grammar program in eighth prior to high schoool.

 

Carol

[shalom22]

My daughter was having a difficult time with spelling at that age as well. I was using Abeka spelling at the time and it just didn't give her enough exposure to the words to get them into her mind. I decided that I didn't want a stand alone spelling program and went back to CLE Language arts 3, this curriculum includes spelling in with the rest of the LA lessons and it gives spelling rules and grammar rules. After using CLE for the last year and half, her spelling has improved. I myself believe that she did better with this approach because it did include spelling in each lesson for LA and did not treat it as a separate subject.

[Ellie]

I can't recommend Spalding enough. There's a learning curve for teaching it, but it is SO worth it.

[PeterPan]

I'll join the crowd of those suggesting you look at WRTR/SWR. Spalding developed Writing Road to Reading and trained lots of teachers. Sanseri of SWR (Spell to Write and Read) took the method and made it a bit more homeschool friendly. And now there's All About Spelling, another spinoff, that adds in a kinesthetic element. They're ALL good, but they're different enough from your regular spelling approach that you really want to look at them. I'll bet her reading improves with them too. I suggest you also dictate simple sentences using her spelling words. That's where your spelling can merge into the other WTM things.

[Nonie]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to me. I'm going to look at these suggestions.

 

When time allows me, I'll let you know how things are going. I know most families seem to have one who catches on slowly.

 

Nonie

[EKS]

My son has dyslexia and in third grade he was reading on grade level but dysfluently (slowly with much sounding out which I now understand to be *not* on grade level). We spent 3rd grade getting his reading up to speed (so to speak) and this included him reading lots of easy stuff aloud (gradually increading the reading level), repeated oral reading, and also doing vision therapy. Then in 4th grade we started Sequential Spelling. I didn't know he had dyslexia at the time but now I know that it was causing all of his problems in language arts. He also did some occupational therapy to help with the motor skills and sensory processing issues.

 

You might want to post this on the Special Needs board as those folks over there have lots of experience with this sort of thing. Even if she is performing at an average level, if she seems to be struggling, she probably is. You might want to read the book Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz as well as the book The Mislabeled Child by Brock and Fernette Eide. Overcoming Dyslexia is great for finding out what symptoms are (some are quite surprising) and are not dyslexia. The Mislabeled Child talks more about the neurological basis for these issues and also about clusters of symptoms.

[Quad Shot Academy]

I second All About Spelling. 1/2 way through second grade he was struggling with basic three letter words. We had tried numerous programs and all ended with tears. I got the AAS after Christmas, starting with book one, even though he passed the placement test out of it, and now we are 1/2 way through book two, as he is entering 3rd grade. It starts with the basic phonics sounds and goes back through most phonics rules, so it would help with reading also. Start with level one though, even if you blaze right through it!