Why Kids Should Learn To Spell & The Spelling Program We Love
Teaching our children to spell takes time, effort, and patience. With all of today’s technology in place, we may wonder if it is worth teaching spelling skills in our homeschool.
As a busy working full-time mom, my time is limited. Therefore, I make sure to be very intentional with how I use my time, especially the time I have set aside to homeschool my kids.
So, you might wonder, why do I waste time on teaching my kids to spell when auto-correct fixes it for them?
Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Why Teaching Life Skills Is Important
Have you ever been at work and witnessed something that caused you to rush home to make sure YOUR kids knew better?
I’ll never forget the day I was at work training a young lady who had just graduated from public school.
I was teaching her how to use the cash register, not a very difficult job. However, I must admit that learning how to accept the different payment types can be tricky the first few times through.
The store I was working for accepted all payments, and cash is a favorite way to pay for many customers.
At the end of her shift, we headed in to count the till.
I sat down to pull out the paperwork to be completed, and she started to count the coins. To my complete shock, she had no idea how to count change.
Now I understand this is NOT spelling, but here’s the deal…I assumed that she would have been basic counting of quarters, nickels, and dimes because she had graduated from public school.
I am not talking about how to add them up because this could be fixed with a calculator. She didn’t even know how much each one was worth.
Needless to say, that night, I came home, dumped a big container of change in front of my kids, and informed them today we learn to count change!
Why I Teach Spelling Skills In My Homeschool
Many life skills are no longer required or taught in public school, as I learned that day talking with her. Some of these are also not required in homeschool.
Turns out that spelling skills is one of them.
Because I work with the public and spend time communicating through written work, I understand the importance of having good spelling skills.
The beauty of homeschooling is you get to decide what is included in your homeschool.
What are spelling skills?
According to Kid Sense, “Spelling is the ability to arrange letters in the correct order to make words that are communally understood. Spelling is considered one aspect of literacy (reading, writing and spelling).”
3 Reasons To Teach Spelling Skills In Your Homeschool
While spelling is not my strong point, I feel that it is very important. Here are 3 reasons I decided to teach spelling skills:
1. Spelling mistakes make writing more difficult to read
Does your child plan to be a writer, work in a profession where reports are due, or even need to take notes?
Writing that is riddled with spelling mistakes is difficult to read and leaves the readers second-guessing the written work’s intent.
2. Lack of spelling skills can reduce motivation for a child to write
Do you have a child that struggles to write? This may be because they lack spelling skills.
Children who struggle to spell often use the same words repeatedly in their writing, making their writing boring and repetitive.
They may be convinced they “can’t write” because they struggle to find the word they want to use due to a lack of spelling skills.
3. Learning to spell correctly helps children to read
If your child is struggling to read, learning basic spelling skills may help them overcome this challenge.
Learning to read is learning to recognize words quickly. Once your child learns how words are put together through meaningful spelling instruction, they will see and understand patterns and apply them to new words.
Why I Recommend Spelling Workout!
When hunting for the perfect curriculum for my children I knew what I wanted in a spelling program.
I wanted not only a list of words but I wanted more than just a memorization list.
After all, what is the point of memorizing if you don’t know how to use the words?
Spelling workout is my favorite program and we have been using it for a few years.
As a working mom, I love that they can do this workbook on their own. I check to make sure it is correct in the end and give a spelling test each week. Otherwise, I assign a “box” a day, and when they finish, they leave it out for me to check.
At the end of the day, I check it and leave a fun sticker to encourage them.
What’s In Each Lesson?
In workbook F, each lesson begins with a “Spelling Words in Action” page in which you get a story that includes the list of words. This story is engaging and usually teaches them something brand new that the children are eager to share. This story is often historical or science-based!
My son is using Workbook G, and this workbook is the first we have used without this story at the beginning of each lesson. He was very disappointed. 
Next, you get a list of 20 words written in cursive. I like this as I feel children should be able to read cursive. We have family members that write notes, letters, lists and more in cursive so I want my children to know how to read it. Plus I was in a restaurant and the menu was in cursive. Yay for being able to order.
There is a grammar tip at the top of the page along with examples to explain what they are talking about. Then you get 5 boxes.
Each box is a practice in which using the spelling list words they complete an activity in grammar and logic.
One box is a puzzle of sorts, be it crossword-style, unscramble, or some other type. Another is proofreading, where they not only learn to proofread but also learn the proper proofreading marks.
The last is a writing practice.
In workbook G, the boxes are the same as above however sometimes he has a dictionary skills box, along with a bonus “Did you know?” Box.
I give them a spelling test at the end of each lesson.
Spelling Workout Review!
Every 6th lesson is a review of the previous 5, which is also made up of boxes. This allows them to see if they retained any of the information. You could choose to do this open book, but I do not.
There is a box for each lesson they had and then a “what you should know” box in which they spot the misspelled word.
The workbook also contains a dictionary, a lesson on how to use the dictionary, a spelling notebook, and a cheat sheet of cursive letters and numbers in case your child forgets what letter they are trying to read.
Favorite Ways to Reinforce Spelling!
Some of my favorite ways to reinforce spelling are through games. Teenagers are kids, make it fun!
Our favorite games that use spelling are:
I also love to use app-based games they can play. Read more about how we use apps in our homeschool here.
Isn’t Spelling Dead?
I’ve been laughed at, criticized and more about teaching my children spelling. They say learning to spell is “dead”. Autocorrect killed it.
After all, there are a ton of tools, apps and more that help with spelling mistakes, including my favorite tool Grammarly.
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Why teach spelling and use a spelling tool? Almost hypocritical you might say. 😉
I teach spelling because I know from working that autocorrect won’t save you “in real life”.
When it comes to skills such as taking messages, writing notes, crafting reports, or writing my to-do lists, autocorrect isn’t in my paper and pen. I have to rely on the skills I learned long ago, and let’s say some of these are rather rusty.
My main goal in teaching my children is so they have the skills to be successful in life. To me, being able to spell, is one of those skills.
Now you know why I think all kids should learn to spell! Do you think children should learn to spell? If so, what are your favorite tools to use?
Take care,
Jen
PS. Spelling is just one of the skills I want my kids to master in my homeschool. Life skills are important. A great way to teach and practice spelling while having fun is through games. Check out some of our favorite games here!
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Hi, I’m Jen. I help working moms juggle their career and homeschool their kids by providing support, systems and tools. You are warmly invited to Join the Online Community Here!
