Spelling matters. This is precisely why you would find that spelling is the most tested literacy skill, but ironically the least taught.
For some children, learning to spell accurately can be frustrating or the biggest task ever. Some kids can’t grasp it at all, while some who are auditory learners tend to spell words the way they sound. Regardless of the nature of your child’s spelling problem, the good news is you can help him spell better with these great tips and ideas.
With kids, it’s easy to incorporate fun and learning or just create activities that help them learn. Some activities to try with your child are:
In this activity, you write a word list with two words each lying side by side. This way your child sees two versions of one word and has to pick the right one. This is a great learning and fun activity, especially for kids who tend to spell wrongly by sound. So, for example, side-by-side words can be nephew and nefew, fone and phone, etc.
This is a different form of which is it. Here you scatter the different versions of both correct and incorrect words and tell your child to circle the correct words while striking out the incorrect ones.
The spelling word maze can be a box with words that are both wrong and correct. Tell your child to find the path of correctly spelled words and cross out the wrong ones as they go. You can add fun elements to make the path fun.
Sight words can be described as the most common words in English language. They are regular words, easy to identify but sometimes have irregular spellings. Encouraging your child to master sight words can help build a critical foundation for your child’s spelling.
Consonants and vowels are letters with different sounds, just like blends, diphthongs, and digraphs. Examples of blends are pl and sm, diphthongs include au and ai, and diagraphs sh and ng.
Spelling rules can be a lot, but getting into them one after the other can help your child master spelling. These include knowing about compound words, prefixes, suffixes, and word plurals.
Many beginners like to spell phonetically, but this can lead to lots of spelling mistakes. However, for beginners just learning to spell you can get away with allowing them to spell phonetically. Teach your child to spell words as they sound and focus on teaching the correct sound of each letter.
Giving kids a list of words to learn at home to be tested on the next day in school is not teaching. But most teachers can recognize the effectiveness of rhyming words. It’s fun reading or learning with rhyming words. So use them for your kids. Use stories, songs, and reciting the words to help your child with spelling. Examples are all, ball, fall, call, and so on.
Your child should know the meaning of the words they spell. It’s pointless to just force words on them to master without teaching the meaning to help your child truly learn and understand the words. Knowing what words mean help with recognition and making spelling easier.
Practicing consistently is how anyone masters anything. Since you want to help your child with spelling make sure they practice over and over. They should practice recognizing the words, writing them out, identifying the wrong ones too. Make practicing fun with spelling games.
Sometimes what your child needs is that extra boost from an experienced tutor. Tutors can provide lessons that suit your child’s learning needs and make it both fun and effective.
Need that extra help with your child’s spelling? Contact No Fuss Tutors.
