turnedupcorners

Hi all,
My 14 yo dd came to me yesterday asking for help/resources to help
her become a better speller. She said that frequently when IMing
with her friends that her friends will correct her spelling. I have
never made her spelling an issue, I figured if and when she decided
it was a problem that she would come to me or figure out on her own
how to overcome. In the past whenever she would ask me to look at
her poems and blogs I would always ask if she wanted me to proof
read or just give my opinion on the writing...In any event she is
concerned and wants to be an accomplished speller.

So the question is, since I have long since thrown out the spelling
books, worksheets and lists ...does anyone have any resource
suggestions or ideas for helping her accomplish this?
She never enjoyed lists or writing words 10 times each...that brings
back yucky memories of our first years of hell at the kitchen table..
Any way, I told her I thought that if she would write about how she
feels about our plans for vacation or about her excitement over
getting a new laptop or her sadness about the loss of a friend...etc
that we could sit down together and do a spell check and that way we
could evaluate what commonly used words she hasn't mastered as well
as others. This however is the only idea I can come up with. I'm at
a loss here, help please :~)

PS. I am the spell check queen and don't mind the fact that I'm not a
high-end speller...but since she has asked for help, I told her if I
couldn't come up with some ideas that I'd bring it to the
unschoolingbasics pros!
Thanks, *^^^Andrea^^^*

*^^^Andrea^^^*

diana jenner

On Dec 12, 2007 4:46 PM, turnedupcorners <faceliftz@...> wrote:

> Hi all,
> My 14 yo dd came to me yesterday asking for help/resources to help
> her become a better speller. She said that frequently when IMing
> with her friends that her friends will correct her spelling. I have
> never made her spelling an issue, I figured if and when she decided
> it was a problem that she would come to me or figure out on her own
> how to overcome. In the past whenever she would ask me to look at
> her poems and blogs I would always ask if she wanted me to proof
> read or just give my opinion on the writing...In any event she is
> concerned and wants to be an accomplished speller.
>
> So the question is, since I have long since thrown out the spelling
> books, worksheets and lists ...does anyone have any resource
> suggestions or ideas for helping her accomplish this?
> She never enjoyed lists or writing words 10 times each...that brings
> back yucky memories of our first years of hell at the kitchen table..
> Any way, I told her I thought that if she would write about how she
> feels about our plans for vacation or about her excitement over
> getting a new laptop or her sadness about the loss of a friend...etc
> that we could sit down together and do a spell check and that way we
> could evaluate what commonly used words she hasn't mastered as well
> as others. This however is the only idea I can come up with. I'm at
> a loss here, help please :~)
>
> PS. I am the spell check queen and don't mind the fact that I'm not a
> high-end speller...but since she has asked for help, I told her if I
> couldn't come up with some ideas that I'd bring it to the
> unschoolingbasics pros!
>
>
>
>


The recommendations of the best speller I know, who also happens to be a 13
year old unschooler <http://www.exactly-me.blogspot.com/>, who also happens
to type a gazillion words a minute, are: Have open in separate tabs while
typing:
dictionary.com and a notepad or e-mail program with spell check.... type
there first then cut/paste to IM
It is practice with the language that will give you fluency. No need for
rote boredom!
--
~diana :)
xoxoxoxo
hannahbearski.blogspot.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joyce Fetteroll

On Dec 12, 2007, at 7:46 PM, turnedupcorners wrote:

> Any way, I told her I thought that if she would write about how she
> feels about our plans for vacation or about her excitement over
> getting a new laptop or her sadness about the loss of a friend...etc
> that we could sit down together and do a spell check

Better is having the word processor do automatic spell check. That
way she gets instant feedback on words that are spelled wrong. That
won't help with homophones of course. Suggest she go through and mark
the ones she thinks might be wrong and then the two of you go through
together. (Assuming she does want to do the writing!)

If you're waiting for a new computer to get a word processor with
automatic spell check, I bet there are free text programs that have
it that you can download. Lots of message boards and other social
networking sites (like deviantart.com) even have automatic spell
checking and she could use those windows to type into in a pinch.

Download new versions of her IM programs. They're free. Even they
have automatic spelling. (Though they aren't well versed in chat
speak ;-)

Joyce

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Amy

Hello, I'm new to this group.
In regard to the spelling, my daughter, Gg(10) just asked me for the
same thing recently (spelling help). I have a Franklin Speller and let
her use it. She figured out real fast that there were games she could
play. The only problem was that the words were pretty advanced for
her. So I did a search and found the kid version of the Franklin
Speller. It was only $19 a bargain compared to mine. She loves it.
You can even enter your on spelling word lists if you want. We found a
list of the most comon words used in the English language and are in
the progress of entering them. When we are going some place in the
car, she always grabes it. Her favorite game on it is Jumble. She
also was learning vocabulary words on it. Any way thought that might
help. I like things that are mobile. Plus I have three kids that
share a computer.
Amy J
Just learning to UNschool

MrsStranahan

This link was at the top of my gmail this morning -
http://www.google.com/support/firefox/bin/static.py?page=features.html&v=3
it's a toolbar that has spellcheck and a bunch of other stuff.

I use Meebo (meebo.com) for internet chat and that has spellcheck built
right in. You can use your Yahoo or AIM chat name so you don't have to make
a new account. If I've misspelled a word and little red underline shows up
right away (no need to do a spellcheck) and I just click on it and it gives
me some options to pick from.

My spelling used to be AWFUL. Chatting and emailing has made it so I am
actually a pretty good speller now.

Lauren

On Dec 13, 2007 2:19 AM, Joyce Fetteroll <jfetteroll@...> wrote:

>
> On Dec 12, 2007, at 7:46 PM, turnedupcorners wrote:
>
> > Any way, I told her I thought that if she would write about how she
> > feels about our plans for vacation or about her excitement over
> > getting a new laptop or her sadness about the loss of a friend...etc
> > that we could sit down together and do a spell check
>
> Better is having the word processor do automatic spell check. That
> way she gets instant feedback on words that are spelled wrong. That
> won't help with homophones of course. Suggest she go through and mark
> the ones she thinks might be wrong and then the two of you go through
> together. (Assuming she does want to do the writing!)
>
> If you're waiting for a new computer to get a word processor with
> automatic spell check, I bet there are free text programs that have
> it that you can download. Lots of message boards and other social
> networking sites (like deviantart.com) even have automatic spell
> checking and she could use those windows to type into in a pinch.
>
> Download new versions of her IM programs. They're free. Even they
> have automatic spelling. (Though they aren't well versed in chat
> speak ;-)
>
> Joyce
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

Crossword puzzles! Online or in hand...vocabulary games (_www.freerice.com_
(http://www.freerice.com) is a really cool one!). I'm still not a great
speller, but I know those types of things helped me a lot, along ith being a
person that loves to read. But that's what worked for me.

Karen



**************************************See AOL's top rated recipes
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]