Writing and Spelling w/ WTM

[SingleMomof1]

Hello all! I haven’t been part time homeschooling my 6 year old this school year, and now with the pandemic we’re full time homeschooling and may never go back. I’ve been trying to follow suggestions from the WTM book to guide my homeschool choices for the last 6 weeks but we are really struggling with writing and spelling. My daughter was in 1st grade at school this year, just for reference. She’s reading around late 2nd grade early 3rd level, very fluently aloud. However her spelling is just nonsensical. Words without vowels, etc. “Salt” she spelled “slt” yesterday, “whole” “hoo”, etc. we have been using Spell to Write and Read because that is what our local part time classical school uses. But when we go over the rule cards and phonograms  some days it’s like I’m speaking in Chinese to her. We’re both frustrated. I am having a hard time figuring out what the disconnect is if she reads so well. SWR is also confusing to use/lesson plan, so I wonder if I should consider a new program? It combines phonics and spelling, so I hate to spend money on something new if we’re almost done needing to review phonics? How long do we go over phonograms? But I’m so green at this I don’t know what to expect with her development, and I don’t know what she needs from me for the next year. I wish I could just teach math, science and history all day 😭.

[Rosie_0801]

Apples and Pears is really good for struggling spellers. Start with the first book. Spelling and reading are two different skills that are not as closely related as one would think. If A&P doesn't work, get her hearing checked.

[Lori D.]

Welcome to homeschooling, and welcome to the WTM boards! 😄

Apples & Pears is great if you have a student who is completely baffled by spelling
All About Spelling is also good program for struggling spellers, with a multi-sensory approach

Reproducing spelling for spelling practice/test, or spelling while writing, are so very different from reading, so it's not necessarily odd that she is advanced in reading, but hasn't clicked with spelling. A lot of children don't click with spelling until starting about 3rd grade. Spelling requires a strong grasp of phonics and vowel patterns, but also a strong abstract/sequential memory -- spelling is abstract, and requires not only getting all the correct letters, but also getting every letter in correct left-to-right sequence.

Side note: also, if that odd spelling in coming into play while she is trying to *write* -- that is very normal. Writing actually requires simultaneously juggling 3 separate functions, each processed in a separate part of the brain (which each mature at a different rate) -- it is: thinking of what to write; the physical act of writing; and trying to spell/correct while writing. Most children don't begin to be able to juggle those 3 things simultaneously until  somewhere along about 3rd grade, and many not until somewhere along about 5th grade.

re: writing -- I would NOT worry about doing any formal program for writing until 3rd grade-ish. Most students do much better with writing if they first "get solid" with  phonics, plus have a start on spelling, and very beginning understanding of basic grammar concepts under their belt before trying to tackle writing (and by writing, I don't mean handwriting/penmanship or copywork -- those are very different from writing 😉 ).

[2_girls_mommy]

We used Rod and Staff phonics (not necessarily at WTM suggestion, but it worked really well for my older, and I love all things R&S.) My mdd could memorize and recite those phonics rules like nobody's business when it was her turn. If I sat right with her, reminding her of the rule, she could then self correct on a word. But it never progressed from there. Finally we realized she learned differently and had to research dyslexia, get some therapies, and learn different teaching methods to use in our home.  Learning to spell phonetically does not work for her. She will never be a great speller, but we have learned a lot about how to help her more. And knowing those phonics rules still can help her when I tell her a word is wrong and remind her of a rule, even if they don't help her to spell them correctly in the first place. 🙂

[Miss Tick]

After struggling through with my older two, I swore off spelling as a subject for my younger dd until 3rd grade when we start doing more writing and have a chance to use the spelling regularly. You can handle it in whatever manner makes the most sense for you and your dd, but definitely don't stress about it before the middle grades.

[Susan in TX]

It is very normal for children to be able to read words but not be able to spell them. The fact that she is reading so well is great. For most kids spelling ability naturally improves over time. I have always waited until 3rd grade to begin a formal spelling curriculum. If you want to use a program with her, I really like Spelling You See. I started using it with my son who is 8 and a struggling reader. It is very gentle and only takes about ten minutes a day. It is a very different approach from other spelling curriculum.

Susan in TX

[SingleMomof1]

Thank you all so much!! I ordered All About Spelling because it seemed like an easy transition from Spell to Write and Read. Hopefully it works for her 🤞. In SWR you “spell to read” (which obviously didn’t work in our case ha!) which is why we don’t even have a “phonics” program per se. Now I am wondering if I should have bought All About Reading instead 🤔. I am still intrigued by Spelling U See and Sequential Spelling so glad that there are more options out there!

[wendyroo]

34 minutes ago, SingleMomof1 said:

Thank you all so much!! I ordered All About Spelling because it seemed like an easy transition from Spell to Write and Read. Hopefully it works for her 🤞. In SWR you “spell to read” (which obviously didn’t work in our case ha!) which is why we don’t even have a “phonics” program per se. Now I am wondering if I should have bought All About Reading instead 🤔. I am still intrigued by Spelling U See and Sequential Spelling so glad that there are more options out there!

It doesn't sound like she needs All About Reading, and any gaps in her phonics knowledge will be filled in by All About Spelling...or honestly just by reading; strong readers who get plenty of practice naturally intuit advanced phonics concepts, tricky pronunciation, exceptions to rules, etc.

I have started spelling with each of my boys at the beginning of first grade when they were strong readers (easily reading Charlotte's Web, Mouse and the Motorcycle, Mr. Popper's Penguins, etc).  We have always used All About Spelling (with brief forays to try other programs with my most frustrating speller) and I don't foresee stopping or making changes until they have gone through all the levels.  One of my boys is a natural, intuitive speller; one has no intuitive sense of spelling, but once explicitly taught rules can apply them relatively well; one is an atrocious speller who needs absolute constant review of rules, spelling patterns, rule breaking words, etc and even then his spelling is literally five grade levels weaker than his reading or math - AAS's rule-based approach has really helped them all...in different ways, and to different degrees, but I have never found any program that worked better for them.

In my experience spelling (with non-intuitive spellers) is a marathon, not a sprint...and for a long, long, long time, some of the spellings they produce will be cringe-worthy!
I wrote this recently about my fifth grader's spelling progress:
My fifth grader is finally showing some spelling skills in his independent writing.  He is currently starting AAS 5.  He recently wrote a 4 page story about a space battle, and I found his spelling (both correct and incorrect) reassuring.  There were many words that he got wrong that I would not necessarily expect him to know at this stage; he spelled diamond as "dimond", surprise as "suprise", and torpedoes as "torpedos".  It was also abundantly clear that we need to review letter-doubling rules - in one single paragraph he wrote "planed", "atack", "spoted", "asist", "suplies", and "runing".  But, I was very impressed by how well he was able to apply the spelling rules he knew to new words; he correctly spelled harvested, operation, astray, unfortunately, steal, gazillion, and many more.  Plus, at this point he is consistently spelling all the ubiquitous little words (then, while, was, his, were, for, etc) correctly, which is a great relief after many years of wondering how he could do so well on his AAS dictation and then misspell "what" in an independent sentence later that day...and I'm talking about when he was 9 and 10 years old!