Spelling counts! That’s my son’s fifth grade teacher’s motto. She believes written work reflects on the student; no spelling errors indicate high quality work. She further believes that we should prepare our children for the higher grades, college or work force. In these environments it is not acceptable to have spelling errors in your work.
Help Spell Words Correctly
As a parent, how do we help our child spell words correctly? My dad told me to look it up in the dictionary – which is great but if you have no idea how to spell the word it’s pretty hard. I try to sound out words with my children but as they get older the words they get stuck on are typically phonetically irregular. Today, our children have numerous websites that offer assistance. My son’s teacher uses the sticky method which I think is a great strategy to help your child learn to spell words correctly.
Spell Correctly Using the Sticky Method
This method forces your child to look at the word to determine which one is spelled correctly. I think this is a fabulous idea. When your child gets stuck on a word, write it 3x’s on a yellow sticky note. Make sure you spell it incorrectly 2x’s and correctly 1x. Ask your child to select the correct spelling by circling it. Children typically misspell the same words, so have a list of commonly misspelled words handy.
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