Hello, all! It has been a long time. Sorry I have not had a chance lately to contribute some helpful ideas to aid you in your educational journey with your children/grandchildren. It has been quite a year for all of us with Covid19 and all of the related challenges. I had my attention elsewhere this past year, and I wrote a little New Year's post that I would like to share with all of you from my heart to yours: 2020 was the year that my sweet mother, Joanne, breathed her last breath on this earth. She was a lifelong learner who made great sacrifices investing in the education of her children and grandchildren. Below is a little something I wrote in her memory to wish you all a Happy New Year: Everyone was focused on Corona in 2020, but my attention rested on the last days with my precious mother. Alzheimer’s disease kept her blissfully ignorant of the restrictions and fear Covid19 placed on so many. She never understood why her visitors kept their masks on and their bodies distanced, but five minutes after they left any doubt about normalcy vanished. It was a sweet way to end her life, solely focused on her love for God and His promises of eternal rest. Wish I could pass her peace on to all of you. Oh, I can! Even with our memories and cognition intact we can.... Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones. Proverbs 3:5-8 S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G: I have blogged about a few essential ingredients to help you lead your children along the path to success as readers: 1. reading motivation 2. phonics and whole word reading 3. phonics games 4. letter blending Once a child is motivated to learn how to read and has the building blocks of letter recognition and phonics sound mastery, they are ready to begin spelling. Spelling makes independent writing a next, achievable step. Exciting times!!! What are some teaching methods? GOOD NEWS: The good news is that spelling regular words should be relatively easy for your child. Of course, they will become more fluent and natural spellers as time passes because we memorize most words in time. Spelling regular words derives from their knowledge of letters and their sounds, which you should have established well before asking them to spell words. The video below will show you how early spellers may struggle to spell quickly, but they do have the skills to do so if they think and take their time. Speed will come later! 'A HELPFUL TIP.... Be careful how you sound out letters to your children: Do not to add ‘u’ or ‘a’ at the end of a letter sound (‘h’ not ‘hu’). It is hard to stop yourself. It sounds unnatural to cut yourself off by saying 'b-' instead of 'bu', but if you add that extra sound then it makes it a problem because the learner will usually add that ‘u’ when trying to spell the letter 'B'. Here is a practical example: 1. You ask your child to spell 'hat' 2. You sound it out in 2 sections to help them. 3. If you say ‘Hu-at’ instead of ‘h-at’. 4. They will spell 'huat'. Oops! 5. Instead, say 'h-' then 'at', and they will spell 'hat' ***remember lone consonants do not have vowel sounds attached to them (b- not bu-, t- not tu-, etc) TRICKY SPELLING RULES IN ENGLISH: What about site words, exceptions, irregular sounds and the many diphthongs (2 vowels in one word as in join, cloud, and tide) that your children will encounter, AND BE FRUSTRATED BY, as they begin learning to spell? I have used the 3 helpful methods below to help get my children and students over the frustration: 1. Make a game out of it: I would call words that don't follow simple rules ‘naughty words’. I told my children that these words needed to be 'punished'. We would write them on cards and send them to 'time out'. You can check on them throughout the day, which causes your child to see them over and over and they are now no longer a problem but becoming familiar 'friends'. 2. Search for those 'naughty words' in texts while you are reading. Each time you see one, for example the word 'what', then pretend yell at that word for getting out of 'time out'. You can exclaim, 'How could he do that?? He is now disobeying the law! He needs to get back into 'time out'! Again, your child's eyes are focused on that word, which makes reading and spelling it become familiar and natural......all while having a good laugh together. 3. Make or buy some memorization cards Sometime we just need flash cards to work on regularly with our children. A little memorization never hurt anyone. As seen in the video below, you can take those flash cards and use them anyway you want to make it interesting. The key is consistency! If you put them in a drawer and never look at them, children will not learn to fluently read or spell them. Run through your flash cards at least once each school day and/or incorporate them into a game like 'Hot Lava', which can even by played on non-school days. FUN GAMES TO TEACH SPELLING: 1. Lava land spelling (See Shelby’s video below) 2. I say a sentence, they spell out the last word. Make sure the last word is either a regular work or an irregular word that you have been practicing. The last word of the sentence must also be predictable, so they will know what to spell. Choose the last work of a familiar poem, song or family saying. For example: Hickory, dickory ____ (your child would spell d-o-c-k) 3. Sound bingo (the picture at the top of this blog, shows my grandson playing this game. You make a board of letters, give the students some circular markers, say a 'sound' and the students puts the marker on the letter that makes that sound. This is a great building block for spelling. :WHY BOTHER TEACHING SPELLING IN 2021....SPELL CHECK IS MY FRIEND!
In this computer ‘spell check’ , 'auto-correct', 'predictive text' and 'Siri' generation, is it even worth our time to teach spelling. I will not take a lot of time to elaborate on this section, but below is some 'food for thought': 1. Those who are confident spellers are more prolific writers and gain other literacy skills. 2. Superiors may judge a poor speller as lacking aptitude for other jobs higher up the work chain. 3. People are more apt to write personal letters and thank you notes if they have confidence in their spelling, which is a chance to display maturity, professionalism and gratitude. 4.. An excellent addition to creative posters or art work is a crafty headline, verse or explanation. When each item is spelled correctly, the work receives more respect and appreciation. 5.. Good spellers might not be too shy to leave a sweet note around the house for their mom/dad/siblings/grandparents and/or boyfriends/girlfriend or future spouses, which is a lovely means of cultivating more devoted relationships. 6. Etc., etc., SO yes, let's teach our children/grandchildren to spell well from an early age! LORD, WE COME TO YOU AGAIN SEEKING YOUR HELP, GUIDANCE AND WISDOM TO ADD THIS VITAL COMPONENT TO OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION. HELP US TO IMPLEMENT WHAT WE LEARN WITH EXCELLENCE....FOR YOUR GLORY, AMEN!!
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