A Questions for the CM-Minded...

[MelissaMinNC]

My dd (1st) is reading quite well. We are not currently doing any formal phonics instruction, and I have stopped spelling. I am seriously leaning toward the studied dictation method of spelling that a few people have posted about, but not starting that till 3rd grade.

Do I need to DO anything between now and then, other than read, read, read? I keep waffling, thinking, well, if she's not doing a spelling program, then maybe we should be doing further phonics, but I don't actually think she needs phonics instruction, kwim?

Just curious what you do, if anything, between the time the child starts reading fluently and well, and the time you start spelling instruction.

TIA,
Melissa

[LindaOz]

Do you do copywork? Daily copywork is great for so many things - one of which is practising correct spelling :-) Then when 3rd grade rolls around she will have had a lot of experience writing words correctly.

Have fun,
Linda

[cajun.classical]

Just daily copywork. When my dd was in first grade, she was such a strong reader that we did not continue any phonics work. We just read and read. The only writing or spelling was copywork. It truly is plenty. Correct any words that are copied incorrectly. Emphasize that each sentence starts with a Capital letter and ends with an end mark and that is plenty of Language Arts for first grade.

[prairiegirl]

I was in a similar situation with my oldest when she was in 1st. I just had her do copywork. We are starting studied dictation next week.

Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Tami]

Yup. Daily copywork - one perfect line per day. Go for quality over quantity.

[MelissaMinNC]

We *were* doing copywork, and I stopped because we are also doing handwriting practice (workbook) and we were doing spelling and a little grammar. It was too much, and I decided to wait until we were done with the handwriting book to start copywork again. But now that we're not doing the spelling lessons, I think we have room to start the copywork again. Thanks for the reminder!

Thanks so much, I will try to relax. :)
Melissa

[Karen in Eastern WA]

I agree with all of the comments on copywork, and just wanted to share what we have been doing. I have two first graders and each morning one of us takes a turn picking a sentence out of a book that we have read and we write it on the white board. Then the others have to read it and guess which book it is from and then copy it (well I don't copy it, but you get the drift). It has been a lot of fun, and creates anticipation in the morning. We start our homeschool day with this.