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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Correcting 4.5yr old with spelling?

9 replies

lolalotta · 26/05/2014 13:33

So my DD 4.5yrs old (due to start reception in September) has just drawn a picture of a bird and written "bud" for bird on it. Am I supposed to correct her or not with the spelling? Would love to hear your opinions! Thank you!

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josuk · 26/05/2014 13:39

No - spelling phonetically is what they are expected to do now and for most of Reception. Later on inReceptionthey will start with spellings of high frequency words and so on.

Good job with "bud"!!

NaturalBaby · 26/05/2014 13:40

I read back my 4yr old's writing - phonetically sounding out each letter he's written. For bird I would tell him the i and r go together to make the sound 'ir' and repeat a few times using other words with the same sound in it like girl, dirt.

17leftfeet · 26/05/2014 13:42

I think it depends on the child

If you think they will take it as you think it's wrong and get upset by it then don't correct

thegreylady · 26/05/2014 14:05

No he has done really well with'bud' praise the effort :)

nonicknameseemsavailable · 26/05/2014 17:00

my 2 have always asked if their spelling was correct so in that case I would have to be honest and say that their phonetic spelling was excellent but that we actually spelt the word...

freetrait · 26/05/2014 20:52

No, not until they have learnt "ir" and then you could gently point out that that is the sound used- I would do this for DD now towards the end of YR, but wouldn't have done it before now, and only now with caution...

Original poster

lolalotta · 27/05/2014 09:38

Thank you so much for your thoughts, I'm just going to let her get on with it for the time being with plenty of praise I think!

OP posts:

mathanxiety · 29/05/2014 23:36

Correct your own pronunciation. Make sure you speak very clearly, and read to her a lot with your finger running under the lines as you read.

FinDeSemaine · 31/05/2014 21:11

You could just ask her if she would like to know the grown up spelling for the word. She might say no thanks, which is fine. When DD was that age, I used to praise her for a really good effort and then ask if she'd like to know how grown ups spell that sound in that word. Sometimes she was interested, sometimes completely not! She's a great speller now and most importantly, a confident and prolific writer who has no problem with just giving a hard word a try whether or not she 'knows' how to spell it.

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