Summer, swimming and... spelling!

Help your child find words she often uses and often misspells. Then encourage her to practice the spelling by following these steps: Look at it. Say it. Name the letters. Write it. Check. Some typical primary-grade words from the story "Hattie and the Wild Waves" are: do, when, make, went, home, little, blue.

Here is another spelling technique for difficult words. Write the complete word in large letters and allow your child to study the configuration of the word and the sequence of the letters. Cover the complete word with another piece of paper and on lines below it rewrite the word several times, omitting more and more letters from various positions. Ask her to fill in the missing letters. At the end of the activity only blank spaces remain, and the entire word must be written from memory. Here is an example:

-- Susan Rapp

Village Reading Center

p i c t u r e

p - c t u r e

p i c - - r e

p i - - - r e

p i - - - - e

- - c - - - e

- - - t - - -

- - - - - - -

Pub Date: 07/04/99