At the beginning of the year Helena said she wanted to be able to spell better, I think to be more confident with her writing. I was a bit sceptical (was it a passing fancy) and worried (because I can’t spell, I don’t know the rules) so I put it on the back burner… then I broke my wrist and resorted to old school books style work and she will be going to school for a few weeks soon so needs a degree of schoolasizing.

Helena started this book when she was 5 but it is now that it is working for her. Her letter formation was self chosen, all capitals, and I didn’t correct her as she already hated writing to the point of meltdowns so some of her ways of forming letters are inefficient! We have established that it’s better if the book tells her these kind of things rather than me. She is currently proud of her writing and not all her letters are capitals.. you CAN learn anything from a book!

Some how Helena has worked out that we are on the same side about learning to spell and the exercises I provide are helping, she can see why she is doing these exercises, she feels that she is getting better. Today she told an adult friend that she was feeling better about taking risks… making mistakes and she didn’t mind writing as much as she use to. We once tried the write a word out lots and see if it sticks but it never did so rules it is. So far she has found knowing about syllables, and suffixs useful. We also do spelling when ever she asks me to spell something (sometimes she hates to get it wrong) and I repeat the chunks she knows like er…. We did dictation today, it’s a work in progress.

It is so awesome that we are on the same page, that her desire to get better is self motivated and that she sees practice exercises as a positive step.