A simple weekly spelling routine at home
If your child brings home a spelling list every week, a short daily routine works better than cramming the night before the test. Ten minutes a day is enough.
The week at a glance
| Day | What to do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Pretest: read each word aloud, child writes it. Mark the ones already known. | 5 min |
| Tuesday | Practice only the missed words with look, say, cover, write, check. | 10 min |
| Wednesday | Use each missed word in a short sentence. | 10 min |
| Thursday | Practice test with the whole list on a fresh sheet. | 10 min |
| Friday | The real test at school. |
Why start with a pretest
Most kids already know some words on the list. Testing first shows which words actually need work, so practice time goes where it matters. It also makes Thursday's progress easy to see.
Look, say, cover, write, check
- Look at the word and notice the tricky part (a silent letter, a double letter, an unusual vowel pair).
- Say it aloud, and spell it out letter by letter.
- Cover the word.
- Write it from memory.
- Check it against the original. If it is wrong, start again from "look".
Writing a word correctly once from memory is worth more than copying it ten times.
What to do with missed words
- After the real test, rewrite any missed word three times, saying the letters aloud.
- Add missed words to next week's list as bonus words. Words missed once are likely to be missed again.
- Group words by pattern (-ight words, words with silent e) so your child sees the rule, not just the word.
Read each word, use it in a sentence, then read the word again, the way most teachers do on test day. Practicing in the same format makes the real test feel familiar.