Spelling?

[megsmom]

What does everyone do about spelling? My daughter is a horrible speller. We have tried everything. She writes with her right hand but is left eye dominant. Someone told me that has something to do with it, but I had never heard that before. I tried sequential spelling but I didn't understand it.

So what do T4L users do for a good spelling program?

[hearthstone_academy]

Time4Learning does provide spelling lessons within the Language Arts Extensions in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.

One method that works well for some students is to have her keep a daily journal. Pull words she misspells from her journal, and use that as the week's spelling list. That way, the student is not wasting time studying words she already knows how to spell. Also, she will learn to spell words that are meaningful to her (since those words are already part of her vocabulary).

Try http://www.spellingcity.com for a fun way to practice or study spelling words. It's free.

[Tulip]

Hi

Here is a site that has spelling list for grades 1 through 4 that you can print out for free.

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/index.html

[alearningadventure]

I came across a website today that looks promising for spelling help. www.spellingcity.com Interactive with games. My daughter is a horrible speller too (probably dyslexic) so I was looking for something too. I was about to order sequential spelling so please tell me more about your experience with it. Thanks, Laura

[Carla]

I need help finding the spelling lessons in the fourth grade Language Extension. The fifth grade has a chapter "Conventions of Spelling" I cannot find this in the fourth grade lesson plans.
My dd wants to move from level 5 to level 4 in language extensions. She got frightened in level 5 when she came to an exercise that required more than a little writing. Any advice on how to encourage her when it comes to written work.


I just found the spelling lists for level four, they are under the "Grammar Extension." Just needed to look through each chapter til I found it

[hearthstone_academy]

I'm glad you found the spelling lessons. If you keep that up, though, you won't need me any more.

One of my sons is a very reluctant writer. He's doing Time4Writing. He likes the brief, imaginative lessons. He's always been homeschooled, so he also appreciates feedback from someone other than Mom. It's still writing, but he gets to do it on the computer, and a "real teacher" grades it.

[witchly]

Any advice on how to encourage her when it comes to written work.

Try giving her some fun writing assignments that are about things she enjoys and shows interest in. Also, try to encourage just the creative process to start with and don't worry about the mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.) at this point. I found that with my son when he was in public school the amount of negative feedback he received about mechanics really put a damper on things for him. He liked the creative part but rarely received the positive feedback on that part, just instead getting negative feedback and having to do constant editing of the mechanical end. After taking him out of school our primary focus on longer writing was the creative process. Now, we pick and choose certain assignments to go back and work on the mechanics with also, but I make sure to give him lots of praise for the creative end still.

Each child is different, so try to figure out what parts of writing she actually likes and focus on that a bit. My son likes to make up "interviews" with characters (I'm amazed by this personally), he also likes poetry (again, shocking on my end LOL). One of his favorite quick activities (that can easily be built on for longer writing) is that I cut out pictures of people, animals, cartoons, etc. from magazines and glue them in a notebook. He goes through and writes captions, quotes, etc. next to them. He loves coming up with crazy things that he thinks the animals would be thinking/saying. One of his best was a bird nest full of eggs and he made quotes for each of the eggs (showing what the baby inside was thinking).

[Carla]

Thanks Witchly for your ideas. You are right that too many times writing is stifled because of concerns on mechanics. The first time she writes something I don't worry about the grammar, spelling and other little things. But when she hands in her final copy I do expect it to be on par for her grade level. A lot of times I will even allow her to dictate her work to me to take off the pressure of having correct mechanics.
I am going to use your idea about having catchy, fun pictures. She is working on dialogue and quotations, with some funny pictures it might be easier for her to come up with a dialogue.