Logic Stage With A Horrible Speller

[Homeschooling6]

My 5th grade son (10yrs.) spells at a 2nd grade level. Anyone else have a poor speller. I am praying that All About Spelling will help him. We have tried Spelling Power, Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling and R&S.

 

He does copywork about once a week and I'm thinking of making that twice a week.

 

He also reads at a high 4th grade level. Has good comprehension high 8th.

 

Anyway, not sure what I'm asking but wondering how other's who have dc struggle in this area handle the Logic stage if they can't spell.

 

Blessings,

[Peri]

What I do to help DD with her spelling is the same thing I did when I was in the 5th and 6th grade. I wrote down each word five times. I have DD write down each word five times as part of her spelling work and it shows a big improvement in her final test.

[Jugglin'5]

My atrocious speller is a older than yours (just turned 14). I don't have any advice, but I can tell you our experience. Her spelling is now on grade level and I attribute that to two things: 1) getting on the other side of puberty seemed to cause some major maturing of her brain in some areas, and 2) typing her assignments and papers on the computer with the spell checker set on automatic (where it underlines things in a red squiggle that are wrong).

 

No curriculum ever seemed to help her much, though granted I didn't try some of the more time-consuming-for-Mom options out there like SWR and Spelling Power (at least they seemed time consuming to me):D. She would get things correct on her spelling test, then misspell them again in her writing. I think having the spell checker on automatic made her immediately notice and correct when she had misspelled something.

 

I am not by any means saying that this is what you should do, I am just saying that this is what worked for us. My good spellers don't need a spelling curriculum, and my poor spellers don't seemed to be helped by them, so we skip spelling anymore as a formal subject.

[Ottakee]

 

http://www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/ Apples and Pears Spelling has made a huge difference here. It is a little more pricey but the daily work and application has really helped.

[Lori D.]

Spelling did not even *begin* to click for him until age 12. While he's still a very poor speller (now age 14) while simultaneously writing, he is actually beginning to understand spelling patterns and can see when something is not right. Based on our experience, improving spelling takes a combination of brain maturity (which happens in the child's own unique development), teaching vowel patterns and syllabication patterns, and working in various ways with spelling.

 

Megawords has been *extremely* helpful for our son, in teaching vowel patterns and syllabication rules to help break a longer word into smaller syllable chunks for spelling attack. Start with Book 1, a page a day. You can use this either as a solo spelling program, or as a supplement to go along with the All About Spelling.

 

Hope something here helps! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

Simple one-on-one daily practice in several ways:

 

1. Oral Practice

(from Andrew Pudewa seminar on spelling and from his IEW Phonetic Zoo)

Do this daily. Spelling is a very sequential activity -- to spell a word correctly not only requires the correct letters, but the correct letters placed in a correct sequence. As a result, VSL, dyslexic and non-sequential thinking children struggle with spelling. Looking at a word and writing it repeatedly for practice doesn't really help these children, as they often see all the letters, but don't see the sequence. To practice sequencing a word for spelling, spell it out loud, as the brain is forced to hear the spelling sequence one letter at a time.

 

We do oral practice of spelling words this way: I say the word slowly and correctly (and if its a long word, then I say it a second time by syllable), I spell the word correctly, then toss a beanie toy to my son. Then he says the word and spells it correctly back to me, and tosses me the beanie toy. If he makes a mistake it's *critical* to immediately correct him by me spelling the word correctly aloud to him several times and then having him spell it aloud again to me correctly so that the wrong spelling won't imprint on his brain.

 

At the beginning of the week, have the spelling list where the child can refer to it while they are spelling -- the point at the beginning of the week is correct sequence, and if it takes both looking at the word WHILE hearing it or saying it, then that's fine. Eventually, the child won't have to look, the child will be able to just hear the sequence and repeat it. Later in the week, try saying the word and have the child spell it first and toss to you, and then you spell it back to them and toss back to them. (The tossing part helps keep him focused knowing his turn is coming up -- based on the idea "Toss It" from Carol Barnier's book, "How to Get Your Kid Off the Refrigerator and onto Learning".)

 

 

2. Whiteboard Practice

2-3 times a week at the beginning of the week, use the whiteboard to practice spelling words in a variety of ways:

 

- Root words and endings/prefixes -- ex: write a list of endings in a column in one color, then write one of the spelling words in a different color; tell a "story" that when it comes to adding an ending, such as the vowel at the beginning of the ending can jump over 1 consonant and make the vowel say it's long sound, so you have to add a 2nd consonant to keep the vowel from jumping over (ex: hop --> hopping). Or, vowels will "fight" if they sit next to each other, so that's why you have to drop the "e" at the end of those words, and then let the vowel at the beginning of the ending do the job of the "e". (ex: hope --> hoping)

 

- Syllables and syllable rules

 

- Vowel patterns (use one color for consonants, another for the vowel pattern to make it really stand out)

 

- Homophone practice -- practice by making 2 columns (see below), with the vowel patterns in a different color than the consonants to make them stand out, say and draw a little story to help visualize the difference between the 2 spellings (ex: draw the "a" in "meat" like a heart and say "I love MEAT"; then draw 2 little stick figures by "meet" and say "It takes 2 people to meet, and there are 2 "e"s in MEET.)

-ea-______-ee-

meat_____meet

feat______feat

read______reed

 

 

 

3. Dictation Spelling Practice

1-2 times a week. This helps practice simultaneous spelling/thinking/writing -- which are 3 separte skills, processed in 3 different parts of the brain. To start, do 3 very short sentences, with just 1 spelling word in it: "(child's name) ran FAST." or "I went LAST." Have any words the child is unfamiliar with on a whiteboard handy where she can see it. What you're working on here is spelling the spelling words in the context of writing. Eventually you'll work up to 5-6 longer sentences, each with 2-3 spelling words in them.

[genie]

http://www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/ Apples and Pears Spelling has made a huge difference here. It is a little more pricey but the daily work and application has really helped.

 

Apples and Pears has made a HUGE difference here! :iagree:

[melmac]

My 10 yo ds sounds very similar to yours, I don't know anything that would help, just letting you know you're not alone. I know how frustrating it can be. It helps me to remind myself that all children have their strengths and weaknesses, for my boy his weakness is spelling. I 've always been a natural speller, so its hard for me to understand, but we just keep pushing forward.

[Terri NS]

My 10 yo has also had a lot of difficulty with spelling. She can do the practice and the assignments and then get it wrong a week later. Anything that has worked with her older sister just hasn't for her. She also hasn't been a strong reader so I really focused my attentions on that. This past 6 months she is reading, reading, reading. Yeah! I am really hoping to see some big improvement in her spelling this year. I am going to try the Calvert Spelling and have ordered it, I hope we like it.

[8filltheheart]

3rd vote here.

[MIch elle]

Spelling for my boys takes maturity, repetition and drill. That's it! There are no magic spelling programs for us - we tried many. I drill to mastery Fry's Spelling list each year besides using another spelling program.

[susie in tx]

I told people last year that my 9 yo could not spell her way out of a paper bag. ;) Fortunately, all I have to do is look at her dad to find out just why she has trouble with spelling. Both of them have managed to take phonics and spelling to a whole 'nother level.

 

We went through all of Level 1 AAS and quite a bit of Level 2 AAS last year. I petered out near the end of the year because I was pg and was only getting the very basic of basics done. Anything that required me to sit up and not feel nauseous was quickly cut out of the schedule.

 

She can spell now. She doesn't always spell correctly, but she can work her way around words that were previously foreign to her. I still plan to work through the levels of AAS with her, but the tiles and the rules and the phonograms were all something that have worked well in our family.

[Homeschooling6]

Thank you ladies so much. All your replies have really helped. Thanks for letting me know that I'm not the only one with a horrible speller entering the logic stage:)

 

I'm going to look into your suggestions.

 

Blessings,

[LizzyBee]

There was a time when I thought my middle dd would never learn to spell. Then I came across Calvert Spelling CD and it worked like a magic pill. It was as though a switch in her brain was turned on. She'll never be a contender in the Natl Spelling Bee, but at 12 yo, she's a respectable speller. It might not be the key for your kid, but I always suggest trying it for poor spellers, because you don't know what might work until you try it.