JennSnow Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Younger ds is 4.5 (turns 5 in January). So far we haven't done anything in the way of spelling instruction but he does love to write and I've been debating throwing a little something in this fall. He seems to be a pretty good natural speller. The problem I'm running into is that for the programs I've looked at the level he would be at the activities are too much. I ordered Spelling Workout Level B and I can already tell it would be like pulling teeth to get the 4.5 year old to sit down and write paragraphs about what he did at the dentist or puzzle through a crossword puzzle.If I did add spelling in I was hoping to make it short and simple without too much extra seat work. I've been considering: not doing anything formal at all just yet and just encouraging him to write freely without correction just creating a simple word list based off of current phonics instruction and dictating a few words or short sentences each day hoping someone chimes in a with a program I haven't looked into yet that will work (even if some minor tailoring is needed :) ) ​Here is a sample of his writing/spelling. He wrote this today of his own accord and with no help. I've translated in case you aren't fluent in 4 year old handwriting, lol."The sun is hot. Mercury is close. Venus is the hottest planet. earth is were we live. Mars is russte (rusty). Jupiter is the biggest planet. Saturn has rings. Uranus spins on its side. Neptune is windde (windy). Pluto is small." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Your kid is doing GREAT! He isn't even 5 years old yet. Seriously, he is ahead of the curve. Words like Neptune are not easy to spell. There are a lot of 10 year olds that might miss that one. Same with Mercury. Two different ways to spell "er" in the same word. In fact, there are many words in that passage that would trip up a lot of students. I would not saddle him with a really detailed nitty gritty spelling program. Read with him, read to him, let him write as he has been doing, let him have fun exploring the language and play fun word games, maybe with Scrabble Junior and games like that. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennSnow Posted August 4, 2016 Author Share Posted August 4, 2016 He does have a long standing love affair with all things space so I suspect the planet names are from memory/sight. Thank you for the suggestions..I'm thinking along the same lines! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 He does have a long standing love affair with all things space so I suspect the planet names are from memory/sight. Thank you for the suggestions..I'm thinking along the same lines! Then run with that. Give him the chance, while he is still young, to explore all of his areas of interest. The fact that his writing is this good at 4.5 is terrific. Help him hone skills gently while pursuing his areas of interest. When he is writing stuff on his own for fun, don't correct it unless he asks. Maybe start doing some sort of fun, short, copy work on lined paper later on in the year if he is interested but honestly, he is doing really well. I wouldn't mess with it much at all. He's picking up a tremendous amount on his own. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 He seems like a spelling genius to me! Congrats!!! I would at this age just introduce him to spelling his favorite words. Later when it's time for spelling in first grade you can revisit what curriculum to use and likely you won't have to put a ton of effort into this area. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 For a little person who is not yet 5, my recommendation is ... nothing. When he is 6ish, you could consider Spalding, which will do spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple writing in one fell swoop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fralala Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 Awww! I agree with the above responses (and that you should be proud of his intellect), but mostly I find the "for momey" at the bottom very endearing. And what a wonderful illustration. Tell him you love it so much you posted a picture for all the other homeschooling parents to see. Get him more paper and more art supplies instead of workbooks! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammfried Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 This is awesome! I would chime in to say to not worry about spelling right now either. There are already so many amazing things going on here...his extensive vocabulary, his grammar, muscle tone for writing, the fact that he was able to sit long enough to compose and draw this at 4.5 years, etc. Just keep nurturing his passions and the rest will follow. That said, if your DS is the logic minded type who would ask "why is it spelled windy and not windde" and you want to give him a reason other than "just because," then check out Logic of English curriculum or even just read "Uncovering the Logic of English" book by Denise Eide. The program teaches the spelling rules that govern a majority of the English language and is largely interdependent on the phonetics of words (so it is both a reading and spelling decoding system, as well as a handwriting program). They also use dictation as one of the spelling exercises but the Foundations levels have a lot of multi-sensory activities suitable for ages 4-7. It might be something worth checking out for when you are ready to do more purposeful spelling. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwdiaz Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 I agree with all the other posts that say not to worry about spelling. His writing is great too. When my kids were that age I just chose a lot of activities from the Peggy Kaye books (Games for Reading, Games for Math, etc.) and it was really our only pre-k program. One idea in the Reading book was to make a topical poster, we did ours once a month, with words from a topic the kid likes, decorate it and hang it up. My kids chose Minecraft, Ancient Rome, nature study words, seasonal stuff, words from Daniel Tiger, etc. It was activity they both liked, changing the monthly word poster. And then I did nothing with them. Hung them in their rooms. They just looked at them whenever they wanted too. Then I would see words like solstice, diamond (pick ax), or trolley show up in their stories and knew they were just getting it. The games in Peggy Kaye's books lead really well into a Bravewriter direction for language arts if that appeals to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 I wouldn't worry about spelling with this kid. Given where he's at in his reading and output capability, I would assign short copywork, either on topics he enjoys, or recopying a corrected draft of something he wrote. I would also have him writing everything on 3-lined paper and focus on his penmanship and putting capitals/lower case in the right place, and maybe some punctuation, before worrying about spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamanthaCarter Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 He rocks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennSnow Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 Thank you everyone for the input and ideas! I really like the idea of doing topical posters according to his interests...that sounds like it would be right up his alley :)! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 I would give him a brief explanation of "windy" and "rusty" and words like that ending in 'y'. But you might very well be able to not do formal spelling with this kid ever and still come out ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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