Y1 spellings are really difficult

[itsaparty]

I’ve tried to help my five year old by using games and making it fun but it really isn’t going in, and every week he’s getting one or two right (out of twelve!)

Just wondering if there’s anything else I can be doing.

I think familiarity can be key. So write the words down on post-it notes around your house, and/or on a white board so he sees them all the time. Magnetic letters on the fridge. Foam letters in the bath. And don't try to go through all of them at the same time.

12 spellings a week in year 1 is ridiculous. We have five and they are things like get, bet, let etc. that they can just sound out.

Yanbu. My dd is in year 2 and her spellings are just crazy. Last week included "penknife", literally the only word in the English language i can think of, that has a silent K that's not at the beginning of the word. (I had just been telling her that the silent K was always at the beginning, then I turned over the sheet and omg.)
This week, I kid you not, included "rhythm". Just, why. Year 2!

I'm not even bothering to coach her through it any more, they're just crazy. She can learn how to spell "rhythm" the way we all did, by reading it in context enough times.

Why bother teaching via phonics rules if all the spelling words are exceptional?! But what do I know.

What are the spellings? Do they all use the same phoneme/spelling rule? Is he getting the rule wrong or the other sounds as well?

12 spellings in year 1 is incredibly excessive. Unfortunately repetition is really the only way to help in these situations especially if the words are not phonetically decodable?

I would just truthfully explain spelling tests are pretty silly and not very important just tell him to try his best. There's not much point spending lots of time on it each evening if he's still not retaining the information by the end of the week. I would also have a word with his class teacher because with 12 spellings each week I'd be surprised if he's the only one finding it a challenge.

The spellings are obviously too numerous and much to hard for him. The teacher should be aware of how badly he is doing and tailor the work accordingly.

If you asked your DC how to spell the words before you go to the effort with helping him learn them, would he actually have the faintest clue how to spell them?

But it is a k at the beginning of the word as it is ‘pen knife’ not penknife

This might be useful to understand the Yr 1 spelling requirements (it also covers other years).
OP you could focus on just 4 words rather than all 12 if your child is struggling.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ccc06ed915d63cc65ce61/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf

Thanks all. There are a lot! If he was getting five or six right I wouldn’t mind but the fact he’s been consistently getting one and two is a worry. It’s making me worry he doesn’t really understand the basic principles of phonics. So I can quite see why a child might spell ‘treat’ ‘treet’ but not totally sure he’s grasped that much!

It really depends on whether they follow a pattern(three, free, tree , knee etc) , or if it’s CVC words with the same vowel in the middle (cat, pat, sat, mat etc.) or if they’re all over the place , or multiple ways of making the ee sound for example ( sea, see, key, monkey, tea etc) .

Some are reasonable even if the number sounds excessive and it could mean he’s struggling for other reasons, some are indeed too advanced (even if he got less spellings).

My child is in year 2 and we've never had any spellings sheets home - only lists of common exception words to practice reading. Shows how different schools can be in their approach. We're focusing on reading at home (child still on phonics stage 5 and making slow but steady progress) hadn't even considered spelling revision.

I think worth a chat with the teacher to flag he needs some extra support with phonics. Could be something bigger e.g. dyslexia or could just be he didn’t manage to learn the basics in reception and needs to revisit. Then I’d think about what is actually realistic for him and focus on 5 or 6 (or however many you think he could manage) from the list, bearing in mind that might vary week or week depending on if they follow a pattern or are random exemption words, and aim to nail those whilst ignoring the others because better to learn to spell 5 words than not learn to spell 12.

Just jumping on here to tell you the magic acronym to remember how to spell rhythm, taught to my by my music teacher many decades ago and I still hear her voice when I write the word.
Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move.

Photo of spellings attached

This is great but my dd is only in year 2 and a summer born... she would a) forget the mnemonic itself and b) hesitate over how each of THOSE words are spelt and then that'd be far more bamboozle to pack into her tiny brain.

My current strategy is just "haha what a word, eh! Well, there's no vowel in the second syllable, don't ask me why. Now let's move onto the maths and then we'll be all done"

I just think if it doesn't follow the phonics rules, you learn it by reading it enough, and she's not a free reader yet so I'll work on the reading first

It was listed in her spellings as one word, so had broken the rule. Yes, obviously I know the etymology is pen and knife, and even she could see that.

Learning spellings for a test is a waste of time.
Children need to learn the rule and how to spell / use the words in context.
We have stopped sending home spellings and doing spelling tests.

I would pick the six easiest each week and work on learning those.
12 spellings a week is ridiculous even for a child twice his age. When you go to parents evening I’d be questioning the teacher on her reasons for this nonsense.

The thing is he isn’t really learning any. Like I say, I would be happy if he was only getting a few right but getting just one right does suggest to me he’s not ‘getting it’ with the sounds?

Those spellings are a real mix. Is he getting none of them correct because I think the assumption would probably be that most kids will know a few of those already especially the shorter words like say, toy, all, of and therefore they’re not learning 12 completely new spellings each week. I think definitely worth a chat with the teacher about it. But yeah while he’s catching up choose the 5-6 easiest and just practice those.

I’ve got 2 DC. First one struggled hugely with spelling, it was an absolute win if he got 50% or more in the weekly test. He didn’t “get” phonics at all, so what worked for him - a bit - was memorising saying the letters in a rhythm, and any little trick I could think of like (eg think of a tuna watching TV to help you remember unfortunately). I thought the spelling lists were insane and unreasonable. But then DC2 came along and he just “got” phonics and spelling. We practice writing them two or three times and then he’ll get 100% in the test virtually every week.

Turns out DS1 is mildly dyslexic….

Thanks. He is doing … ok in his reading but I do think he memorises the books very quickly and so am not sure how much he’s reading and how much he’s just parroting.

Last weeks words included treat and read but also boy and joy (he got joy right but none of the others.)

Has he got access to a tablet. We used an app called Squeebles, which was really good.

We also used to do “Word of the day” (but we only ever had 6 spellings, you might need to do “Words of the Day”, where we chose a word each day, and really worked on it. Walked to school spelling it out. Wrote it out many times, many ways. In sand. On paper. In finger paints. With scrabble tiles.

I wouldn’t sweat it at this stage.

12 words is a lot for Yr 1 and 5 years old. Focus on keeping it fun and playing around with the digraphs/trigraphs and their sounds.

My son is 8 and has been the most atrocious speller for the past 4 years, truly awful, and we wasted so much time and brainpower trying to make him learn spellings by rote when he was still getting to grips with the phonics.

He also spent most of reception and year 1 counting down the minutes to playtime so his focus in ‘tests’ was definitely not there at those ages. He would also get joy correct and then boy and toy wrong through lack of focus.

Spelling has finally clicked for him this year but I would say that has come from learning by repeated exposure through sight reading.