Spelling | Throw It All Out!

 



For several years I tried to teach my children how to spell. The results were soupy at best. Every year I would get a new “curriculum” and follow it precisely, but nothing worked.


Finally came up with my own...

1st day: Find 2 words they don't know how to spell. Have them write
those words 7 times. A good source of spelling words is the lists of most commonly used English words you can get on the internet. You can also use words they misspelled in their own writing.
2nd day: Test to see if they know yesterday's words, if they do, add 2
more. If they know one, find another word and have them write that and the
one they missed 7 times.

Keep adding to the list until there are 20 words, then let your child scratch out the oldest words while always keeping 20 words on the list. Do not start a new list. Just keep this one going. This way the child has to keep a word in his memory for two to three weeks instead of memorizing it for the test on Friday (which tends to be forgotten by Friday evening).

 

If they are having a bad day, I limit the words they have to

write to the first two they missed. Seems too simple to be true, but it
works!

Throw in a spelling rule now and then as needed.

Use the same method to build vocabulary words by adding the requirement that the word is used in a sentence.



Comments

Post a Comment

All comments are moderated to prevent inappropriate content.

Popular posts from this blog

A Day At My House | A Homeschool Routine Example

Image
  We don't follow a strict schedule at my house, but we do have a basic routine because routines help kids feel secure. Every family will have a different routine because every family is different. Here's a typical day at my house: In the morning, the kids get up and watch tv quietly while I work on my Bible name translation project, schedule posts on my FB page, or work on learning the foreign languages I want to learn.  When the kids get hungry, we have breakfast, brush teeth and hair, and get dressed. Then we do our morning chores and head outside to play for a bit.  Once we have the wiggles out, I read the kids their pick of library books and do a project or play a game, followed by snack time. Next, I work with each of the kids individually while the other plays educational games on the computer. After lunch, we head outside again for at least 1/2 hour, and then it's rest time. Each of the kids picks out a Bible cartoon and everyone sits quietly until they are over. Th
Read more

Throw Out The Math Books!

Image
When my older two went to the local high school, they did so well in math that the teacher is still certain that I must be a math major. The truth is, I flunked out of math in high school. We are pretty good friends, but this teacher still thinks I’m lying  My secret? Throw out the math books. Until you get into the upper-level subjects like Algebra and Geometry, there is only one of good use for math books – to cut word problems out of to put in a box so the kids can draw them out at random. There may be a few people out there who learn math well the way math texts are set up, but for most of us, they are set up to confuse. Why they teach addition only for 3 weeks and then switch to subtraction only for 3 weeks is beyond me. Most kids are just starting to catch on to the addition by the time they switch. Then by the time they are starting to catch on to the subtraction, they switch back to addition the kids have forgotten how to do that by then! To make matters worse, the kids
Read more