Spelling practice ideas for children who find it hard

​Keeping spelling practice fresh — ideas for parents

If you are using Reading Made Simple with your child at home, you will already know that repetition is essential. Children who find spelling hard need to return to the same words and patterns many times before they stick. But repetition does not have to mean doing the same thing every time. For many children, especially those who find the work hard, variety in how they practise is what keeps them engaged enough to do it at all.

These ideas are not a script. They are a menu. Try something, watch how your child responds, and if it is not working, try something else. No activity works for every child, and what works one week may not work the next.

Sorting
Take the words from the current list and sort them into groups. You can sort by sound, by spelling pattern, or by any other link your child notices. The sorting itself is the practice — your child is looking at the words, thinking about how they work, and making decisions. That is worth more than copying them out.

Use physical cards your child can move around rather than writing the sort down. Keep it short — five to ten minutes.

For example, if you are studying the AR words, sort them by ending: ARD, ARK, ARM. Once the child has sorted the words on the list, see if they can think of any others that could be added to each group. Keep these words purely verbal at this stage.

Drawing
Before sorting or spelling a set of words, ask your child to draw one image for each spelling pattern that means that sound to them. Their choice, their drawing. Do not suggest images unless they are completely stuck.
For children who are artistic, drawing can become a real strength in their spelling work.

A word map takes this further. Write the target word in the centre of a blank page. Draw four branches:

• Say it — how to pronounce it, broken into syllables
• Tricky bit — the one thing to remember
• Draw it — their own sketch of the meaning
• Word family — one or two words that share the same pattern

Your child fills in the branches and draws the image themselves. One word map per session is enough. Done properly, it takes time, and that is fine.

Game formats
Change the format of the practice without changing the content. Some ideas:

• Odd one out — give three words; one does not belong to the pattern. Which one and why?
• Beat your own score — how many can they spell correctly in two minutes? Can they beat that next time? Their score against their own previous score, not anyone else's.
• You be the student — they test you. They read the word, you attempt the spelling, they correct you. Be sure to make seom errors typical of the errors your pupil makes (e.g. reverse b/d/ if that is a problem). Catching your errors is very motivating for most children, and they have to know the word well to do it.
• Signal before spelling — you say a word, they show which pattern it belongs to before attempting to spell it.

Physical variety
Write on a whiteboard or chalkboard if you have one. Writing large uses different muscle memory than writing small, and wiping it off removes some of the pressure of getting it wrong on paper.
Say the word aloud in syllables before writing it.
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A note on what these ideas cannot do
These activities work best when you watch how your child responds. If something is not working, stop. If your child is bored, try something else. If they are frustrated, the session is probably too long, or the words are too hard.

No list of activities replaces knowing your child.
What you are doing in these sessions is genuinely difficult.
Progress may be slow.
That does not mean the approach is wrong. 
Have patience.