If your child asks you how to spell something...

[Fluffymonster]

I was in a school-based reading/writing session with my dd today, which involved reading a book with her, then her writing three sentences to summarise the story.

The teacher mentioned at the start not to worry too much about spelling etc. as long as they get the sounds right. Fair enough.

In working out the sentences though, dd was suddenly unsure of how to spell "woman" as WOMAN or WOMUN and asked me which it was. She got the WO bit correct, and then for the rest, I said "when you say "man", is it muh-ah-nnn, or muh-uh-nnn?" She then worked it out.

I also pointed out to her that she had written "g" backwards a couple of times, and reminded her that "g" and "y" sits on the line, with their 'tails' hanging down below. They were 'floating', which she does habitually. In general her writing is good - neat, good spelling, good spacing of the letters, letters fairly even in size. So I was giving her constructive feedback on areas she could easily improve on, I thought.

At the end the teacher came over and had a look, and asked dd if she did it by herself, or if mummy helped her. Dd said she had a bit of help from me, so I explained where I had given my input. The teacher reiterated not to worry too much about spelling as it's far more important that they get the sounds right. Slightly slapped wrist I felt.

Well, I know, but I didn't just give her the answer, I prompted her to sound it out - was I wrong to even 'prompt'?

So next time do I just shrug, even if dd's asking me a question? I have to say if she spells something incorrectly and I'm sat there, I can imagine myself getting the urge to do what I did again - why is it not the done thing? And with the letters sitting on the line - well, it's practice isn't it, if she's not reminded to look at the position of the letters, how is she going to learn to remember?

For mrz.
alphabeticcodecharts.com/One_side_ACC_with_IPA_symbols.pdf
Check out the mention of the shwa and it's plausible phonic substitution 'uh' or 'u'. Hence the 'u' in the phonetically produced 'wemun'.
The second phonetic symbol down is the /er/ sound, shown substituted for the simple phonic 'e'. Hence the 'e' in 'wemun'.
Hope that answers your question regarding one of my previous posts.
Spelling errors come in all shapes, guises and sizes.

I'm lolling my socks off at your eclectic mix of arrogance, ignorance and rudeness.
Helpful of you to have derailed the post, too. Bet the OP appreciates it.
FYI I'm a dyslexia assessor, primary school teacher and taught TEFL for 8 years prior to teaching and assessing.
Oh, and you're embarrassing yourself since you are actually wrong.

Perhaps you should read what you wrote them MummaBubba

MummaBubba123 Sun 09-Jun-13 21:50:59

^"If you asked a child who typically spelled unknown words phonetically, they are likely to produce 'wemun' since the 'short e vowel' is the closest sound in the phonics that theud habe learned to the shwa sound representing the 'o'"

I don't understand the problem. Child asks parent, parent informs child, child uses and remembers. Or child asks parent, parent pretends not to know, and despite reading specialists arguing about it till the cow comes home, the child still hasn't found out and doesn't use it and remember. It's a very topsy turvy way of going about things.

and then read what I wrote yesterday

mrz Thu 06-Jun-13 19:36:21

"The teacher mentioned at the start not to worry too much about spelling etc. as long as they get the sounds right."

and the OP helped her child hear the sounds in the word woman where the letter is a schwa so the only way she can get the sounds right is by precise pronunciation which is exactly what the OP did

Have you read what you wrote MummaBubba ?

MummaBubba123 Sun 09-Jun-13 21:50:59

"If you asked a child who typically spelled unknown words phonetically, they are likely to produce 'wemun' since the 'short e vowel' is the closest sound in the phonics that theud habe learned to the shwa sound representing the 'o'"

Euph, woman isn't pronounced 'wemun' BUT since its often pronounced /w/ /short-'oo'/ /m/ /shwa/ /n/, the 'short-oo' is often misrepresented as 'u' and the 'shwa' is often written by pupils with an 'e'.
It's not a short 'e' vowel sound that they're trying to represent. Think that's some of the confusion here.
Getting a bit pointless and boring, though - no?
I think it's lost the train of thought that the OP was on - in pursuit of intellectual masturbation, too. Never a good look! Lol

Nighty night.
Xx

but the letter isn't the schwa in 2woman" as you keep insisting the letter is the schwa the represents the sound /oo/ as in son, won, come, some ... woman it isn't an unusual word Wuphemia (but women is )

"woman" not 2woman"

oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/woman

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/phonemic-chart

sorry Euphemia

"Euph, woman isn't pronounced 'wemun' BUT since its often pronounced /w/ /short-'oo'/ /m/ /shwa/ /n/, the 'short-oo' is often misrepresented as 'u' and the 'shwa' is often written by pupils with an 'e'."

MummaBubba your own description doesn't even match what you keep writing, even in the same sentence!