Everything you need to know about spelling for kids and helping your child learn to spell
With schools set to close and many of us now cooped up indoors, it seems there’s no better time for your child to master their A-B-Cs. But what approach should parents take" Here, Kate Finney looks at how exactly you can help your child learn to spell.
It was the night before the class ?spell-a-thon? and I found myself streaming the music video House of Love by ?90s boy band East 17, in an attempt to drill the correct spelling of ?everybody? into my six-year-old?s mind.
But as we sang along to the lyrics (?Everybody, everybody, everybody in the house of love?) I did wonder if there might be a slightly simpler way to go about helping my child learn to spell. A common misconception is that English is illogical, quirky and random, but this is far from true. The strict system, with multiple rules and patterns that can help young spellers, has evolved.
However, over time, rules have been manipulated, throwing up exceptions, and even exceptions to those exceptions!
William Caxton, a merchant and diplomat, brought the printing press to England in 1476, kickstarting the standardisation of English spelling.
Prior to this, there?s evidence that the Elizabethans cared little for spelling ? Shakespeare?s name, for example, was spelt in multiple ways. But Caxton?s Flemish assistants and his own European bias meant that the spelling of many English words was duly influenced.
And it ...