My dd and spelling...is she ready?

[my4sugars]

My twin dds are 6 years old and in 1st grade. We have been working in Beyond at half-pace for nearly 4 wks. now. One of my dds is doing very well in her spelling. She is a strong reader and is progressing so quickly with the remainder of TRL. Her sis has struggled with her phonics and reading. She is slowly moving from seeing the words as a group of letter sounds into seeing them as words. I'm noticing that she seems to struggle a bit in spelling. She doesn't really recognize the words and has to repeatedly sound them out to remember them. My ? is whether or not she is ready. I know that 1st graders are old enough for spelling. But do they need to be at a certain stage in their reading before they are ready for spelling? She can spell the words when I say them to her. But does she need to be able to recognize the words? Thank you for any help you can give.

[my4sugars]

bump

[4froggies]

I have also had one of each type of reader. My older dd struggled when she has that age, and my younger dd (now 6) takes to it very quickly and easily. My older one (who struggled) is now an avid and advanced reader, so be assured- she will get it! Learning to read truly is a developmental thing and she will probably take off with it once she is developmentally and physically ready. As far as spelling, it really does come so much easier once they are good readers. I would focus on reading and phonics with her and put the spelling on hold. Just my 2 cents!

[Carrie]

I agree with 4froggies! I would put the spelling on hold until your little sweetie clicks along with her reading a bit more. It is very typical for schools not to begin spelling lists until kiddos are 9-18 weeks into the first grade year. Even then, the spelling words are typically words that can be sounded out, rather than those that really require remembering the correct spelling. So, the words are usually things that can be sounded out like 'bat', 'cat', 'sat', etc.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Busymomma1]

My ds, also 6, is in a similar situation. It's like he doesn't recognize words studied the day before, and he is still sounding out and slowly working through the RL. I am choosing to have him do spelling, because, as of Week 3, he is doing well at it, even though he has to sound the words out sound by sound. I'm hoping that it engages different parts of his brain and will assist in his learning to read. Reading is like synthesis, and spelling like analysis. Two different skills, but hoping the different skills to practice will help!

[sharonb]

For my 6-year-old 1st grader I am waiting on spelling until he's in 2nd grade. We just really need to focus on phonics and getting his reading fluent at this point. He really wanted to do spelling (like his big sister!) a couple of weeks ago. So, I had him write the words from unit 1 on cards. He had trouble figuring out what a couple of the words were, so I know he's not ready to do spelling! He hasn't asked about spelling since then; sometimes he gets ideas of things he wants to do, and once I let him try, he figures out on his own that he needs to wait.