Some days it's really hard not to be discouraged...

[lovinmomma]

It's so hard not to feel discouraged at times using the virtual school.... both for dd (4th grade) and I. Her spelling test went horribly this week. This is the sentence that she wrote:

 

Somewar in the vally is the sadest monky.

 

And that's the only sentence that she remembered to capitalize the first letter of the sentence, and the only one that she remembered punctuation for. Sigh. Can't wait until I can afford Barton!  :) lol  

 

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[Clear Creek]

Don't lose hope! That was what my 5th grader wrote like in 4th grade, and she has made a huge amount of progress in 5th grade. It was like a switch turned on...her spelling finally leaked over from spelling lessons to her own writing. She still has to make an effort to remember to capitalize the first word of a sentence, though! She knows to do it, she just doesn't see the point of writing two different types of letters when one will do just fine. :D  Kind of like spelling...she prefers to write fewer letters, so the mistakes she makes sound correct but have fewer letters (very much like your daughter's spelling). It was almost like she memorized the shortened version of the word and had to relearn the correct spelling. She preferred w instead of wh, y instead of ey, d instead of ed, no doubling of consonants when a suffix is added, etc.

[Mom22ns]

:grouphug:

 

I'm sorry, you've probably already covered this, but why are you using the virtual school if it is so discouraging? Lots of hugs until you can move on and I hope Barton helps!

[prairiewoman]

You might try All About Spelling.  It is inexpensive, relatively, and has very little parent prep time, and it is geared for dyslexic kids.  And take heart--remember that many, many very bright people don't have an eye for spelling!

[FloridaLisa]

Well, I've had at least one super phonetic speller and she's an outstanding student and excellent speller now. I can remember despairing that spelling would ever take but I really think a lot of it was developmental for her.  She is an auditory learner, for one, so while she could read at a high level, she spelled phonetically. We just kept plugging along on the spelling and trying to teach some of the basic and most helpful spelling rules. (SHe's got the highest family SAT score so far, so there you go ;)  ). 

 

Yes, your dd's 4th grade test might show she needs to continue with spelling but fortunately it doesn't at all indicate her aptitude or final spelling capability.

 

Lisa 

 

 

[sixpence1978]

I want to reassure you that what she wrote really isn't that bad.  You can definitely tell what she was trying to say.  There are some dyslexic kiddos whose spelling is so bad that it is hard to even understand what they were saying.

 

She definitely spells phonetically, which is a great sign.  I would also encourage you to  break free from your charter school if possible.  Trying to push a struggling learner to work at grade level is so much more frustrating than taking a step back to work at their level.  In fact, doing so usually results in much better academic growth.

 

You may want to consider something cheaper than Barton if it is out of your price range.  All About Spelling is a great resource for spelling.  You may want to look at something like Daily Grams to help with the capitalization and punctuation.  We have had good luck here with Apples & Pears spelling.  Both AAS and A&P are open and go spelling programs that take about 15 minutes a day.

 

All of us have days of frustration, even more so when there are learning disabilities.  The question is, are you also having good days?  If the answer in yes, then rejoice in those.  If the answer is no, then you should start looking for ways to change so that you can have success.

[Tanikit]

Your child is not spelling badly - it is very phonetic. Valley and monkey have an -ey ending that is less common than the usual y ending seen in "happy", "funny", "silly" etc so these endings have to be learnt - ey is one of the options but it is the less common one.

 

"Saddest" requires teaching of consonants and open and closed syllables. Even children who have no learning problems struggle to remember when to double the consonants and when to leave them singular. This can be taught but takes a lot of work to get it right in their own writing.

 

As for "here", "there," and every"where" - I teach only one to my child (usually here) and then when she had that down we just sang the song that was on an advert here - here, there, everywhere... forget me not... and she had them all down. The -ere endings are difficult as there are multiple other variations (air, ear, ere, eer - fair, bear, here, steer and so on) 

 

With spelling it helps to look at where they have got it right and then figure out how to get the rest right - she is really not far off the correct spellings in those words.