Teaching Spelling | There Is A Better Way

When I first began homeschooling my children I was adamant about one thing – my kids were going to improve their spelling. The older kids were not what I considered to be great or even good spellers. I learned that spelling wasn’t a priority and that students were simply being allowed to spell as they thought the words should be spelled.

Ummm… no. I never really liked that idea.

Mommy Knows Best

So as a new homeschooler I made it my mission to improve their spelling. Drastically. I set out to teach spelling the way I learned in school in the form of weekly lists and tests. I found lists online easy enough and set to task.

Each week we started with a pretest to get an idea of how many words they knew and did not know. Then we practiced throughout the week and retested on Fridays. It was easy enough.

The problem was, a week or two later words they had learned to spell were still showing up incorrectly in their work. The reality was that I hadn’t really taught them anything. They simply had worked with the set of words enough to have a basic memory of them. Enough to pass a test and move on.

What I hadn’t been able to do was teach them to spell.

Finding A New Program

This led me to change up our approach to Language Arts and English skills in general. I found a program that was based on rules. Spelling rules and parts of speech rules and reading rules.

And while I enjoyed the program and the methodology the kids did not.

Worse, we found ourselves in the same situation as we had before. Skills and rules were not being learned, not truly learned that is. The kids were doing great during the week a new rule or a new task was assigned. Their work was great. The followup tests and evaluations were as well.

But just as before, a few weeks later much of the material was simply forgotten.

At this point, I also had an emergent reader coming up. We worked on phonics and sight words and sounding things out. We worked on reading and spelling together because I truly thought the two went hand in hand.

But I was concerned. I was worried that I needed to find something else, something better. I needed to change how I thought of spelling and forget how I learned it. How I learn is different than my children, and with three kids to homeschool, there are differences there. I knew a “cookie-cutter” or assembly line approach to spelling wasn’t going to cut it. I knew there had to be something else out there. Something better.

Something that would help me teach a skill that I was adamant my children learn.

So I again went to the drawing board. I started researching companies. And asking fellow homeschoolers. I started reading blog post after blog post and jumped at anything related to spelling.

Why Is Spelling So Important To Me

I know we live in a digital age. And I know spell check and editing programs can fix a multitude of errors. But I truly believe that spelling is an important foundational item, a building block to a great education.

The English language is too tricky and too complex to simply leave up to a program and hope that you get it right. There are too many opportunities for errors, for wrong words to let that simply be what we use.

And all the programs in the world won’t help you when all you have is a piece of paper and a pencil and need to write and write well.

For me, this was simply too important to give up on.

So I kept looking, kept reading, and kept learning. Until I kept coming back to one company in particular. One company that approached spelling in such a unique way that it had me intrigued.

Let Me Introduce You To Spelling You See

 

Yup, you read that right, Spelling You See. Their approach to teaching and learningspelling is different than anything I found anywhere.

 

 

This program gives you permission to ditch the standardized spellings list and memorization of weekly spelling words… along with the tears and frustrations that often accompany them. They encourage you to view reading and spelling levels individually rather than combined because these are two different skills.

And most important, they encourage students to try. To simply try daily, complete what they can, and move on.

I was intrigued, to say the least. This was something I wanted to try for my family and see if it worked.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone in my quest to find the right fit. Between the information available on the website and the helpful representative I was put in contact with I was able to place my 2nd grader in the level that both myself and the rep felt was the best fit.

The program arrived over our Christmas break and I was excited! I opened the box and started looking at the contents. We received two student workbooks, an instructor’s handbook, a guide to handwriting, and a set of erasable colored pencils. I read through the instructor’s handbook and browsed the student workbooks. Then I asked my son if he wanted to try a lesson…

He did not.

And since the program recommends that you keep the lessons upbeat (page 17 of the instructor’s handbook) I figured we would wait until the break was over to start.

A New Approach To Spelling

In January, when we resumed our homeschool lessons we added two pages of Spelling You See to our daily work. At first, my son really was not interested. He disliked the idea of the program, and the nursery rhymes that each lesson contained. But, we made it through day one.

And day two.

And the day after that as well. We wrapped up week one without much fuss, and even though he claimed he didn’t enjoy it, he was completing the lessons quickly and easily.

Week two brought on a new rhyme to work with as well as a new vowel sound. The daily lessons were simple enough and I referenced the instructor’s guide repeatedly making sure we weren’t missing any steps.

One day, during week three I arrived home from a quick errand to find him sitting at the table working on his student workbook independently. He had decided to surprise me with two completed pages.

What Makes Spelling You See Different?

For me, I found that the emphasis on repetition to be the key to this program. Every week we work on a rhyme and that rhyme is not only read but part of it is written out as well. While it may seem a bit mundane, this is the key to the program and was key to our decision to try it out.

The other part of the program that found to be worth checking out is in the instructor’s handbook. Page 16 of this handbook emphasizes the importance of handwriting skills and the ability of a student to write letters without thinking about them. Developing this muscle memory comes from repetition and from simply learning to write letters without thinking about them.

Much like how you type on a keyboard or play an instrument.

This understanding led us to spend a lot of time using the Guide To Handwriting. This laminated sheet allowed my son to spend a ton of time writing and working on forming letters yet to him it was fun and didn’t seem a lot like boring school work. In just a few short weeks. I have seen my son become more confident in his ability to consistently rite letters without thinking about which way they curve, or how to start them. By focusing on proper letter formation and developing the muscle memory, we are freeing up space in his mind to focus on how to spell because how to write is being cemented in his brain and in his hands.

From My Homeschool To Yours

We have been working with Spelling You See for five weeks and this is a program I would highly recommend. Whether you have a beginning writer who needs to learn how to properly form their letters or an older student who is struggling with the complexities of rules and exceptions, this program offers a level that is right for them.

But don’t just take my word for it. Check out their website or give them a call. Break free from old-fashioned and outdated spelling programs, tears and frustrations associated with spelling lists and memorization, and programs that mix reading and spelling. Try a new approach, one that fosters confidence and skill building and encourages your child to succeed in a fun and easy to understand way.

(Some images in this post are from https://www.spellingyousee.com/ and used with permission.)