spelling help for 10 yr old boy

[easilyconfusedmum]

Can anyone suggest a course I can do at home with my 10 year old (yr 6) son, whose spelling is unreadable. (eg "encouraging" written as "corigin".) He is having extra help at school, including about to have an ed psych assessment. I suspect he may be dyslexic, but not sure how helpful this diagnosis will be - just want to be able to target his problem areas, rather than stick a label on him.
His reading used to be very weak (reading age of 7 at the start of last year) but is now within normal range, although he still tends to guess and miss words. I took him through a phonics course myself as I felt that this was missing - helped the reading, but not the spelling. I had a bit of a struggle with school to make them realise that he did have a problem, but they are now being very helpful.
The rest of his learning (eg maths, science etc) is fine.
School is doing a course called "fuzzbuzz" with him, but I'd really like to be able to help him at home as well, but don't know where to start. I'd like it to be something fun, and that will boost his confidence - anyone got any ideas? Thank you for anything ....

You want to do Apples & Pears.

It is absolutely the best spelling program out there.

It's not fun - but it teaches spelling.

No advice, but my son (just turned 11) is also a very poor speller. He was a late reader and an assessment at 7 suggested he was border-line dyslexic; however he was reassessed last year and a specific learning difficulty in spelling alone identified (he did not have the other dyslexic indicators). Because he is an avid reader now he has a good vocabulary but his younger brother could spell better than him aged 6. He got patchy learning support at school and I really regret not helping him more at home - I think I'll look into the program mentioned, if I can bear the inevitable resistance from my son.

I'm dyslexic, I'd ask ed psych what they think would work best. For me phonics just don't work all the time, words like 'love' make no sense phonetically so I learnt 'look and say' to read (so so many flash cards) and when I spell I visualise the word in my head, sometimes I have to write it a couple of times until it looks right - I can tell instantly is wrong but sometimes it takes a couple of goes to put it right. Even now at work I use a dictionary - could he not be using one along side his work? Often I know how to start a word but get lost in the middle. I also have a reverse dictionary which is kind of like a thesouaus (sp?) and I still use it. Knowing how to use one quickly and confidently is a skill in its self.

With all these things have a long term view of the real world - what would he need to do to be able to get on in work? Could he use a computer?

As for a label - it may well help you access new strategies to help. Talk about how the spelling is affecting his confidence with school and the ed psych.

Thanks all for this - will definitely try Apples and Pears - and yes, I take your point about the long term view. Once he's through school, this won't matter so much, but a few hurdles to go yet.