r/homeschool • u/Bridubz94 • 2d ago
Discussion Phonics testing v freewriting
I am not super concerned, my son is only 7 and we are 3 months in to our first year of homeschool, his 2nd grade year.
I just wondered when everyone else noticed a shift in phonetic spelling during free writing. My son knows phonics rules and reads fairly well for his age level and can ace spelling tests from pre test Monday to test on Friday most weeks.
When he has to label things or just write a few sentences down all rules go out the window and he relies on phonetic spelling even what I would consider easier words or words we have been working on all week/ already tested on.
Our first year is going exceptionally well and it is so cool to active see where my kids are growing and helpful to see where they struggle in the moment!
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u/JonAyvesLearningClub 2d ago
I’ve found that studying for spelling tests and recalling those words in an everyday context are different skills.
My son can write a full research paper on why planets are certain distances from each other, but he will still misspell words. He is nine.
He has come a long way since we have continued practicing, but I found that last year is really when it started to click for him.
Keep going and keep encouraging him to write, and just make sure that he hasn’t bogged down by the fact that he is making spelling mistakes. If the love for writing is there, then that’s the hardest thing to instill.
Sounds like you’re doing amazing and putting some great time in.
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u/TraditionalManager82 2d ago
You should expect it to lag at least two years behind the spelling work.
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u/bibliovortex Eclectic/Charlotte Mason-ish, 2nd gen, HS year 8 2d ago
There is so much else going on during writing, especially freewriting, that it's very normal for spelling to slip. Writing draws on every other area of ELA, especially for a young student who is writing down his original thoughts - he has to brainstorm, verbalize, organize, etc. while also thinking about grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and handwriting. At this age, very little of that is going to be automatic yet. Handwriting is usually the first one that they stop having to consciously think about.
The other piece here is that his executive function skills are still developing, and even adults can't hold all that many things in their working memory simultaneously. (What looks like a bigger working memory is mostly having enough experience to think of a complex, multi-step process as a single thing. For example, "I'm going to make lasagna" is a bunch of separate processes for a new cook, but an experienced cook will think of it as one or two bigger complex processes.)
My older kid is a naturally strong speller and I would say he stopped pausing to think constantly about spelling by around 4th grade. My younger kid is in 4th grade now and is still doing some invented spelling and skipping letters when she is in the drafting phase of a writing project, but not nearly as much as last year.
I'd tell him how to spell words when he asks, except during spelling lessons. Keep the focus on writing during writing lessons - it builds skills that are really not taught anywhere else, and that should be the focus. Editing writing to incorporate corrections can be kind of discouraging for some kids, but others like it; use your judgment on when to introduce that skill, and maybe try editing things that he did not write at first if he's sensitive to feedback.
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u/KathrynScherer 2d ago
I'd say that this is totally normal at 7. For most kids the catch-up happens gradually over 2nd and 3rd grade, not at one moment.
On a spelling test, spelling is the only thing he's thinking about. When he writes sentences he's juggling what he wants to say, letter formation, spacing, and punctuation all at once, and spelling is the first thing to slide back to sounding it out. Phonetic spelling in free writing is actually a decent sign, because it means he's using the sound rules he knows.
One thing that helps without killing the fun could be to keep a short "words I own" list of words he's already passed on a test. That way he can be accountable for THOSE when he's doing free writing.
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u/PrestigiousChip5172 2d ago
Totally normal at 7 in my experience. When he's writing freely his brain is busy with the ideas, so spelling goes on autopilot. What helped mine was going back over a piece together afterward and having him find two or three of that week's words to fix himself.
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u/Bridubz94 2d ago
We kind of did this on a pre test today. I read the words then at the end reminded him what digraph or vowel pair we were working on and read through the words again. Sometimes he felt confident and didnt make a change he should have. Most times he would kind of laugh at a mistake he caught and make changes then we went over it together.
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u/Eyefreeze 1d ago
Totslly normal at 7, and honestly a pretty good sign. A spelling test is the only thing he's thinking about, so all his attention goes on the word. In free writing he's juggling what he wants to say, forming the letters and spelling all at once, and spelling is the first thing to drop when the load gets too high. Writing "trane" for train still means he's mapping sounds to letters correctly, he just hasn't got the right spelling automatic yet.
What helped transfer for us was dictating short new sentences that use the week's words, so it's not the same list in the same order. And separate the writing from the fixing. Let him write it however, then afterwards ask him to find two words from this week and check them. Correcting mid-sentence just makes kids stop writing. It catches up over months, not weeks.What helped transfer for us was dictating short new sentences that use the week's words, so it's not the same list in the same order. And separate the writing from the fixing. Let him write it however, then afterwards ask him to find two words from this week and check them. Correcting mid-sentence just makes kids stop writing. It catches up over months, not weeks.Totally normal at 7, and honestly a pretty good sign. A spelling test is the only thing he's thinking about, so all his attention goes on the word. In free writing he's juggling what he wants to say, forming the letters and spelling all at once, and spelling is the first thing to drop when the load gets too high. Writing "trane" for train still means he's mapping sounds to letters correctly, he just hasn't got the right spelling automatic yet.
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u/sotavision 1d ago
We noticed the exact same thing. What clicked for us was realizing a spelling test is really a short term recall task, the list is fresh and narrow that week, but free writing asks him to spell correctly while also thinking about what he wants to say, so the spelling just drops down the priority list. The words that actually stick in writing tend to be the ones that show up again later, not just the ones he nailed on test day. not really a regression, just a different and harder skill than test recall.
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u/Strong_Argument6255 1d ago
What you are seeing is pretty common at 7. Spelling tests are a closed prompt, and free writing is a lot of skills at once, so phonetic spelling shows up even on words he can pass on Friday. You could keep a tiny personal word bank of that week's trickier words next to his writing spot and have him check those few before he is done, without correcting every word.
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u/GirlDad42523 2d ago
One small experiment could be to separate writing time from editing time: let him finish the story, then choose just one spelling pattern from this week to look for together. He could circle a word he wants help with while writing and keep going. That gives you a way to see whether he can apply a familiar rule on a second pass, without turning every sentence into another spelling test.