Spelling and reading

Vijayalakshmi Pal, Phonics is the best method to teach reading and spelling. While teaching phonics, you don't have to go in the order of the alphabet. Start with consonant sounds (excluding the alphabets that have hard and soft sound such as c, g). Then move on to the long vowel sound, then the alphabets with hard and soft sound, then short vowel sounds. Then move on to double consonants such au, al, sh, ch etc. You can teach the odd sounding words along the consonant and vowel sounds through sight reading. At initial stage encourage her to write her own innovative spelling to boost her confidence in writing. Read aloud to her everyday. make her read a lot of Just-Right books (books of her reading level). Reading helps in improving her spelling as well as her comprehension skills.

Hi Vijaylakshmi! Great input from carol. A couple of more things you could do are: 1. Introduce/ play crossword with your child off and on in a fun manner. Keep dictionary as a reference point to confirm a spelling. This way your child will be introduced to it in a playful manner. 2. Writing is a great way to inculcate a spelling habit from an early age. Encourage your child to write about things of interest to your child. Help with spellings in an envouraging tone. 3. Reading shall also help in a big way.

Could you please suggest a book for reading and writing for a 6 year old

Dependi g on your child's interests; you could pick either a "nature/wildlife" , "automobiles", "famous places of the world" and so on. Not all books have the place to write, so you could help your child with his own writing diary which again comes in various forms. Pls remembr to pick something which has ruled lines.

Thanks carol and nitin

Vijayalakshmi Pal, You could try the beginner level reader series such as Step-into-reading, DK level reader, banana series, I-can-read series, oxford reading tree series, ready-to-read series, oxford treetop series. Each series has a lot of fiction and non fiction books at each level which are carefully categorized based on the complexity in words and reading comprehension. You could choose any series that is available in your local store and select books based on your daughter's interest. There are infinite number of picture books and sophisticated picture books too which will be very appealing for her. These can be used for read aloud sessions. In case if your daughter has already started reading but struggling in the middle to progress, here is a quick tip that is often used in schools to find the "Just-Right" book for the child. Make her read a page randomly from a book. If she finds difficult to read more than 3 words in that page, the reading level is not the right one. Move to a book that is in lower reading level and try again. Hope this helps.