Hello Ladies,
My dear son, 10.5 years old, is doing very well in school and we are very proud of his efforts. One significant difficulty he appears to be struggling with, an issue that is very common to this age/gender/stage, is that is spelling is atrocious. His vocabulary exceeds his spelling abilities by several folds and he is so eager to get his ideas on paper that it's like he's creating his own language. He understands how important this is in his education is understandably frustrated. Do any of you know of any online, or other resources, that we might use to help him with this aspect of his education? He loves a good computer game and we aren't averse to him playing online games but the ones I have seen in passing are for much younger kids. Any direction you can provide would be greatly appreciated by the whole family. :-) S.
Hello again and Thank You all for information. It is always good to know that we aren't alone. I will try these options. His school also has a more "integrated" approach which I think works great for a lot of kids, but not so much for my DS. I especially like the idea of having him rewrite his assignments while focusing on the spelling. If we can do that without it feeling punitive to him, I think that would be a really effective practice for him. I hope this finds everyone well and keep the ideas coming as you see fit. :-) S.
we use http://www.spellingcity.com
This is a great way to help them learn to spell as well as have fun!!!
We also help by SOUNDING the words out for them.
Double dittos to Eagles in our Home . . . Spellingcity.com is fantastic! I signed up for the premium version and find it well worth it!
My younger son has a terrible time with spelling and he likes the site too.
My daughter was a terrible speller. I bought her a Franklin Spell checker. I don't know it's commercial name but you can find them in the electronics section of the store. You type in what you think is the spelling and the program gives you the correct spelling.
I should think there would be an app that you could purchase to use on a cell phone.
If he types his work on the computer, there is a spell check already built in.
My mom and dad would spell words around my brother and I constantly about stuff they were trying to hide from us. When my brother and i got old enough they would spell the words backwards. Like mom would spell to dad, "Would you like some i-c-e- c-r-e-a-m?" Would you l-i-k-e t-o g-o o-u-t f-o-r m-i-l-k s-h-a-k-e-s"
Then we would play games like scrabble and bogle and hangman. All that helped with our spelling.
Then I had a 9th grade teacher that would give us15-20 words each week for vocabulary. We had to write the words 10 times each and give them definitions. The weekly test has us write each word and their definitions.
The last thing that help me was reading. I read lots of books and my parents encouraged that. I was a very poor reader with very poor reading comprehention. My parents sent me to a speedreading class for summer school. My words per minute(wpm) went from 40 to about 300 to 350wpm. My reading comprehention went from 10% to 20% to about 75% in the 6 weeks the class was on. I went from reading a page of a novel in 6 to 7 minutes to reading it in 45 seconds to 60 seconds. That's when reading became fun.
BTW, I learned to read before video games and being on-line meant coloring within the lines, but not going over. Good luck to you and yours.
I have a somewhat rare form of dyslexia that effects my spelling and math. I read fine but for years my spelling was horrible. Spell check helps a lot. I tend to spell phonecially which of course is somethimes wrong. I don't know any websites that will help, for me it was just a matter of practice.
We like SpellingCity.com . Good luck. My 6th grader struggles with it, but my 9 year old is better. It is unfortunate that our school district does not include spelling in its curriculum. Instead they advocate an 'integrated' approach; meaning the teachers are supposed to weave it into the other subjects they teach. Unfortunately that just doesn't work, as far as I can tell. My son's teacher has weekly old fashioned spelling tests and he is a much better speller than his older sister already.
This happens with extremely bright kids - their brains are working so fast and hard on their idea, that there is no room for spelling. I would say that he should write it the way he can first, and then after the idea is down on paper, re-write it, this time concentrating on the spelling.
I will say that when my DD was in elementary school, the only time they had to spell correctly was when they were working on spelling. If they were answering some questions about a story they read, they didn't have to spell correctly and were not marked off for it! Spelling only counted during spelling!
My co-worker just came in last Friday very upset because her daughter (4th grade) had written a story. She reviewed and had the child correct the spelling errors. The teacher sent it back home for the child to re-do along with a note telling the mom NOT to correct the spelling - spelling didn't count and she wanted to see how the child spelled the word! Doesn't make ANY sense to me!
I still spell phoneticly (sp) and I have been reading well above my grade level since I learned in the first grade. I remember the "spelling rules" like "I before E except after C unless..." but I still don't get it right all the time. I would suggest having him get his ideas down and then use the dictionary to look up the words that he can't spell...I assume he has memorized the easier or more common words and it is more of the longer less often used words that give him problems...I know it is hard to find words when you don't know EXACTLY how to spell them but it you go about it phoneticly it isn't that difficult...for instance "phone" sounds like f-o-n-e but you know that p+h also makes the f sound so it is a little bit of work but at the very least it won't have him rely on spell check for everything.
I used spellingcity.com with my 4th grade daughter but I learned about it from my middle schooler who used it at school. She started getting A's on her spelling tests while using this site.
