How to help my child in spelling

[swpf]

Hi all. My girl is k2 this year. She attends church kindergarten where she learns jolly phonics and she has I can read enrichment 1/week. Her reading improves but not her spelling. She scored badly on her weekly spelling test at I can read. She has a problem, she can only remember words which she learns within that day, and not those in the past, not even the day before. Has anyone encountered this? How should I help her? Not too sure if the pace at i can read is too fast for her. Should i send her to montessori to learn phonics? I am worried coz she is going to pri 1 next year and she can’t even spelling simple words.

[laughingcat]

Hi swpf,


Most likely your gal’s phonics foundation is not there yet. You can test her out. Does she knows the simple phonics rules yet? Does she knows how to differentiate what is first, middle and last sounds? If she is not ready, not surprising even though Kindy is teaching coz most likely they don’t cover the whole thing. If this is the case, I suggest that you quickly run through the Jolly Phonics again and use Phonics Readers as a guide for intensive phonics practising. I don’t think you should explore another new thing again as this might cause confusion to your gal.

My boy learns Jolly Phonics and Montessori Phonics, all taught by me. Initially he does spelling on his own at the end of nursery level. In Jolly Phonics books, there are spelling list as well. If he doesn’t knows the 2 vowels sounds, I will do the action without sounding it for him. I also use the ICR book to test him out as I have the books but we do not attend the ICR. So at K1, he has spelling at his CC and it was such a breeze. Hope this helps.

[tamarind]

Hi swpf,

I agree with laughingcat. I suggest that you spend more effort practicing phoncis with your gal at home.

Try the resources in my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

Let her play with http://www.starfall.com, an excellent website for learning phonics.

If a child has a good foundation in phonics, spelling will be very easy for her.

[swpf]

Thanks all. However i do not know phonics, will I teach her the wrong stuffs?

Actually she started icr on thinking and creative program. A few months in the program, her teacher said she is ready to go for the icr level, which is what she is doing now. I didnt expect the pace is too fast for her. So should i withdraw her from icr or let her continue? Or should i let her re-do the program?

[laughingcat]

Oh dear.....I am so sorry I am not able to advise you further whether your gal should continue with ICR :scared:


But what I can suggest is that you can quickly learn the phonics from starfall like what Tamarind has advised earlier. And don't worry so much about spelling. I believe as the child reads more will be able to do spelling.....I suppose so.

[Joeyz18]

i think that is your girl’s phonics is not strong engh, brush up on her phonics skills and it couls help her alot in breaking down the words in spelling out and reading and writting out. my son had been attending phonics since 4yrs old and his spelling is superb. He is currently in P1 could learn all the 10 spellings within 10 mins.


and its seems like like ICR is not helping your kid at all…

[genmai]

Hi swpf,


Did your dd skip the PRP level before going to ICR 1 year program? PRP is important as it covers blending and only when this is mastered will they be promoted to ICR program.

The pace in ICR program is very fast and the spelling is a killer. My K2 dd (and I) struggled initially with the spelling list as it's very difficult for her to remember the spelling words given. She may be phonetically correct but still a wrong spelling. However in term 3 now, she got used to it and has no problems studying for spelling both for ICR and kindy.

You may wish to speak to your dd's teacher to voice your concerns and see how they can help you. You've paid good money and they should be concerned if your dd is having issues with catching up their program.

[genmai]

double post

[burp]

My son learns (or not) his spelling lists himself. Sometimes, the spelling worksheets come back and I have to sign. Once, he was given the sentence, "We should be ______ to our parents." He filled in the word ‘failure’. Obviously hadn’t been studying. (Answer is ‘filial’.) Or did the teacher pronounce badly?

[MMM]

Hi,


My K2 learns her spelling fairly fast. We usually use phonics to breakdown the words for her. I would sound out and she will decode and remember that way. She completed her phonics program at Jan & Elly and is currently doing her lcentral program. But I agree that retention is a challenge as I think she probably retains 70% of what she learnt. I feel that 100% is achievable through revision however unfortunately, we do not have so much time given that I have 2 older kids.

My 2nd child used to be a challenge for me when he was K2… He would learn and forget the next minute. We almost vomit blood teaching him. Fortunately he picked up in P1 and is doing fine now.