Early Writing and Correcting Spelling???

[MrsSpoon]

My DS1 is 6.5 and in his second year at Primary School. He has started trying to write down the words he is forming in his head. His School follows the Jolly Phonics scheme, I notice in the little book the School sent home that his spelling should be corrected (with the theory that noticing mistakes isn't a failure but rather a good thing) but I'm not sure about this very early spelling as almost all the words are wrong, I think it would knock his confidence to have me correct them all.

He is spelling things exactly as they sound so "put" is "poot" etc, etc. His teacher hasn't commented when his homework has been handed back with all this weird and wonderful (and it is wonderful, I love it, tears rolling down my face reading it) spelling.

Should I be gently proding him about the spellings or should I leave things a bit longer until he gets more confidence and starts to realise himself that he is not spelling words correctly?

Mrs. Spoon - thanks; I knew it was late... I said I would do it and then completely forgot...

Catflap - I'd like to help dd with her spelling. What should I buy?

Up to now she's been on ORT. She finished the set books for infants some time in Yr 1 and now is on a set of 'free readers'.

Thanks.

Hi there - the Phonics Handbook from Jolly Learning and maybe also their word book which has losts of words collected under those with same spellings for sounds.

The Handbook is £20 but there are a couple on ebay and it's always worth checking there for bargains, however, it will be well worth your money. The Handbook contains photocopiable sheets for introducing the sounds and letters but I have never used those - I use the pictures as sound references and then make my own resources which are as simple as displaying the spelling alternatives under the pictures, and also using some of the games at the back.

It will give you a good introduction to the philosophy and how to follow through the work. The shops have many other resources available for home use, although many are geared more toward reading. For spelling, you need to introduce the spelliig alternatives and show words which use them and also give some rules for knowing which to choose in writing. For this, the wordbook will be great.

HTH.

Mrs Spoon - your ds sounds similar to mine...we also have the made up stories, In his news book ds wrote that we had been swimming (true) and his little sister had drowned in the deep end and the lifeguard had to drain the pool (not even the tiniest bit true!)