Spelling!

Now that Reese reads so well, it is about time to start teaching him spelling! Since he was taught phonetics from young, he can spell 3-4 letter words comfortably. So it makes spelling easier for him. Honestly, I do not want to force him to memorize words because it's stressful, boring and eventually they will forget the words when not used.

My strategy was to start with common words that are used frequently in writing and reading. I casually asked him to spell 1-12 and he could spell everything except number eight, seven, eleven and twelve. We repeated the spelling of the words he can't spell and played teacher-student game. We did both orally and in writing ( on the whiteboard). We tackle 2 - 4 words at a time and repeat these words a few times throughout the week. Each time in less than 5 minutes. Every now and then, I will casually dare him to spell words he learned and give him a lot of praises. NO REPETITIVE WRITING ON EXERCISE BOOK for us.

I started this about 3 weeks ago and so far, he has covered numbers 1-12, Sunday-Saturday, the word week and month, January-June and some words that he was interested in.

I realized that because he reads extensively and coupled with his superb memory, he picks up the spelling of many words both partially and completely. It makes teaching spelling easier for me. ;) Just two days ago, he asked me how to spell the word 'delicious' and after 2-3 times of writing the word, he can spell it on his own. Awesome isn't it?

Reese loves to add speech in his drawing. Here he spelled the word 'delicious' on his own.