Thinking about starting spelling but...
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:11 pm
We're still a month or two (or three 
) away from finishing Phonics Pathways. He's halfway through the Emerging Readers and is reading comfortably at mid-2nd grade level - he has no problem with the Nature Reader now, and is reading the A Beka 2nd grade readers for fun. He has been a reluctant writer until just recently, and has been writing much more on his own lately, and asks how to spell words all day long. For a school writing day, he does one sentence of copywork from the day's PP page, one sentence from Pictures in Cursive, one page of SM 1B, and about 6 words in manuscript in a beginner phonics workbook.
My question is, Would it be confusing for him to start list #1 in the HOD guide now, maybe doing 5 words a week to start with? Would I then do the other 5 words the following week? If I do that, should I stop PP or the phonics workbook or both? I don't want to spread him too thin. And the phonics wb was just because he asked to practice manuscript, since he learned cursive first. Thinking out loud, maybe I could find another way to have him practice manuscript. It seems odd to do cursive and manuscript copywork at the same time, and his cursive is quite solid now, but he's not quite done yet. He does enjoy the simple, independent aspect of completing a workbook, though. Hmmm... Thanks for your input!
) away from finishing Phonics Pathways. He's halfway through the Emerging Readers and is reading comfortably at mid-2nd grade level - he has no problem with the Nature Reader now, and is reading the A Beka 2nd grade readers for fun. He has been a reluctant writer until just recently, and has been writing much more on his own lately, and asks how to spell words all day long. For a school writing day, he does one sentence of copywork from the day's PP page, one sentence from Pictures in Cursive, one page of SM 1B, and about 6 words in manuscript in a beginner phonics workbook. My question is, Would it be confusing for him to start list #1 in the HOD guide now, maybe doing 5 words a week to start with? Would I then do the other 5 words the following week? If I do that, should I stop PP or the phonics workbook or both? I don't want to spread him too thin. And the phonics wb was just because he asked to practice manuscript, since he learned cursive first. Thinking out loud, maybe I could find another way to have him practice manuscript. It seems odd to do cursive and manuscript copywork at the same time, and his cursive is quite solid now, but he's not quite done yet. He does enjoy the simple, independent aspect of completing a workbook, though. Hmmm... Thanks for your input!
I had him read only half the columns of words on the Phonics Pathway page, spent a few minutes trying to get him to spell words with magnetic letters while he built things with them 
(That why I abandoned AAS when he was learning to read 
Not going to do that again! ) Then I had him start list #1, and he insisted on doing all 10 words, and got them right after studying them, and was *very* proud of himself 
I guess he's ready!