Spelling City and Hangman

One of my biggest challenges with Sophie has been in the subject of Spelling. She is so good at reading complex words, but the simplest words will stump her when it comes to spelling. After watching the National Spelling Bee, Sophie asked if we could work on this problem a little more.

We started with some basic quizzes which left her in tears because she was struggling to get the right answers. I quickly saw that this was a situation where I needed to move away from my traditional learning experiences and come up with another option for her.

After thinking about the situation a while, I decided that using a spelling list might be the best way to keep up with her overall progress. There is a great online game site that allows you to use your own lists in their word games. You can just go to their homepage, at SpellingCity.com, and enter the words you want to study. They offer a lot of options from traditional testing to 10 interactive games.

I also found a great little book called Scratch and Solve Hangman, by Mike Ward. It is great for word recognition and construction. She loves it and has been playing it a lot over the last few days. It is also something that she can play on her own and she has NO idea that it is teaching her anything!

We are giving Sophie words to spell at random when we stop at a red light or are in line at the store. She seems to really enjoy it and one of my main goals with homeschooling is to keep education a fun experience that the girls will always appreciate and crave. So far so good!