5 Ways To Practice Spelling With Your Child

While learning to speak is natural for children, learning to write is a challenge. Not only do they have to learn the alphabet, there are also spelling standards that must be applied in order to learn correctly.

Learning to write, its norms and rules for the correct use of written language is one of the most complex stages children go through. For this, practicing spelling at home while complementing what is learned at school is fundamental. And it’s even better if it’s done while playing.

During the first years of the school stage there will be no parent-teacher meeting. Or a meeting between parents where you will not be asked if your children can read and write. When asked, we tend to cringe, simulate a smile and answer “yes, we’re working on that!” “.

If this passes to us adults, imagine the anxiety caused to children. They face a new world of 27 symbols and its infinite forms of combining them, with a very intense written vocabulary, which in addition is regulated by standards and conventions.

In search of the correct writing

It is not only about learning to read and write, but also to do it correctly. Writing requires a new structure of reasoning for the child and a new order in which to express his ideas. However, nowadays it is getting more and more complex. This complexity is due to the degree of children’s exposure to the use of electronic devices and to social networks, where spelling errors are increasingly common.

Correct spelling began to be overlooked for the amount of characters allowed on a Twitter post or for the rush to participate in a chat. On these platforms, certain aberrations made to writing are “socially accepted”, such as shortening words or forgetting the punctuation marks.

All of this complicates and increases the challenge of teaching our children to spell. We know that the best way to learn to write correctly, to expand your vocabulary and even to learn a new language is through reading.

How to practice spelling with your child

It is necessary to look for fun and creative forms of bringing your child into the world of letters and practicing spelling with him. Further from what school offers and from the interaction with new technologies, it is necessary to succeed in making spelling a fun task, full of games and fun challenges.

1. Take advantage of technology

Leaving our children in front of a screen, phone or tablet is something that leaves some parents in a constant moral battle. New technologies are increasingly reducing the quality time spent with the family and exposing children to things that are not controlled by adults.

However, on many platforms it is possible to find great allies to make reading and writing fun.

By logging in just a few minutes, one can find everything from videos to songs, online games and free apps that help with spelling practice.

2. Establish custom games

Traditional board games  like Scrabble can also be allies in teaching new words and the use of letters. However, you can also have it home made.

Invite your children to play a treasure hunt in the house or in a park. Hide papers with letters or words. As they follow the trail, they should eventually form whole words or sentences.

Make up songs that rhyme or talk about the characteristics of each letter and words written on it. It is a fun way to achieve the association of letters and words.

For example: A has her feet open as if to jump, and like an Airplane flying, or S, which seems to move like a Serpent.

3. Discover words and phrases

Make them sit down with paper and pencil and write the largest amount of words that must start with a definite letter, in a frantic race against the clock. This not only secures the correct use of letters, but also expands vocabulary by teaching them words that others have chosen. If they are smaller children, they can play as a team.

Another good idea is to cross-cut and paste papers with words and punctuation marks. It is therefore necessary to play to form several sentences with the same words, but by changing the order and the punctuation. In this way, children learn the value of using spelling standards to correctly express several ideas.

4. Play at school… at home!

Playing at school is another great option. The mom or dad can be the teachers and the children the pupils, but it is also possible to switch roles. The decor is planted with chairs, a table or a desk, a blackboard and the other typical elements of a school.

You can also add clothing elements to change it into a role play. Kids love it! Thus, we take the opportunity to give a “class” of spelling.

You can do fun tests or small exams on children. Instead of points they can receive chocolates or a trip to the park.

5. Put letters everywhere

If your routine does not always allow you to devote time to a game, take advantage of various times of the day to continue to introduce them to the world of letters. Change their daily life for something new and fun!

While walking in the street or from the car, play and see who detects certain letters the fastest in advertisements or signs.

You can also take advantage of the mealtime. Prepare food in the shape of letters or write their names on vegetable sticks, for example.

Train whole beings

Learning to communicate in written language is not a natural process like learning to speak. Writing requires other capacities, intellectual as well as emotional. This learning requires giving new images to words.

Making our children fall in love with reading and writing guarantees them entry into a fascinating world. Reading-writing increases the intellectual capacities of a human being. This allows a better course of his social daily life, and also amplifies his potential.

It is a whole process which also increases the capacities to create and to imagine. As children learn to write correctly, values ​​as important as respect for the language and the habit of reading are affirmed, in addition to the cultural connotation that reading-writing offers.