Dictation

[montanamom]

My dd8 is 2nd grade & using Bigger. We used the 1st spelling list with Beyond last year. She LOVES spelling to the point that she requested continuing spelling over this past summer, which resulted in us finishing up the 2nd list about a month ago! We started right into dictation & she made 1 capitalization error right off, but no other errors since. I read on another post that if a child is doing very well, then it may be appropriate to skip to # 50 dictation passage. So, after doing the first few passages we skipped up to # 49. She continues to not make any mistakes in spelling, punctuation or capitalization. She completed # 56 today...also with no errors. She has mentioned that she feels it is still to easy for her & I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to skip ahead some more (& if so how much?) or do I just keep going at this speed? Also, if she is speeding through the passages like she is (only spending 1 day on them because of no errors) is she really getting anything out of it...or has it just become 'busy work'?

Pam

[my3sons]

You could easily move her ahead to say 75 or so, and see how she does. I will say that I have seen an ebb and flow with dictation. There are periods where dc don't miss any passages, and then it gets harder and they start missing more and more. It is not all bad to ease into it, plus, you'll need the next guide if she finishes. The practice of writing properly with punctuation, capital letters, solid grammar, and accurate spelling make dictation worth it no matter what. This is different than just writing a list of spelling words properly, which does not hold all of those benefits - so I think it is still worth it if she is passing them. Believe me, dictation gets h-a-r-d, so if she wants a challenge, it is on its way eventually! For now, though, you can celebrate she is a strong speller and writer!

In Christ,
Julie