When I was a new homeschooler years ago, I read Ruth Beechick’s homeschooing philosophy. She was a pioneer in the movement and had some interesting thoughts. She said that research proved that spelling, taught as a school subject, did no good in the long run—it just didn’t stick.
At the time I was spending time teaching spelling, testing spelling, drilling spelling. When I gave my kids a “review” test after a month, going back and retesting words they had on their list a month ago, I was chagrined to find that Ruth Beechick was right. My kids seemed to forget everything I had taught them in spelling—very frustrating.
Ruth Beechick’s research concluded that children only retain those words that they use in their daily writing, those words that they actually need. All those contrived lists that we find in workbooks—your child may never even speak, let alone write. That made some sense to me. But what to do?
With my children, I stumbled around, trying this spelling program and that. I finally discovered that the best spelling teacher is daily journal writing. I would have my child write on any topic they wanted to, and illustrate it too. Sometimes they would get going on an adventure story, or they would just write about making paper airplanes for a couple of weeks. Whatever topic they wanted to write on was fine with me. As long as they were writing daily. It is in free expression that a child can really enjoy writing, and lots of writing helps make a good speller . . . as long as they have a mentor to help them correct their errors. And the mentor is you, Mom!
When you check your child’s daily schoolwork, read through his journal entry and make a little light pencil mark by any misspelled words. I have my children write their journal entries on specially wide-lined paper in pencil, or erasable pen, so that they can correct each misspelling. If your child is misspelling several words per line, then just choose the most common words to work on first. Let’s not overwhelm them!
Have your child go through and correct the misspelled words on his journal writing page, and have him transfer those misspelled words, writing them correctly on a list to be reviewed daily. A younger child will need your help spelling the word. I always try to find a little “spelling clue” to help them remember, such as find the word end in the word friend—a friend is a friend ’til the end.
For an older child, I put a little number in light pencil at the beginning of the line that contains a misspelled word. If the number is “2″, then he knows there are two misspelled words he has to search for and correct in that line of writing. My child has often responded, “Oh, I knew that was wrong!”, when he sees his my little number! It helps him to develop more care in his spelling if he has to figure out what to correct himself.
I have a favorite book I have used with success to help my young child to spell correctly: A Spelling Dictionary for Beginning Writers. Arranged alphabetically, it helps a beginning writer to find words that he wants to include in his journal writing.
For your older children, my favorite resource is How to Spell It. The beauty of this book is that a student can look up the misspelled word, and the correct spelling is listed. The trouble with using a dictionary for spelling is that if you can’t spell it, how can you look it up to check it? Several common misspellings are listed under each word, so you are sure to find your version of the irksome word! I love this book!
Some children are natural spellers, others struggle with it. But, learning to spell the words one uses everyday seems to be the solution at my house for spelling woes. Daily journal writing is the only method that I found worked consistently—and with holding power—for teaching spelling in my homeschool. And journal writing is a much more pleasant, creative, and productive activity than spelling workbooks!
You might enjoy:
 All About Me, Jr. |
 Kids Talk Writing Ideas |
 K-5 Journal & Language Arts Program |
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I'd sure love to hear your comment!
Diane,
I am so glad you've shared the journaling idea with everyone through the years. It's fun for my elementary school-aged kids to read their kindergarden entries.
When my 5 yo was three, I had her dictate a few sentences to me, which I wrote down for her. She would then spend 15 minutes drawing and coloring her picture, which gave me time to teach her older sister phonics and math. The best benefit is having a written record of all the cute things she said!
Gentle? That is a nice word! I never thought of it as a gentle method before, but I suppose it really is. Thanks for pointing that out!
Love this idea for spelling and writing, Diane!
I, too, had a terrible speller–tried everything I could think of, gave up. I just dropped the subject with her because it was becoming such an issue.
What we did encourage was reading. Lots and lots of reading. We never did do anymore spelling lessons and she is now an excellent speller and has a better vocabulary than I have! (And is a freshman in college–doing very well.)
My other three children have all become good spellers with no formal spelling lessons, just lots of reading. Would like to have tried your ideas with them for writing. I love the gentleness of it.
Thanks for sharing your many years of experience!
My favorite way to learn grammar is Winston Grammar. You can see it here:
http://www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/index.lasso?page=hits&q=01677
It is grammar in a hands-on format, and it has worked wonders in my homeschool. There are lots of reference books out there, but how do you get it in tasty format for your children, so they can enjoy and learn? Winston Grammar has filled that need splendidly for my family!
My K-5 Journal and Language Arts Program, which I mention in the blog, has those lessons included in it: punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphs, etc. They really do learn best by doing, and writing in their journal daily is the best way to learn to write. You can see it here:
http://www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/index.lasso?page=hits&q=01775
Best success!
Hi Diane,
I couldn't agree more that one of the best ways to learn is by doing. Is there any text you could recommend for learning the rules of grammar, such as an all encompassing reference book that lays it out from simple to difficult? Something that could give you the information to look at a piece of writing from any source and understand the why and wherefore of parts of speech, punctuation, sentence structure, rules of a paragraph with out trying to make it in to an already planned-out lesson?
