Kendall
03-01-2008, 07:01 PM
I thought I would share something that is working well for us and ask a question about resources for this process.
My almost 8 year old wrote her first retelling of a fable and had lost of misspellings. This wasn’t a big surprise to me because reading came slowly. She is reading really well now, and I need to focus on spelling. I made up a few sentences for her to copy with a few of the misspelled words in them.(The frog jumped over the log, The frog jumped off the log and over the other frog. Etc.) She copied them one day and wrote them from dictation the next day. This seemed to be helping her learn and retain the correct spellings, but she said, “Mom, can I please have a sentence that isn’t about frogs?” LOL.
I tried something similar to this but to search through books at home and find sentences that fit their needs was so time consuming.
Then I remembered that Understood Betsy was online and I searched the text for the words I wanted her to work on. Even though the sentences are sometimes long and have words that are above her spelling abilities, this has worked really well. I have her copy it and then the next day she writes it from dictation. I help her with anything she wants and just make a note of it. If it is something I want her to be able to spell on her own then I add it to the list of words to work on the next time. Her spelling is improving and she is spelling words correctly that I didn’t expect her to. We also go through the sentence and talk about root words and suffixes and any other phonics/spelling/punctuation/capitalization thing that comes to my mind.
This isn’t the organized, systematic approach that in my early days of homeschooling(with fewer children and students!)I would have thought I had to have, but it seems to be very effective in spite of that.
I have used sentences from Understood Betsy and Anne of Green Gables. She has liked having sentences from books she has read or books that I have read to her. I know there are a lot of books on the Baldwin site, but I’m looking for more online books that we might have in the home or library. Do you know of other books that are online that might work?
Thanks,
Kendall
My almost 8 year old wrote her first retelling of a fable and had lost of misspellings. This wasn’t a big surprise to me because reading came slowly. She is reading really well now, and I need to focus on spelling. I made up a few sentences for her to copy with a few of the misspelled words in them.(The frog jumped over the log, The frog jumped off the log and over the other frog. Etc.) She copied them one day and wrote them from dictation the next day. This seemed to be helping her learn and retain the correct spellings, but she said, “Mom, can I please have a sentence that isn’t about frogs?” LOL.
I tried something similar to this but to search through books at home and find sentences that fit their needs was so time consuming.
Then I remembered that Understood Betsy was online and I searched the text for the words I wanted her to work on. Even though the sentences are sometimes long and have words that are above her spelling abilities, this has worked really well. I have her copy it and then the next day she writes it from dictation. I help her with anything she wants and just make a note of it. If it is something I want her to be able to spell on her own then I add it to the list of words to work on the next time. Her spelling is improving and she is spelling words correctly that I didn’t expect her to. We also go through the sentence and talk about root words and suffixes and any other phonics/spelling/punctuation/capitalization thing that comes to my mind.
This isn’t the organized, systematic approach that in my early days of homeschooling(with fewer children and students!)I would have thought I had to have, but it seems to be very effective in spite of that.
I have used sentences from Understood Betsy and Anne of Green Gables. She has liked having sentences from books she has read or books that I have read to her. I know there are a lot of books on the Baldwin site, but I’m looking for more online books that we might have in the home or library. Do you know of other books that are online that might work?
Thanks,
Kendall