heartofdakota.com

I'm a first time homeschooling mom, so I have lots of questions! My daughter, who turns 6 in 2 weeks is advanced for her age, so we've been doing Beyond. She has no problems with any of the work and reads way beyond what she "should" at this age! My question pertains to the spellings lists in the back of Beyond. The first list seems like the obvious choice because my daughter is so young. However, most of the words on the first list are easy for her (i.e. she can spell them without looking after day 1). We switched to the second list after a few weeks because of this. They are more challenging and she usually has 2 or 3 from the 2nd list that are difficult for her. However, last week, by the end of the week, she still couldn't remember how to spell those 2 or 3 that she missed at first. So, does this mean that the second list is too hard for her? I'm just needing advice as to whether I should stick with the first list or do I press on with the harder list? Thanks for your help!

My DD is 7 and also is very advanced in her reading (she's been reading chapter books for a year). Anyway I too, debated between the 2 spelling lists. The first 8 weeks of the 1st spelling list seem really easy but after 8 weeks on the 2nd spelling list seem REALLY hard. Anyway, we just went with the 1st list, from the beginning and she hasn't a single word yet. Oh well, at least now I know she knows them!! For what it's worth, we are only on week 4!!

There are some words in List 1 that are words they will have to learn from memory. So if you skip over it, those words won't be learned. I'm like you, my DD seems to be doing really well, so I did skip list 1, well it started by accident and we kept going. We are in unit 9 now and she's been doing really well with list 2 so far. I am going to go back to List 1 and see what we missed that she might need some work on, add those in too. Hopefully.

Good advice here - I'd go with the first list! The daily activities in the LA box for spelling help prepare dc for dictation too, so those will challenge her as well (especially the write 3 sentences activity - at least it was great for my dc during Beyond).

In Christ,
Julie

Something you may want to try(adapted from the curriculum Spelling Power) is to go through the list with her on Day 1. If she gets them right, then you know she already knows them. Then take the ones she doesn't know and focus on those for the week(if she knows all of them, I might even just move on to the next list). You can use any or all of the following to get the "focus words" into her brain:)

Have her say the word aloud. Have her look carefully at each part of the word.
Have her say and spell the word aloud. Have her close her eyes and spell the word. Have her check to see if she got it right.
Then have her trace the word with her finger and have her check to see if she got it right. Then have her write the word and have her check to see if she got it.

I'm sure Carrie probably has some ideas too, but this has worked for a couple of my "natural spellers" - oh, if only they were all built that way:)

Blessings!

The way spelling is done in HOD is a stepping stone for CM style dictation. I know we probably all grew up doing spelling lists, with pretests and posttests, but the way the plans are written in the HOD guide is different. It applies the idea of the mind being like a camera taking a "picture" of the word each time it sees it.

So, for HOD spelling - Day 1 always has the child look at one word written in black on an index card. Study it, and when child says he is ready, take the card away and child writes just that one word on his marker board. If he misses it, right away, erase it and show him the card again (to erase that incorrect "picture" in his mind immediately), and when he says he is ready, take the card away until he writes it correctly. Then, Day 2's spelling has you just saying the word, using it in a sentence. The child tries to write the word from memory, but if he misses it, erase it immediately to erase the incorrect "picture" and show him the index card, allowing him to study it as he did on Day 1 and then write it. On Day 3, you only pick 3 words the child needs to practice the most. One word at a time, the child should use the word in a sentence orally, as you write the sentence on markerboard for him. Then, the child looks at the markerboard to copy the sentence on paper. You help the child correct any mistakes then. Finally, on Day 4, you say the word, use it in a sentence, and child tries to write it correctly. This time, if it is missed, erase it, and show the child the index card again. Have him fix it on his paper, and while looking at the index card, do the activity to review missed words (it rotates each week). The review activities include some of the ideas mentioned in this thread - great minds think alike, right?!? Some of them are to jump in place and spell the word out loud jumping each time they say a letter (great for a bodily kinesthetic child or verbal child), write the missed word and have students trace it 3 times using 3 different colors (great for the artistic child), trace the word in dry oatmeal - cornmeal - or sand on a plate (another great one for bodily kinesthetic dc), write the word with sidewalk chalk or fingerpaint, etc.

There are several great posts written by Carrie about spelling. The first one addresses spelling retention and why not to pretest. The second one further explains why HOD does spelling lists before doing dictation.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7415&p=54282#p54282
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10388

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie