Spelling struggles

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It really isn't a secret, I have shared with you for awhile now that Hunter struggles with spelling. 

The frustrating thing for me has been that the words he struggles with are what one would think were "easy" words.  No other child of mine has struggled this way with words. 

At the risk of sounding like a commercial for Dianne Craft, I will again mention how much her presentation at the Schoolhouse Expo was so revealing for us.  It was like having a window into how Hunter learns!  You can read about that ah-ha moment here.  I really can't wait to hear her speak again this month!  somewhere between the 16th-20th!

I wish I could invite you to listen in on what she has to say live, but the live tickets are all sold out.  I guess I could invite you to hear it live.....  you will just have to come over here to my house.  Let me know if you are coming so I can set up the spare room for you!

Man....  I am easily distracted!  Back to the SPELLING part of the program!

Anyway.... today I decided to use the list of Dolch sight words to see which words Hunter was having the most trouble with.  I read out the Pre-Primer and Primer list of words to him, and made his spelling list only from the words that he has misspelled. 

His list for the next week will be the following words:

• bluy (blue)
• cum (come)
• funy (funny)
• littl (little)
• won (one)
• sed (said)
• too (to)
• tooo (two)

My next job is to take the words and turn them into flashcards.  I will use black for the letters that he has already placed in the word, and we will use a color to highlight the letters that are missed or incorrect.

When I get the cards drawn up I promise I will post some pictures of them for you.  Along with the stories we will make up to help them stick in his brain.  We will take pictures of these words, and spell them forwards and backwards.  ( the whole spelling backwards thing is really amazing to me.... because I can't do it.. AT. ALL.! )

This technique has been such a revelation to me that I really want everyone who has a struggling speller and reader to know about it!!  I really wish you could join the Expo and hear Dianne speak!  Maybe you could get an Expo To Go ticket and listen to her on the MP3's that will be out in June?  I know I am ready to have the MP3 of her last talk... I know I have forgotten some key things she mentioned and it will be real nice to hear it again.  I think the price of 20 bucks is a steal to get some information that could seriously impact your child's learning.

Ok... I need to get out my markers and make these flash cards for Hunter.

I will be back to show them to you when they are done !!