I used the K-5 journaling program with my 11 year-old daughter (including the yellow-letter tracing trick) starting in Kindergarten. Now I have years and years worth of her stories and drawings and thoughts. We would create spelling lists from her writings, and I have to say, it has worked for her. Now we are starting anew with my 5 year-old son.
Not to go against your post, but we used Spelling Power and have had magnificent results. They use the top some-thousand words that are commonly misspelled. Maybe some of the ideas could help.
First of all you take a placement test to see what level you start on. You don't "study" the word list, but first figure out what words you don't know how to spell from the list by taking a short quiz. Then study the words misspelled. There is a 10-step check list to go through with each word, write it, read it, say it, spell it out loud, etc. The part that I think has had the greatest impact is spelling the word with your finger on some textured surface as you say each letter aloud. Also each word must be used properly in a sentence. This (as well as reading great literature) has greatly increased my children's vocabulary, enhancing their writings. Then the words are added to the next day's list. There are review tests through out each level.
My oldest daughter had a terrible time with spelling. So the words that she missed on the review tests, or if she missed the word more than twice on the daily tests, went onto a separate check list that I incorporated into her daily tests. I made a sheet with a row for each word and columns labeled… spell, spell, skip, spell, skip, skip, spell, skip, skip, skip, spell. Each day a check mark went into each column. If she happened to misspell the word, it went to the end of the list and she had to do the study checklist from Spelling Power. If she had checks all the way across and spelled it correctly on the last day, off the list it went. I know this may sound complicated, but these words really stuck. Even on future quizzes I might throw one in just to see if she could still spell it correctly, and 99% of the time she could.
Don't know if this might help, but maybe some of the prinicples could be applied to the method that works best for you.
Hi Diane,
Thanks for your great posts! Here's my question: for the words that they will transfer to a list to be reveiwed daily, please explain the review process specifically. Look at the word and write it 4 times? Look at the word then hide it and write it once? Don't look at all? Tested…when, how? I'm just not sure of the best way for them to do the daily practice.
Thanks a bunch!!
Valerie
I begin journal writing around age 4, as I teach them to read. It goes hand in hand.
I ask them to dictate a sentence to me that they want to write, and then I write it on wide-lined children's school-spaced paper with a yellow marker or colored pencil. I have them trace over my letters and illustrate what they've written. Day by day, I increase the size of the journal entry. First one sentence, then 2 sentences, then 3. Day by day, they increase in their ability, and also start to recognize the common words. As they do, I leave that space blank and let them write in the "and" or "the" by themselves. As they learn to read, and recognize the words, they learn to write them and spell them too.
It's fun! They are so proud of their Journals!
Rachel,
You ARE what he needs! God didn't give you a child and then change His mind and decide you aren't right for him!
Homeschooling is such a growing, stretching experience. As we pray and struggle to find what is the best educational path for each child, we grow and change and improve ourselves, as teachers. It is a process.
And learning to write well is a process. I would start wherever he is at right now, no shame. And progress step-by-step. I know the public schools graduate children to the next grade before they are ready, but I believe that each child is on his own "grade level" journey, and wherever they are is the right place to start. It seems pretty futile to me to push a child through more advanced work when what he really needs is the basics. So…
Begin by having him write a few sentences, a beginning journal entry, about whatever he wants. It could be about his interests, or what he did yesterday, or anything at all. It could even be: "This is dumb. I'll never learn to write!" That works too! Hee hee.
If you are working on letter formation and penmanship, have him do it by hand. If you are focusing on spelling and sentence structure, then have him type it. It he doesn't know how to type, he is long overdue. My favorite program to learn to type is Typing Instructor Deluxe. See it here: http://www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/detail/typing/0
Once his paragraph of a few sentences is complete, it's time for you to go through with your pencil, marking errors, following the instructions in my blog. Have him make the corrections and form his spelling list. Put his completed work in his journal binder. That's all for today.
Each day, require a little more. Now 2 paragraphs instead of one. Now three paragraphs. Gauge your requirements to meet his needs, and keep him from getting overwhelmed. Trust the system, as he will day by day, little by little, learn to write. As he does, his confidence will grow enormously.
Best success!
Diane
Hello, Diane! I have been struggling with this very subject for my middle child. He has not ever spelled well. I feel like I missed the mark for him and I feel like I am not what he needs. My daughter, who is the oldest, had no problems with spelling, reading or writing, but my son, who is 12 and in the 7th grade, does not spell, read or write very well at all. Anything he has to memorize like times tables are struggles for him. My youngest son, who is in 2nd grade, actually writes and spells better than his older brother. What do you think I ought to do with my middle son? Should I take a step back from his 7th grade curriculum and go back to basics or should I just incorporate your journalling into his curriculum and see where we go from there? This has been such a matter of prayer for me and I just am left feeling that I am not what he needs and I know that's the devil talking but haven't found a solution that works. Thanks.
I was wondering what age you start journal writing at. If I tried it with my 2nd grade son I think he would cry and not spell anything right- he gets very upset if he can't do something perfect and if its not easy and gets flustered even though he might know the words. If I did it with my 1st grade daughter she would love it and although there would be mistakes she wouldn't care. So, what age do you start this?
This post was super helpful – we've been struggling with spelling from day 1 and I just can't seem to find the right resource to help. I'll definitely give this a try.