How to teach?

I don't homeschool, but I try to be involved with the schoolwork as much as possible. My son goes to a christian school & it seems they push a little harder than the public school system, at least from what I remember. I try to help him, but don't know teaching techniques other than repitition. For example, every week there is a list of 15 spelling words to learn. Is there a better way than just writing over & over?

I worked as a teacher for several years and have home schooled my own. I don't know how old your child is, but there are several different things you can do. You can use little tiles that have letters on them, scramble them up and have him put them in the correct order ( you can also just write up the words on paper and cut them to do the same thing). You can have him draw them in the air as he says the letters aloud to you. You can draw boxes for each letter on a paper and tall letters get taller boxes and letters like g that go below the line get boxes that go below the line so that they can visualize what the letters will look like together. Again, depending on the age of the child, you could put some flour or sugar on a cutting board and have him draw the word in the flour or sugar (just for a fun change). You can have him make the letters out of pie dough and then cook them and eat his words with a little sugar and cinnamon on top! Just a few ways you can make it fun.

Thanks for the suggestions. My son is 8. I think we can try some of those ideas.

wow, thanks so much for the ideas. I have an 8 yr old son that is having trouble with spelling also, I have tried different methods like writing the words, say spell say, review the list every day, but that Friday spelling test is just as frustrating as ever. I will try a few of your ideas, hopefully something will work for him.

Scrabble and Scrabble dice games are never outgrown and are both useful tools from which you can use the components (letter tiles or lettered dice) as you see fit.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]