For those of you with 8 year olds, how is their spelling?

[Linnet]

My dd is 8, in primary 4 and to be honest her spelling is appalling.

We get two parents evenings a year and since the end of primary 2 beginning of primary 3 I've mentioned to the teacher my concerns about dd's spelling in how that she still spells words phonetically. She'll spell night as nite and walk as wok etc. The teachers have always said not to worry about it as it will come to her eventually. But when we had parents evening a couple of weeks ago the first thing the teacher mentioned was her spelling.

Dd has a word book at school that she can ask the teacher to write a word in if she's not sure how to spell it but she's reluctant to do this for some reason. I suggested to the teacher that maybe she was a bit shy about going out to her but the teacher said that the other children do this and it's not as if she'd be the only one going out asking for help.

I'm now annoyed as for the past 2 years the teachers have been fobbing us off with "oh it will come" but it's obviously not and after the summer holidays she goes into primary 5 and she really does have to get on top of her spelling. The odd thing is the class has a spelling test every Friday which dd always manages to get at least 18 out of 20 words correct.

It's really starting to get to me as for homework she gets 6 words to copy out and then make up sentences using the words and she spends ages making up the sentences just for us to go through them all and correct all mis-spellings.

Does anyone elses child have this problem? Is the teacher right in saying that it will eventually come to her or is dd just being lazy?

advice needed please

dd is 9 with a reading age of around 14 and is a crap speller, but them so am I so I shouldn't be surprised.

Try not to worry, there are worse things I can't spell and I even went to uni

Just as an aside, don't correct all her errors, if there are lots. In the end you just give up and feel overwhelmed and that you will never get it right. Only correct a few at a time.

Hmmm my dd is 8 year 3. Sometimes her 5 year old sister has better spelling.
Here is an example .....
Harry Potter Hogwart School griffendor slyvirin huffle-puff ravenclaw of wichcraft an wizzadry

we need more frendship then ever

dear sirs some we need to talk face to face keep your friends close harry.
P.S the bird bites

ah ah, the last page is all ok, minus any punctuation at all.
She doesnt seem to understand how to use speak marks properly..
so theres some comparison for you, this was a book she made this morning BTW complete with pictures.

Yes dd makes books as well Charliecat and the spelling is similar. Friend will be spelt frend, witch would be wich.

The funny thing is her reading is ok. I worried about that for ages as well but it's has suddenly improved and she can read no problem it's only the spelling.

MB if I don't help her to correct her spelling the teacher just points it out when marking her homework and Dd doesn't seem to be paying any attention to that either.

Oh and punctuation is a bit hit and miss as well. Have to remind her to use capital letters and full stops etc the teacher said to us at the parents evening to keep reminding her of these.

she sounds just like my dd. I wouldn't worry too much, particularly if she reads for pleasure

Dd had a reading age of 12 at 7, whatever that means and she reads half a book a night sooooo, hopefully she should pick up some spelling there :) I have tried to explain how important it is, and said look at my mail from the bank etc, imagine it was all spelt wrong, some people might read it as one word and others as another. Thats WHY we spell things properly...in one ear out the other.
The teacher informs me that sometimes she wants them to concentrate on spelling/grammar other times content bla de bla...but I would expect them to be doing both at the same time..???

My son is 8 as well (Primary 4) and his spelling isn't too bad. And it's improved recently as his school has a new headteacher who is very keen on good spelling so the emphasis on it has increased with daily spelling tests and homework.
For what it's worth, my mum found some old school jotters of mine from when I was about 8 and my spelling was absolutely appalling and it's imho reasonably good now, so there is hope :)
P.S. That homework your dd gets with the 6 words to be copied and the sentences to be made up sounds horribly familiar.

She has started reading for pleaseure although likes to be read to at bedtime.

I know I'm probably over reacting and it will just all come together in the end but it can be so stressful doing the homework sometimes.

With her moving up after the summer I'm really worried that she'll get left behind a bit when it comes to spelling etc. The teacher only has so much time to spend on a subject in class and there are 30 children in her class, I'm worried about her falling behind and losing any confidence that she has if things move to quickly.

Are you in Scotland Bogwoppit?

Charliecat I have no idea of Dd's reading age I did ask about it last year but was never told, I think they were supposed to be having some sort of test to find out. I just wanted to know out of curiosity.

my dd1 is 8.7 and reads for pleasure . she started a new school today and the first thing she said was the teacher told her she was to advanced for her year , i think she is the eldest in her cless but i know she reads alot and enjoys it so i know she is quite ahead. regarding her spelling she is ok but lazy sometimes. when writing she knows what she means so it makes sense to her but when reading she has to try harder to read properly as it wont makes sense iykwim?

im proud regardless. we are big readers in the house though.

when i get time

Hmm, I don't think we do SATS in Scotland. They do some sort of test towards the end of the year but they aren't called SATS.

The teacher actually told us about the reading test that dd had sat a couple of weeks before parents evening and how she had passed it, and it was really hard apparently. I told the teacher that Dd had mentioned this and if I hadn't I'm not entirely sure if the teacher would even had mentioned it.

dd is 10 and sounds similar - REALLY REALLY bad spelling, great reader, great imagination, creates reams of 'stuff' at home. I just thank god she lives in an age of computers and spell check etc, because you know when the spelling tests are over and they are living in the real world if this remains their handicap as far as i can see they will be able to organise their lives in such a way that it has very little impact.

Oooh that's embarassing - I've just noticed I spelt your name wrong, Linnet and after me saying how much my spelling had improved.

My 9 yr old son gets about 90% on his spelling tests so you'd think his spelling was OK. But when it comes to writing something in anger it goes out the window, along with punctuation and any pretence at legible hand-writing. I think that the enthusiasm to get things down on paper sometimes gets in the way of neatness. Is this the case for your dd?

BTW I have a similar gripe to you re the way things are fine, OK, not a problem, don't worry, one year, and then the next all of a sudden... your child has a problem!! We had this in year 4 but i think that is down to individual teachers having different expecations. Don't have a solution btw...sorry, but you're not alone.

Arrrggggh! For most children spelling has to be taught. It's not just something that will be 'picked up'. Your teacher is talking nonsense. Spelling phonetically is usual at that age, and those mistakes are pretty good guesses. For many children unless spelling is taught in a multisensory it's just not remembered.