Homeschool Spelling
When you first think of the subjects your need to cover in your homeschooling curriculum you probably think of the core four, math, English, history, and science. And if you manage to get all these is in a given day, you’re doing pretty well in my opinion. But when it comes to the subject of spelling, most curriculums will offer or recommend a supplement. There a million and one ways to add this to your routine with little or no pain.
The first and most obvious choice is curriculum. There are tons of workbooks out there for spelling on every grade level. Then you can take it a step further with spelling curriculum books. They will add vocabulary list, using the word in a sentence, and a paragraph using every word on the list. Just remember that your child needs to be able to read their alphabet before you start this. I know this seems like an obvious suggestion, but one that really needs to be made in a world that children are starting school at a younger and younger age every year.
Another choice parents often use to add or supplement spelling games. The obvious boxed choices are Scrabble and Boggle, these are by far the two most popular. There are whole list of games with spelling in the title and requires no more than a search engine word search of , “spelling games” to find all the ones out there that have come on the market geared toward improving spelling for children of all ages. I find that these games at the very least provide fun and family time for any one, homeschooling or not. And don’t overlook the option of making up your own game. Using homemade flash cards and matching word sounds with words is just as easy. If your child is writing, include them on making the game. Make a list of words, some correct and some incorrect, let you child write a list of the words spelled incorrectly in their correct spelling. My children have a game to see how long they can go without having spell check catch a mistake.
One choice parents sometimes tend to forget is skip spelling! Teach your children to read and have them read often. This gives them constant exposure to correctly spelled words. Also have them write and correct the spelling in it. This will help identify words your child can’t spell and doesn’t waste time on words they can. Some children do well with drills and list, some don’t. Forcing your child to use a form a learning that causes them stress is possible but much less effective than teaching them in a way that suits their personality. Most children will learn to spell by simply being exposed to the written word and will only require the occasional correction eventually before they learn to spell and spell effective and efficiently.