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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

Do you help DC prepare for weekly spelling tests?

20 replies

lililililililili · 17/04/2023 16:11

I was just wondering if I should be helping my DD review and practise for her weekly spelling tests at school. She gets around 10 new words each Monday after being tested for the previous week's. There is daily homework in an online app where DD is able to practice those particular words but I am not sure how effective or helpful. She does seem to be doing okay but occasionally get one or two wrong.

For children older than year 3, do you or did you deliberately work on the spelling words with your DC so they are prepared?

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SpareHeirOverThere · 17/04/2023 16:13

What's the argument against helping?

Original poster

lililililililili · 17/04/2023 16:16

SpareHeirOverThere · 17/04/2023 16:13

What's the argument against helping?

Idk, just one less thing to do! She always prefers the time freed up to read and play, and so do I!

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ShandyQuaffer · 17/04/2023 16:19

Yes, on a good week we'd go over the spelling 3 or 4 times together on different days. Some weeks it was a bit of a rush the night before though!

A friend of mine write the spellings and tables for that week out and sticks it up by the breakfast table, so her DC sees them all week and they can talk about them together over breakfast.

IglesiasPiggl · 17/04/2023 16:24

Yes, I used to test mine on the weekly spellings and go over them with them. It's part of supporting their literacy in my opinion.

Florin · 17/04/2023 16:25

We have an app called Squeebles. I type and speak all the words into the app on his phone when he is given them and he does them on his way to school in the car. Found it a complete game changer, takes me 2 minutes to do, no longer have to nag him to practice them by hand writing them out which he hated and he gets full marks every single week.

Aylestone · 17/04/2023 16:29

Yes. The day they come home with new spellings we quickly go through them to check if they know them or not. Takes less than a minute and 9 times out of 10 they already know them all. If they don’t know a word then I make sure they do before the test. It’s a bit lazy not taking a few minutes out of your week to support your child’s learning.

WolfFoxHare · 17/04/2023 16:30

DS is in year 3, has recently started getting spellings on Mondays and we test him every day. We do it orally a couple of times a night until Friday, and then we have him write them at least once every day over the weekend. He’s a capable speller but has a head full of jolly robins, he wouldn’t practice if we left him to it.

Original poster

lililililililili · 17/04/2023 16:35

I feel bad, but the reason I didn't intervene is most of the times she does bring full marks. I have a lot of other things I do with her at home (some workbooks for maths and english but also push her to practise instruments etc) so hopefully not being lazy! haha
She's a bookworm which might be one of the reasons she's not falling behind nevertheless. I might start reviewing spelling lightly over dinner or something.

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AlienSupaStar · 17/04/2023 16:36

Yes I test mine.

SummerInSun · 17/04/2023 16:37

Of course! Apart from the need to learn the word, this is the first step in teaching your child how to study - that's a skill that needs to be taught, and not every child will learn the same way.

DS2 naturally "gets" phonics and without studying or any practice at home, he'd still probably get 7 or 8 out of ten most weeks, so for him we are aiming to learn all ten worlds, which he can do just by belong tested on them most days and writing out the ones he got wrong.

DS1 didn't get phonics at all, writing/copying didn't help, and without a lot of hard work he'd only have gotten 2 or 3 right a week, which was shattering for his confidence and self esteem. What worked for him was chanting the words out loud and just learning a sort of aural pattern. (Turns out he's dyslexic).

Ponderingwindow · 17/04/2023 16:43

We always did a quick check on the day the list came home. If dd could spell them all perfectly, then we didn’t work on them. If she couldn’t, we worked the list daily together.

We just practiced the words the needed practice. You don’t have to sit down and make it boring. When dd was 5, I had her doing things like running around the room and hitting letters I had placed around with sticky notes because she needed something physical. We also tended to work the list while we were running errands or doing other tasks.

we stopped bothering towards the end of year 4 because she always got them right on the first try and had clearly outgrown the need to study for the tests at all.

Original poster

lililililililili · 17/04/2023 16:44

@Florin that sounds interesting and hope it helps some others on this thread. It sounds similar to what my dd's school uses for daily homework.

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AinmÁlainn · 17/04/2023 16:45

Ds gets 18 spellings a week. We do the hardest 6 on Monday and add the others on Tuesday and Wednesday. He learns them and writes them as i call them out. He then goes over any that he gets wrong. We go through them all on Thursday to prep for Friday's test. Takes about 5 minutes while I'm doing dinner.

ninjafoodienovice · 17/04/2023 16:48

DS's school now use spellingframe to help with their weekly spellings. It breaks the words down and makes learning them a doddle. Been a game changer for us and DS has had full marks ever since.

ZebraKid71 · 17/04/2023 17:25

My kids primary has just scrapped spelling tests and I could not be more pleased! I used to go through on the day he got them, identify the ones he didn't know then he'd have a look at one word a day over breakfast. I made them into a word search too which was quick, easy and a bit more fun.

Labraradabrador · 17/04/2023 18:31

lililililililili · 17/04/2023 16:35

Personally I think there is some benefit to letting her own it and not getting involved- you are setting her up for independence. I would want to know she is establishing good habits (setting aside time daily and actually practicing vs. just trying to memorise the night before), but if she is getting good marks in really don’t know why you need to insert yourself. How many parents moan about having to handhold their senior school students through exam revision?

Swansong124 · 17/04/2023 19:46

Same as many - if they know them I don’t bother. My year 2 dc seems to inhale words so we never do them, my year 3 dc doesn’t so we need to practice them but only ever at weekends when we remember 😉.

HangryFace · 17/04/2023 21:05

Maybe a bit out there but DS (10) and I/ DH throw a soft ball back and forth at each other and he spells out the word. If he drops the ball, he starts spelling the word again.

I do this because he is such a fidget and it helps him concentrate. I guess if only works if your child has decent ball skills but it works for us.

SusiePevensie · 17/04/2023 21:10

No. Zero evidence that homework in primary does any good, or that spelling tests make spelling any better. It's just make work.

ChienChatCheval · 17/04/2023 21:23

I used to go over them with my children when they were at primary. They would get 15 spellings, but generally only needed help with up to 5 of them so it didn’t take long.

As they were in ‘school mode’ when doing them, I often got lots of info from them whilst doing spellings about things that were happening in class, from work to friendship things.

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