Spelling when writing, such as journal entries

[Mom2TheTeam]

When your child is writing something, not for spelling, do they just sound everything out the best they can or do they ask for help so they don't spell it wrong?  Do you sit with them and correct their spelling as they go?  Do you have them fix spelling mistakes later or ignore because it isn't a spelling lesson?

 

My son is in 2nd grade.  A lot of his writing is copywork, but he does free writing for notebook entries and such.  If he doesn't know how to spell a word, he asks me and I help him sound it out or just tell him depending on the moment.  If I happen to look over while he is working and see him spell something wrong, I have him fix it right then.  If I don't catch it till the end, I still have him fix it.

 

Because I do it this way, there are very few spelling errors in any of his work and it looks like he is an amazing speller. However, It isn't because he is a perfect speller, though he is a decent speller, better than I was in 2nd grade.  When I look at other kids work his age, I see a lot of spelling errors and it makes me wonder if we are odd.

 

It works well for us because he likes everything to be done right.  If I don't tell him and someone else points it out later, he will call me out on not having him fix it and go fix it right then.  For me, I feel that writing the wrong spelling of something puts that wrong spelling in your brain.  Then it is harder to spell it correctly the next time because your brain and hand seems to remember the misspelling better.  At least, that is definitely how it works for me. 

 

I always struggled with spelling...I still do.  But I've found over the years that if I don't know how to spell something, trying to figure it out on my own just muddles the letters in my mind.  Then, I'll always struggle with that word.  On the other hand, if I look it up and see and write it correctly, my brain remembers that. Interestingly enough, I'm actually not a visual learner except in this.  I'm an audio learner, but I can't spell without writing it down and actually seeing it.  LOL!

 

So, what do you do at your house?  Are we odd?  Anyone with a theoretical reason we should be doing it one way or the other?

 

 

[Rachel TX]

 

It works well for us because he likes everything to be done right. 

 

If it's not broken, don't fix it!

[Dramorellis]

I do not routinely correct spelling outside of our spelling curriculum. When he was in public school (a very good one) they very much stressed letting the children work them out phonetically without much correction in the lower grades and I liked the results I saw with that so that is what I continued to do. I would rather he put pencil to paper and learn to get his thoughts out. The rest we have lots of years to fine tune. He reads and writes a lot,daily journal and across subjects etc. so I think naturally he has gotten there just with context and usage. If he asks me directly or it's something I know he usually spells correctly then I point it out to him but otherwise I don't see the point. I have had other people point out that he has spelled something incorrectly but I don't really value their opinions as far as educational philosophy goes so I just ignore it. I spend more time on making sure he knows the meaning of the word and usually by the time he does then he has figured out how to spell it on his own.

[Tanikit]

My DD asks me to spell for her - I know what rules she knows and what we have covered and expect her to try by herself unless I know she will not know it and then I just tell her. I also sit with her when she writes. She is still very young so is not writing long pieces. Sometimes I will ask her what she wants to write and then help her remember it and then work with her on the words she might have difficulty spelling writing them on a separate piece of paper as she attempts to spell them - then when she writes the sentence she can do copywork for those words - the rest I know she knows and I leave her to do those independently.

 

So yes, I am doing pretty much what you are doing and it works for us as well.

[Mom2TheTeam]

My DD asks me to spell for her - I know what rules she knows and what we have covered and expect her to try by herself unless I know she will not know it and then I just tell her. I also sit with her when she writes. She is still very young so is not writing long pieces. Sometimes I will ask her what she wants to write and then help her remember it and then work with her on the words she might have difficulty spelling writing them on a separate piece of paper as she attempts to spell them - then when she writes the sentence she can do copywork for those words - the rest I know she knows and I leave her to do those independently.

 

So yes, I am doing pretty much what you are doing and it works for us as well.

 

I sometimes ask him what he is going to write and then will write the harder words on the whiteboard for him.  He will copy those.  That works well here too.  :)