Emergent spelling - do they still do it? Just found DS2's Y1 History book and it is hilarious

[WendyWeber]

No idea why these are in History, but the spelling is ingenious (he was 5½ at the time)

This is Bonfire Night - as presented:

"I went to Bed
good time wen I got Home I was tiyed
I saw lots of Bonfiyes it was
I went to the casuw fiey and"

No idea why it's written from the bottom up.
(casuw fiey = castle fire)

Then there was a drawing at the bottom - ah, this is history:

"He is bloing up the Hawsis of Parliament"

(I suspect Parliament was written on the board... )

Then we have

"Things my teacher does in scool

She ritse
She checse Things
She wucse with chopse
She taycks us a wand the school
She tctchis us
She dus the redJist
She puts the sine on the door
She dus pe rith us"

Some of those words were corrected - school, checks, teaches, sign and with.

He can spell properly now, but I believe emergent spelling is a bone of contention in education? My older kids would do a drawing, tell the teacher what it was, the teacher would write it out and they would then copy what she'd written. By the time DS2 went they had moved over to this but I've no idea what they're doing now (different staff anyway).

Ds2 is at this stage now - it's magic, I love it. His teachers do correct some of his words - I believe the thinking is that too many corrections are disheartening so they just pick a couple out to practise. But on the whole they encourage them just to get their ideas down on paper - with not too much emphasis on getting the spelling right. It was the same with ds1 and he can spell pretty well now.

Ds1 used to send emails to his friend - I printed them off and kept them. 2002, so he was 5.

Here's one...

sacyoo for comig to are hars it was very playt of you

iM sorweey abart this eemeyll and the raytig beecos my mum had to wosh her hrer

I like this one...

ive wotched childrens news its cald news-rond and gess woat has happend to day posinuss spiders have came to the uk but they have put bags on

They are still doing it then!

Brilliant emails, moo - I get it all except the spiders' bags?

I have no idea either, Wendy, and I just asked ds1 and he can't remember

What does 'She wucse with chopse' mean? She works with chops? She whacks us with chopsticks?

Um - well - I don't know, and DS2 can't remember either (he is 14 now!) Whacking with chopsticks sounds like a plan though, mel!

(I wonder - after giving it some careful thought - if it could be works with chalks? Whaddya reckon?)

My ds wrote a list of the rude words he knew on out notice board once. The once I can remember are Omigd, Butum, Urse and Wicl.

Wicl?

Ah - winkle, possibly?

(I get the others. I think...)(I like Butum!)

Urse remains my favourite!

This thread is hilarious. I am going to make ds1 write so much when he starts doing this.

My dd wrote (at aged 5.5) "the wich wor a big blak hat and sum strypy tits"

I had to explain to a mortified dh why she was writing about 'tits' rofl

Ds also waxed lyrical about a Viktia Sponj he made with me one day.

This is so funny and cute

dd is in Yr2 and her classteacher only occasionaly corrects her spelling. Must dig out some of her gems!

Classic! My dd1's Nativity Story when she was in Year 1 remains a favourite. It went something like:

Mery and Josif had to go to Bethlehem [must've been on the board]. Mery had to rid on the doky. Mery dint wont to sit on the doky. It wasnt comfble wiv beby Jess in her tume.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaw comfble is looovely.

She still likes to keep vowels to a minimum!

I remember reading a little girl's attempt to copy Little Donkey. She was five.

It started:

Littel bonkey, littel bonkey
On the dusty rod
Got to keep on plobbind onwarb
With your prestoys lode.

Marvellous! WHY did I commit that to memory though?!!

I remember my little brother (who is 43 now ) writing parcel as "prsl" many many years ago - phonetically it's perfect, small children are so logical!

"It wasnt comfble wiv beby Jess in her tume" - well you can imagine it wouldn't be

LOL, WendyW... Can just imagine 'Mery' saying to 'Josif'... 'If you think I'm getting on that effing donkey in my condition you can think again matey'!

Children are encouraged to use their phonic knowledge otherwise they are just copying spellings and not really thinking about the words are formed.

Forgot to say - we normally put the word 'country' on the board for them to copy otherwise we're asking for trouble

DD does this now - also 5 and half - and I love to read it. The teacher corrects most words but not all. Have also saved some in her memory box for when she is older.

My favourite notice on the wall of DD1's classroom (she's in Y2) is from her mate Ben. It says 'WE CYIP AR HANS TO ARSELFS'. And they do, indeed, keep their hands to themselves, really quite often.

I keep reassuring myself that DD1's spelling will improve (she is really very fond of writing) except that then I realise that her father's, er, hasn't. (He used to spell her name wrong.)

ds did emergent spelling , very few systematic spelling words to learn alongside , and it has proved disastrous.