What's the best, not too much effort thing, I can do to help improve my children's spelling over the summer holidays?

[coodawoodashooda]

Just that. Any book/game/app or anything else recommdations?

Get them to write a diary on each day. Just a few lines. When they hit a word they can't spell practice that one by writing it out a few times. I find a white board and marker handy for that.It doesn't feel such hard work.
Get magnetic letters in lower case. Make words
Eg ..spell cake now make it into bake rake flake etc. Get them to see the connections.
Just a word of consolation. My dh is medically trained and had earned well throughout his life. Still if he leaves a note for me it can say " gone DWON town , back soon" so don't panic. 5 mins a day or twice a day. Make it fun.

Students will still lose marks on GCSE and A-Level if they cannot spell. You said it’s unnecessary in ‘this digital age’ but why then is maths necessary in ‘this digital age?’ Why is vocabulary?

If students think they do not have to spell correctly because they have a spellchecker on their computer they will struggle in written exams. We still have them in uni - and you lose marks if you’re not capable of correct spelling.

Turn on subtitles on the TV?

Thank you so much everyone. They're 7, 9 and 12

That sounds good!

That's a very shortsighted attitude.

@CalistoNoSolo

I'm being the EXACT opposite of shortsighted. I'm focussing on the future skills my DC will need to be successful in the workplace.

Belief me, in the age of generative AI, it won't be spelling. And GCSE grades will have increasingly less relevance.

Honestly, as long as kids can hit the right keys to make the AI spell the word, they are more than fine.

Your children won’t be successful in the workplace if they can’t pass the very basic GCSEs. I mean you need a C at GSCE English to do jobs like work in a nursery or some shops. It doesn’t matter that you think they’re pointless - if you want your kids to advance to further education and get good careers they need to pass GCSEs.

And for what it’s worth, AI just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Say, for example, a person wrote something like ‘belief me.’ A spellchecker wouldn’t pick that up as a mistake, because ‘belief’ and ‘me’ are correctly spelled. However, a person could easily see that it isn’t correct in the context of the sentence it’s been used in.

Lots of mistakes are similar. Many people use ‘then’ when they mean ‘then’ or similar little things. Spellcheckers don’t pick these up as mistakes but they are.

Subtitles is a good idea for some no effort additions.

And then reading and writing generally - preferably in ways that don't feel like a chore. So maybe making a (digital?) scrap book or building a board game and writing out all the rules or whatever.

@Kanaloa

"And for what it’s worth, AI just isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Say, for example, a person wrote something like ‘belief me.’ A spellchecker wouldn’t pick that up as a mistake, because ‘belief’ and ‘me’ are correctly spelled. However, a person could easily see that it isn’t correct in the context of the sentence it’s been used in.*

This bit is interesting, because that's actually one area where word is getting pretty decent now - it's certainly not perfect but it does now pick up the incorrect forms most of the time now and I'd expect it to continue to improve over the next couple of years.

It still doesn't seem to be able to prevent excessive use of "yourself" though, at least in my workplace.

’Then’ when they mean ‘than,’ is what I meant! Draw instead of drawer is another one I often see. But these won’t be picked up by AI because they aren’t ‘wrong.’ They’ll still lose you marks in a piece of uni coursework though! So op is actually being sensible to want her children to be able to spell correctly.

This is total BS, I have read to/with my DC every night for the first 10 years of their lives and whilst their comprehension is amazing, their spelling is still totally shit.

Reading widely is the surest way to create a large and stable vocabulary. It’s not always guaranteed to assist on the pronunciation though!

@WGACA I'm extremely sell read and was able early reader. I Can't spell.

Op... What is their problem with it.

Buy a physical rainbow matt with actual letters. Drum the alphabet in and get them to spell by physically moving letters to make words.

Also drowning in age, first 100 high frequency words.

Yes, some do, don’t they? I’ve also seen an email app, not sure which one, that suggests better/stronger phrases to the writer. It probably also picks up when someone uses the same word repeatedly. Yourself hasn’t made it to my workplace yet thankfully, despite ‘myself’ being really common. As in ‘please send this document back to myself when finished.’

However, my point was more that the poster saying spelling was unimportant as long as a person can use spellcheck/AI had made a mistake in their own post that her AI had clearly not picked up on!

🤣 Well read can't sprog

Do you take turns? Maybe you read two pages, they read one? It helps if they’re actually seeing the words rather than just being read to.

DOH, why didn't I think of that...oh wait I did... and yes it has made no difference. They can read out loud and have reading ages beyond theirs and have been corrected on mispronunciation and tricky words have been discussed all to no avail.

Phonics and literacy specialist teacher here. So here is what works according to evidence based research - explicit teaching, repeated practise and spaced retrieval.

You may need to go back and revisit certain phonic sounds if there are gaps and teach your child to spell each sound, pinching a finger as they hear the sound. Then write it down. Break longer words into syllables. For irregular words they just have to learn them or learn the tricky part of the irregular word.

Reading may help but it won’t improve spelling per if you are a weak speller or struggle with working memory. Children do not learn to spell by osmosis. Explicit instruction is key and that’s where all the research is. Look at the national curriculum spelling lists and reteach using the spelling rules. Fill obvious gaps.

Ignore people telling you to get your child to spell using their ‘learning style’, all debunked rubbish.

Hope that helps.

I would try to make it fun. My daughter used nessy for a while but it may be a bit young for the older ones and it depends what level they are at. Reading each day will help - particularly if you can find something they want to read - it doesn't have to be a book - could be a comic, something online etc - if it gets their interest they are more likely to want to do it themselves. If they have a film, interest or hobby it could relate to that. Board games that involved words- scrabble is an obvious one but there are others - you may even find some in a charity shop - we had a wordsearch game i donated the other day. Would they be interested in puzzle books - at one point my daughter enjoyed a word search, sudoku and other puzzle books. You can get ones aimed at children in places such as the works. Also games such as top trumps - if they have to read out the names of the ones that they are playing they are still reading.

Forgot - hangman. My daughter likes playing it on a train journey. We sometimes have a theme of disney films and use the disney plus app on my phone to think of titles, and my daughter can then see how to spell the words correctly.

One of mine has been taught phonics until blue in the face and still doesn't 'get' it. They are a teenager now and have had years of phonics from me, his grandparents (who were also teachers) and his actual school. They have had far more extra educational input than i would imagine many have had and still gives the blank face when asked about breaking the sounds up.

Well, you’d be surprised. Some parents don’t do it, and just read to their child, since of course swapping back and forth breaks the rhythm/flow of the story. Some parents (some on this thread) genuinely think spelling is unimportant so might not bother letting their child read parts. So it was just a suggestion!

@Kanaloa

Spend 10 minutes looking into new AI tech, as opposed to the spell checker on your phone.

I could spend 5 years, I still wouldn’t find an AI tech spell checker that is used in hand written GSCE exams.