Don’t skip the fundamentals of spelling…phonics and syllables!
| 1st Grade, 6th Grade, spelling | 0 Comments
It is a commonly held belief that learning phonics helps children become better readers, spellers, and writers. Phonics are usually taught early on, in kindergarten and first grade, as the student is beginning to learn to translate spoken English to written English. Since my child is an accomplished reader, I thought we were past worrying about phonics. But I am beginning to rethink this, because she is still not a very good speller. Did I mention that she is entering sixth grade? This may be something she struggles with for her entire life. And I think I know where the problem began.
I pulled my daughter out of public school midway through first grade and began home schooling. Because I did not want to buy a full year’s curriculum for first grade since she had already done half of it in public school, I began her in second grade work. She had no trouble with that work, at all, and so I thought that we were home free. As she continues to have problems with spelling, I am beginning to wonder if she missed something fundamental during that half year of work she didn’t get exposed to.
Looking at some of the stuff that would have been covered in that half year, I discovered that continued work with phonics, and breaking words into syllables, or segmenting, occurred during that time. Around fourth grade I tried to have her go back and work on the phonics but honestly it is like that ship has sailed. She knows that work is for younger students and feels like I am treating her like a baby.
She does not sound words out, but she has a phenomenal memory. She can tell me if a word is spelled incorrectly, but she cannot tell me the correct spelling, though she will recognize it if given the correct spelling.
Since I cannot go back and solidify her knowledge of phonics at this stage, we are practicing other methods of improving her spelling. We have been doing word ladders for some time, and they do a good job of exploring word families. And of course, I have her play spelling games, using word lists from her other subjects. I’ve even found a primary science syllables game that lets her practice breaking science words into syllables. I have hope that this type of practice with science and other words will reinforce her ability to break words into syllables, and thereby learn to spell better.
I guess the basic lesson here for parents is…don’t skip the fundamentals, even if your child seems bored. The extra practice, solidifying the knowledge up front, might save you from having to play catch up at a later time.






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