5 Fun Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Spell

"I Spy with my little eye something beginning with G".
Anyone on a long drive with little children has probably played this game to help pass the time. But, were you aware that games like "I Spy" contribute to the development of basic spelling skills? It also helps children begin to understand the alphabet and that each letter has a different sound.

Here are 5 fun activities to help your children learn to spell: 1.

"I Spy" - teaches children how to hear the initial sound at the beginning of a word.
To play "I Spy", start with easy words and gradually move to more challenging words.

For example, if playing at home, "I Spy with my little eye something beginning with T". Children can look around the room and begin to guess - table, tea pot, TV, toaster.
When the correct object is guessed, then that person becomes the winner and they become the next one to lead the following round of "I Spy".

2. "Odd one out" - assists in learning to recognize which word, in a set of words, starts with a different sound. The parent lists off a set of words like "cat, cap, dog, cup," and the child has to be able to determine which word is the "Odd one out".

The child says "dog", as it is the only word that didn't start with the letter "c". 3.
"Add a sound"- involves saying a word and allowing children to make a new word by adding a consonant sound.
For example the parent may say "at" and the child can add a sound to the beginning to make a new words like "cat, hat, pat, mat, sat, rat; or the parent says "all" and the child can add initial sounds to make "ball, call, fall, hall, tall, small, wall".
4.

"Guess the word" - involves combining or blending the separate sounds in a word in order to say the word.

The parent spells a word out within the sentence and the child has to guess the word. For example "Y/e/s you can have a drink" "You can n/o/t stay up until midnight".
5.

"Make and Break" - involves learning how to break up or segment a word into its separate sounds.

The child begins to "sound out" words and the parent must blend the word to solve the riddle, answer the question or know what the child wants: for example: The child says, "I would like to go to b/e/d" and the parent says, "Yes, you can go to bed".

Or, the child says, "Can I p/a/t/ the c/a/t?" and the parent says "Yes, you can pat the cat.

Or, the child may ask, "Will I feed the d/o/g?" and the parent says "Yes please, feed the dog". The games can be played at any time when there is a few spare minutes, in the car, at home or at bedtime and are the bases of early spelling development.
Regularly playing these five fun games will have a positive effect on teaching your child how to spell.