Hey, before I talk about speling, let me just tell you that I'm about to hit the roed with the hole family on a speaking loop down threw Nashville, 10/14; Knoxville, 10/15; Pell City (Alabama), 10/16; Wilmer (Alabama), 10/17; Panama City (Florida), 10/18; Pinellas Park (Florida), 10/20; Naples (Florida), 10/21; Geneva (Florida), 10/22; Jacksonville (Florida), 11/1; and Charleston (South Carolina), 11/3. Boy, if you're neer any of those locassions and you need a shot in the arm, reminding you about what's most important, then plan to be there. All the evnts listed are homeschool events (except the one in Pell City) and are sure to make you lauf and be encouraged. Check out this link for location and times. 

Now back to the speling thing. You know my wife has tried all kinds of different helps . . . from word lists to Sequential Spelling. But my theory is that those curriculms only highlight good and bad spellers. Trueth is, I have good spellers and bad spellers at my house, and after working through spellin programs, the good spellers are "gooder" and the bad spellers are only slightly less bad.

Actually, I'm one of the bad spellers. I can memorize the words, write the words, rewrite the words, learn cute little tricks . . . and I still can't spell them. My wife and dauwter can see a word once and remember it for the rest of their lives. I can check and recheck my work and still can't see mispleled words . . . AND I'M A WRITER! (Praize the Lord for proofreaders.)

So, go easy on your non-spellers. Give them the lists, teach them the tricks, and then love them when they still can't spel worth a dime.

And of coarse . . . be reel,

Tod

P.S. My good-spelling daughter, Katherine (14), recently wrote and published a book called A Girl's Guide to Tea Parties. She loves having tea parties, and my wife, well . . . not so much. So Kat did all the planning, craft ideas, and creative work and put them in a book featuring one tea party theme a month (12 in all). Not only will you love the tea party book (because you won't have to do anything), but your daughter will also love it because it's all there for her, tried and tested. Click here to order your own copy of A Girl's Guide to Tea Parties. 

Ruth Beechick, Curriculum Specialist 

and

Debbie Strayer, Homeschool Consultant  

When my learning-disabled daughter was learning how to read, Dr. Beechick's approach to making reading simple and bite-size fit her perfectly. There weren't many word parts to learn, just a few at a time that she used immediately to read words. Her slow but steady progress encouraged us both. When it came time to learn how to spell though, I started teaching her with a schoolish approach: lists to memorize with weekly tests of similarly constructed word groups. Though she could memorize the words in the short term, I noticed that this learning didn't transfer over to her writing. It was then that I turned to Dr. Beechick for help with spelling.

Dr. Beechick gives several methods for teaching spelling, and though all of them were beneficial, the most effective for my daughter was when she made her own spelling dictionary, entering three to five words a week that she misspelled in her writing. She used a black and white composition notebook and had two to three pages for each letter in the alphabet. She didn't alphabetize the words, she just added them to the list for that letter. Whenever she wrote, she used her personal dictionary. If she wanted to add a word to her dictionary, she would ask me how to spell it, I would put it on a sticky note, and she would add it to her notebook. We made word banks for writing about a topic or a book that she was reading. She would put the word bank lists in her personal dictionary. This made her more independent because she knew where to find the words she needed.

If I saw several words in the spelling dictionary that followed the same pattern, we would do a little spelling lesson to go over that pattern. Over time, she didn't have to look the words up every time she wanted to use them; she would actually be able to picture them on the page in her dictionary and write them. We kept her dictionary by the table and used this easy method of review: During lunch, she would pick a letter and I would ask her how to spell several words from that page of her dictionary. I would choose some easy and some hard words, and she enjoyed the challenge. The gradual and frequent repetition really helped build her confidence.

Ashley always loved writing and wanted to be a writer from the time she was very young. She always had such good ideas I didn't want her spelling difficulties to slow her down. Her learning disability could have kept her from her dreams, but through God's grace, her determination, and Dr. Beechick's methods, she grew and developed as a writer. Now she is 25, and her third book will be published this year. God does truly always make a way!

~ Debbie