Spelling seems like it should be an easy skill to master, right? We think if we get a good foundation in phonics, the words will just flow from our brains to our pencils. Unfortunately for all of those struggling spellers out there, that’s not so.

Phonics is more helpful in the area of reading than it is in spelling. The reason is simple. There are about 3,000 core spelling words that you use 98 percent of the time. Of those 3,000 words, 75 percent are NOT phonetic. This is just one of the reasons a child can be a good reader, but a terrible speller. By now you also know that passing a word on a spelling test doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it will be spelled correctly in written work later that day.

Mastering having a good visual memory is also a necessity in good spelling. Remember when a teacher demanded that you write your spelling words five times each to practice them? Your teacher wasn’t being mean; she was involving your tactile/kinesthetic mode to help your visual memory recall the correct spelling.

There are many types of spelling mistakes. A few include: incorrectly learned words, letter transpositions, spelling words the way they sound but not the way they look, thinking/writing so fast you miss entire syllables (telescoping) and often skipping entire words, or writing all of the letters, but in the wrong order. Children with spelling problems have greater difficulty with syllabication (breaking words down into syllables), the inability to hear short vowels or sequence sounds and the inability to write as fast as they can think. The “here today, gone tomorrow” nature of a learning disability is typical in spelling. Spelling requires drill, drill and more drill—but by using as many senses as possible.

The latest research indicates that experts don’t know what makes a child learn to spell well. They did find out that a few techniques make a significant difference though. These are:

• Learn only a maximum of three new words per day. So this means that the night before the spelling test it is not a great time to pull out the weekly list for the first time.
• Saying each letter aloud after it is written helps by adding in the component of the auditory feedback system.
• Having the child analyze his own mistakes seems to be a worthwhile activity because it utilizes the visual feedback system.
• Typing versus handwriting has additional merit because it forces the child to pay attention to letter order, which engages both visual and tactile/kinesthetic feedback.
• Likewise, researchers discovered some activities are not statistically useful, including: writing the new words in a sentence, finding the correct spelling among several misspelled words, and writing the word in the air (not enough tactile feedback).

With summer just around the corner, spelling practice shouldn’t have to be put on hold until school begins in the fall. Here are 13 fun activities to jazz up spelling practice, and they only take a few minutes each day.

• Have your children write a play/drama. Correct the misspelled words and have them write them again five times each. Then they can rewrite the play before the first performance. Maybe they can earn a ‘show fee’ by putting the play on for relatives or family members.
• Give your child three new words a day to learn. Practice writing them in sand or in a flat pan with dried rice or beans for a tactile experience. Create a song for the hard words. After all, who among us can’t spell bologna after that cute Oscar Mayer commercial aired years ago. “My bologna has a first name…”
• Use magnetic letters to put new words on a metal board or on the fridge. You can switch the letters around when your child isn’t looking, and he has to rearrange them any time he finds the words misspelled.
• Go on a field trip or a scavenger hunt for new items that match new spelling words. Even if one of the items is a non-noun word, like ‘fluffy,’ your child must bring home or find a thing that’s fluffy. He then rewrites the list of items you originally gave him.
• Synonyms and antonyms are good ways to learn new spelling words and to increase vocabulary. Have your child look up synonyms and antonyms for their spelling words. You can underline words in a story that can be rewritten with replacement synonyms or opposites. Of course, the funniest stories come from replacing the underlined words with silly words.
• Spell words on a sheet of paper using fun or unusual things like sticks, pine needles, toothpicks or peas. Use pipe cleaners to mold other words. Cut letters out of textured wallpaper or felt.
• Visit www.bigfishgames.com to find lots of downloadable sheets that have word searches, fill-in-the-blanks and other spelling puzzles.
• Look on www.ed.helper.com for spelling worksheets at all levels of practice.
• Teach your older children to use www.usingenglish.com as a spell-checker reference. They can look up a word, get its meaning, part of speech and usage.
• Leap Frog puts out a fun hand-held spelling game called Twist-N-Spell. It can be found at all learning stores and it’s not too expensive.
• Practice playing school, where your child is the teacher and he gives you words to spell on a board. You should misspell some of them and have him correct them for you.
• Hangman, Scrabble and Scrabble Jr. are good practice for harder spelling words. Allow a dictionary to be used or use lists of your child’s old spelling words.
• Teach visualization skills. Start by having your child memorize four pictures of common items, then have them close their eyes while you take all of the pictures away. When they open their eyes, hand them the pictures in a mixed-up order and have them put them in the order they saw them. Move on to five or six pictures, then try nonsense words, like, yob, guit or derz. Eventually, add real words into the sets. This exercise helps children increase their visual memory.

“Spelling can be fun” should be the new motto in your child’s life. This summer, you can spell relief, and a whole lot of other words, with just these few simple ideas.