Should I wait on spelling?

[TammyTE]

Some of you may recall my placement thread last weekend. Well, we decided to combine my 7yob and 5yog in LHFHG. I am very pleased with this and think it is the best. But, dh really wants to challenge our 7yob a little more than what 5yog is getting. Mainly just because he is 2 years older and he thinks that's what needs to happen.

I was thinking I would do the spelling list 1 from Beyond with him. He is currently still working on learning several of his lower case letters. When I did his spelling word I wrote them all lower case. He could spell them orally just fine, but when he would try to write them he had trouble remembering how to make a letter here and there. I finally just grabbed some Scrabble tiles and did that with him.

So...should I continue to do spelling with him? Does it matter that he isn't actually writing the words at this point? I know that spelling turns into dictation later on. If he does need to write it, should I just write all his words in capitols so he is more familiar when writing them?

What are your thoughts?

[raceNzanesmom]

Is he able to read the words. If he is, you could continue gently with the tiles. Then, as his hw develops you can add in writing them. Or, later on review them. Whatever you decide, I'd go gently at his pace.

[TammyTE]

Yes he is able to read the words. He does struggle with reading though, but these simple words he reads just fine. His struggle with reading seems to be bigger words that are all together in a sentence. By the time he gets to the end of a line he has forgotten what he read about.

He seemed to like the tiles.

[Kims]

Right for my 6yob in Beyond I am doing them orally. I let him read the word then turn the card over and he spells it. I will add in the writing later but for now this is working. We are trying to find our groove. I like the scrabble tiles idea though. I will have to get those out. I want him to visualize the spelling of the word as he does it too not just in his mind.

[skwmackey]

Love the tile idea! We are using a dry erase board for our spelling time. Our son is 6 and his fine motor (writing) skills are not the greatest although they are improving quickly this year. He loves the dry erase board and doesn't seem to count that as writing. He sees it as a game. A magnadoodle or shaving cream are good options too.

I am not an expert and always hesitate to give advice, but one thing I would continue doing is writing them (on the index cards) as he should see them - lowercase letters. The more he sees them the more familiar they will become. You could ontinue spelling and as long as he uses the right letter (capital or lowercase) then count it as correct but gently show him when reviewing the card what the lowercase letter looks like. My son sometimes puts a capital letter instead of a lowercase, and I don't make a big deal. We are in week two, and I have noticed that he catches it right away now if he puts a capital letter instead. Hope this helps some.

[my3sons]

I think it sounds like your dc are placed very well, and LHFHG should be such fun to do. In general, dc should be able to write all of their letters before attempting the spelling words in Beyond. I think it is important to honor dh's wishes though, so though I'd wait on spelling, I think you could just use the supplemental titles noted in the LHFHG Appendix to read aloud to just ds to extend his learning. You could just pick and choose which ones you'd like to use, probably according to which ones may be available at your library. You could also have ds clip along more with his handwriting, doing a page each day, and when he finishes his handwriting book in the middle of the year, you could have him do the next handwriting book up (i.e. "A Reason for Handwriting K" first half of the year, "A Reason for Handwriting A" the second half of the year). Likewise, you could have him do Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers the first half of the year, a page each day, and "Thinking Skills Grade 1" a page each day the second half of the year. This will challenge him more than his younger sister, and also strengthen his fine motor skills so he is ready for spelling words in Beyond. Though there is nothing wrong with the tiles, the physical act of writing the words is an important step that prepares dc for dictation, and thinking words are spelled in all capital letters is not having dc see how words are truly going to be written. I'd save the spelling words for when he's ready for them, so he doesn't need to repeat them the next year, and use the tiles (which ARE a fun idea BTW) for his phonics words, as they are an excellent learning tool that could be used well alongside phonics. Hope something here helps!

In Christ,
Julie

[TammyTE]

Thanks for chiming in Julie. THAT is exactly was I was concerned with.....preparing them for future work in dictation. hmmmmm I have to admit after day 2 I just didn't feel right about the way spelling was going with him so I just did other activities with the index cards. ie., One day I had him read a word and make up a sentence with it. That way he didn't question why we were no longer working with the cards.

That's a good idea on the extra reading and workbooks. I know I've got to do something, but I've just got to figure out exactly what that something is!

[netpea]

I love Julie's suggestions. There is a long list of additional reading in the appendix. I read as many as I could get through InterLibrary Loan with my first child who needed a bit more. They were wonderful.

Also, we were using wooden blocks to spell simple words before we started LHFHG so the tile idea would be great once in a while to spell words from the phonics book. We used to make the word cat, then change it to bat, rat, mat, sat.... DS thought it great fun.