housemouse Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Dd is terrible at spelling. She constantly asks how to spell things even if it was the same word that was spelled out for her 5 minutes before. We have not done any formal spelling curriculum up to this point. She reads well, does copy work but still nothing. What can I use to help her along to get better? Any specific curriculum? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 There are many. It depends on what is tripping her up as to how detailed you want to go. All About Spelling is a good Orton Gillingham based program that might work well. Or you could go with Christian Light Education Language Arts, which covers spelling, grammar, vocabulary, some writing...Definitely give the placement test for CLE. Diagnostic tests can be downloaded from the website for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 I like Rod & Staff, done at grade level. The meat of the program is in the exercises. That, and time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Dd is terrible at spelling. She constantly asks how to spell things even if it was the same word that was spelled out for her 5 minutes before. We have not done any formal spelling curriculum up to this point. She reads well, does copy work but still nothing. What can I use to help her along to get better? Any specific curriculum? Thank you. I would expect most 8yo children to be "terrible" at spelling. :-) Reading well does not guarantee spelling well. Neither does copywork alone (although some very visual children pick up on spelling and might be able to avoid formal spelling instruction). My favorite spelling method is Spalding. It teaches children to read by teaching them to spell, and simultaneously does penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing. It is a complete "language arts" program for children through up to about 8 or 9yo. The manual for the Spalding Method is the Writing Road to Reading (Spalding is the method; WRTR is the manual). All you need to teach Spalding is the manual and a set of phonogram cards (even though Spalding Education International wants you to buy the teacher guide. Homeschoolers don't need it.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 (edited) I agree with Ellie. 8yrs old is too young to expect great spelling. Something I did with my older boys was they made their own dictionary. Every time they asked me how to spell a word, it was written down correctly on that letter's page. As for a program--to be honest, no spelling program we used ever helped my kids spell better. edited for all my errors! Edited December 28, 2015 by Paradox5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberryjam Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Spelling Power is intended to be started at about age 8, you might want to look into that. One book lasts you all the way through to Jr. High level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
housemouse Posted December 28, 2015 Author Share Posted December 28, 2015 Thank you ladies. I will check into some of them. I know AAS did not click when we tried this past summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Apples and Pears spelling 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 My younger was the same way at 8, and it is pretty typical. Worse, it stressed him out to no end. He was much harder on himself than anyone else. First of all, I tried to be as patient as possible. We kept working on copy work and dictation. Dictation isn't supposed to be a spelling exercise anyway, so I was used to that. Mostly, whenever I was asked how to spell I would start by asking, "How do you think you spell it?" And at first I got lots of 'I don't knooooow", lol. But I would talk him through it by saying, well, you know it starts with .... And he got more confident, but it took time. It was mostly helping him be successful, because 8 year olds can't spell, but he needed confidence. He just didn't trust himself. I did use R&S spelling, but I've never given a spelling test or really made a big deal about spelling. I don't require him to memorize the phonics rules in R&S or anything. We just work through a lesson over the course of the week, a little bit every day. he is able to do it while I make lunch. R&S did help, but mostly it was just time and more confidence. But I do know that around that age it looked like a disaster. Things got much better over the past two years. I am no longer mortified if he writes something, lol. Oh, he also got an ipod around then and I think we had some games that involved spelling. It was called 'scribblenauts' and that made it very attractive to spell correctly. He got an immediate reward b/c it makes what you write appear on the screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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