Does your child struggle to spell? Are some children just bad at spelling?
There’s little doubt that some children have a learning issue that affects how they spell.
Some simply don’t read enough and therefore might struggle to ‘code’ spellings, while others might have missed out on learning phonics in primary school
The truth is, spellings are both visual and auditory. That means that you cannot simply rely on sound in order to spell a word.
Yet understanding how some words can be broken down into patterns of sound can hugely help you spell better.
That’s why we have a few lighthearted activities for you to grapple with to make spellings easier… First:
Sound Out Spellings
Spellings can sometimes be confusing as the same letter combo can sound different.
For instance, the vowel phoneme ‘ear’ can sound and be spelt differently if you meet a bear with a pink beard drinking beer! Yet bear rhymes with air, but is spelt differently.
Meet and beer have the long vowel phoneme I in them and yet sound different.
And words with the long A sound such as rain can also be spelt as rein or reign. Or that long A sound can be spelt ‘ay’ as in play. Now we’re down a rabbit hole!
So, look at words, group them into sounds to keep them in context too.
Challenge:
Group together words which have:
- oi (oil) and oy (employ)
- oo (loo) ue (blue) ew (stew)
- ow (cow) and ou (sound)
Never forget there’s always an exception to the rule in the English language. <Rolls eyes>
While you’re feeling chirpy with your ew, oo and eu words, the truth is that you can always snaffle soup or fruit waiting in a queue…
Know Your Homophones
A homophone is a word which sounds the same but is spelt differently and has a different meaning:
Leak/leek, Which/witch, Ewe/You, Hymn/him, Pore/paw, whole/hole, beech/beach etc.
Challenge:
Encourage your child to draw cartoons or create funny sentences with correct spellings.
The leeks leaked everywhere… You look like that shaggy ewe! Take a peek at all those frosty-looking mountain peeks. I just spotted the largest toad being towed away…
Try these ones:
- Where/wear
- Stair/stare
- Knight/night
- Beech, beach
Combat Spelling Struggles Today
These are just two activities to dispel spelling worries that drag students down at school.
But what if your child needs more support to untangle their spelling confusion?
Here at 1-2-1 Home Tutors we have an extraordinary team of spelling and literacy specialists who can teach your son or daughter strategies to improve their written accuracy – while raising their confidence too.
Whether you’re in Manchester, Cheshire or further afield, just call us or email to have an initial chat.
There’s no obligation. Sometimes, it’s just so lovely to speak to someone else who understands…
Image courtesy of DrawingsOf.com
Tags: exception, homophones, literacy tuition at primary school, phonics, written accuracy