I can’t imagine this would be to everyone’s taste but it works for us.  Periodically, I’ve used the word lists that can be found at the bottom of this page with Antonia.  (BTW, these are part of a reading program that I never joined).  I started doing this because she’s naturally a globalising reader.  This does have limitations as well as advantages and I’ve wanted to give her phonetic skills a nudge from time to time.  I planned to do it very briefly, and soften the blow by making it into a game.  I didn’t bargain on Antonia loving to read word lists.  During the reading, she would have great fun discussing the definition of words, finding rhymes or conjugations of the same word, and putting the words in sentences.  The strangest thing though, is that doing word lists would always spur her into renewed independent reading, whereas if I had her read with me she would consider herself done for the day.

Well, she’s a bit beyond that stage, now.  Her ‘reading grade level’ of 5.6, on the test on this same page, outstrips her actual comprehension of the vocabulary.   I don’t do anything about her reading any more, I just let her read at her natural comprehension level.  But it’s recently dawned on me that her spelling level in either language is barely grade-level appropriate to be generous.  That could be a consequence of the globalising tendency also.   So I pulled out the grade 1 word list again and started working through it.  And guess what!  First, she loves doing it, and second, it’s revived her interest in writing by herself.  Yesterday, she got out a set of writing cards she was given some time ago and had polished off a couple of postcards in less than an hour.