What's your Y1 child's spelling like?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd (just turned 6) is in Y1 and is doing really well I think in most things. I saw some work from her group pinned up on the display board and was really shocked as to how well some of her peers are spelling at this stage, including words like 'could' and 'nice' which I know they haven't covered in class. Does that mean they're super-brilliant naturally or that their parents have been doing a lot of work with them at home?

Dd had to write a poem about fireworks at school today. This is her spelling word for word:

the fiwurks are sparkling
as the sky is darkning
the fighy wurks are bright
they dazl in the daylight

I love the two ways she tried to work out spelling fireworks. And I think the poem itself is fabulous. Is this about where she should be at for her year spelling-wise?

That's interesting though KM, how do you think he worked it out for himself? I'm always torn between wondering how much to intervene with dd's writing / spelling and how much to let her work things out for herself. At the moment I intervene very little, usually if she asks for my help which isn't often as she's so independent.

My daughter is in Y3 and her spelling, to me, seems dreadful. But that seems to be the way they teach them; they are having spelling tests every week but otherwise no-one seems in the slightest bit concerned.

She probably couldn't have spelled "sparkling" or "daylight" correctly ... and has only just had "bright" as one of her spellings. So I'd say your dd is doing fine.

And her poem is fabulous.

I love that poem IF!
dd's spelling is not great, she is in yr 1. Her writing is not great - she does try but she tries to make every letter a work of art, her teacher says! So it takes her ages!
your dd sounds fine

Dd does all her 'I' sounds as 'igh' so she was quite lucky with her poem. When she spells words like fly as fligh it doesn't work quite so well!

The poem looks find to me. The words are all phonetically plausible. Infact her spelling is probably better than my year 2 son.

ds had his first ever spelling test tomorrow...called a spelling challenge
his words are boil,coin.brown,clown...so your dd is doing very well

paddington, dd's a bit of a perfectionist too when it comes to letter formation. She only manages to finish a fraction of the work the rest of her group achieve because she's so obsessed with making her letters perfectly formed.

This is a little story she wrote last weekend:

A Hapy Buny.
A littl rabbit was hoping a long he was having a lovely tighm. A stranga kaim a long he sied I wil eet you sied the strainj pursun. The rabbit ran and ran and ran he got tiyd. He got away he was sad and hot. Soon he was home and saif he loved beying outsighd he thort he was in spais.

If you were going to help a child with spelling outside of school, what kind of guide would you go for?

imaginaryfriend, can I tell you in the nicest possible way that I think you fret too much over your dd's progress at school. IMO she is doing EXTREMELY well and you should relax a bit.

(And I say this as the mother of two daughters, one in Yr 3, one in Yr 1. Yr 1 dd is nowhere NEAR where your dd is, but I'm not worried. And Yr 3 dd was probably a bit behind where your dd is in Yr 1 as well, and is now considered to be doing exceptionally well.)

That's what I tend to do, KM, if anything. But I sometimes feel a bit mean going through what she's done and 'correcting' it as I feel I should praise her for trying. Especially as there are so many mistakes in her spelling at the moment.

Ideally I'd like to be able to teach her before rather than after.

Hi, Wow your DD sounds like she is doing really well to me.

I never corrected any of my Yr 3 dd's spellings apart from when she had a list of spellling words - never in stories etc. She is now a great speller who can do words like "biography" or "triangular prism". IME spellings emerge over time with lots of reading and practice.

emkana, I might come across as fretting and ok I probably do tend to fret in general. But I'm very pleased with how dd's doing. I'm just interested and keen to help her.

id leave her alone and let her sort it out herself, personally.
but i say that as a mum of a yr1 ds (youngest in class) who is struggling with his writing/reading/word forming. he is far behind the whole of the rest of his class of 12. his self esteem is buckling under the pressure and i am so worried that he'll be put off reading altogether.
ive had him sitting on the kitchen floor and ranting about how he wont do it, he hates it and its all rubbish rubbish rubbish.

so id say your daughter is doing just FINE, by that measure

[and so begins a lifetime of constant low-level worry about my dc and their happiness. sigh]

Thanks for replies and suggestions.

So if some of the other kids in her group are spelling words they haven't learnt in class yet and spelling consistently difficult words well, is it likely that this is due to a spelling gene or their parents' intervention?

both. or neither. depends on the kid.
honestly IF, chill out. in the nicest possible way.

Agree with others - your dd is doing fantastically well IF!!

I wouldn't correct her spellings. My dd2 is also Y1 and makes a lot of the same 'mistakes' as your dd - all of your dd's work is phonetically plausible and thats great!

Relax and be proud

yep
amazing huh?
i think there were 30+ in my class at that age.

Dd's in a class of 32.

I am chilled out. I'm just nosy and curious.

My DD is in Y3 and spelling is now beginning to click. Last year she was still spelling phonetically so lots of "errors" - she now knows lots of the exceptions. Her teacher last year said there was nothing to worry about as she's spelling phonetically.