Dd's spelling

[sunnymum77]

My daughter is un Year 4 and doing fine, but I am so stressed about her spellings! She can learn them for tests and get them all right, but when she writes, they are all over the place and she makes them up! Often simple words like "had", she'"" add an "e" at the end sometimes, or spell "which" as "wich". It's very erratic and I wonder when she'll be able to write with correct spellings!! Is this normal? Thanks

I invariably suggest the same resource to help with spelling difficulties. And it is important for a student to try to UNDERSTAND how spelling works:

An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section - the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary, For more information search ‘Phonics’ and my name.

Are her spellings corrected in school or simply left?

They are corrected - i know that when she's less tired she spells better. I'm sure that at that age I was checking before writing a word i didn't know. The more I nag her about it the more it turns her off.

The random e on the end of words!
DD2 used to do this all the time.
I found her spelling really frustrating as DD1 could spell brilliantly.
DD2 struggled with spelling all through primary - not helped by the school only marking some spellings wrong and not others!
She is now in year 8 and her spelling has started to improve. She goes to a spelling club at school once a week as well.
It is nothing to do with intelligence as she is at a grammar school.
Keep working at it, she'll get there eventually!

But the word you said she makes mistake is not the words she doesn't know. Can she correct herself?
My ds makes silly mistakes, but he can correct himself.
What I do is, when my ds writes something at home, I ask him to read it to me, or he just wants to anyway. Then he corrects his mistake hen he sees it. I am not worried.

The words he isn't sure, he uses electronic dictionary to check his spelling. It's worth it.( cost about £40) Easy to use, and loads of other useful functions.( Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Spell check)

I would have loved it if DD had been able to self correct.
Me " how do you spell had?"
DD " h..a..d"
Me " Then why have you written HADE!!!!!!"
All...the...time.
Which, witch were always muddled and misspelled as well.
We decided to remember that witch had a T in it as the witch liked to drink tea!