One of my greatest pleasures is gardening.
I have a beautiful perennial garden, and all my plants have wonderful copper labels. I choose copper labels because they age nicely. You use a ballpoint pen to write on the soft copper, and the pressure from the pen leaves an imprint in the label.
This summer I added snowdrop anemones to my garden. As always, after I planted the flowers, I pulled out a copper label and a ballpoint pen. I said the name aloud as I wrote it on the label: “A-nen-o-me.”
A little later on, I became curious about the origin of this flower’s name. You see, I truly enjoy learning the history of words, especially words like plant names. I discovered that the anemone gets its name from the Greek anemos, meaning “wind.” In fact, the common name for the anemone is “windflower.” I imagine this is because the wind carries the anemone’s white puffy seeds to their new home.
It occurred to me just then that I’d misspelled the plant name on the label—a fine thing for a spelling teacher to do!
I thought about the situation for a moment and I realized something important. I spelled the word incorrectly because I pronounced the word incorrectly. For years, I’ve switched the last m and n in the word. I never realized that until I looked into the source of the plant name.
An important part of teaching spelling is helping your student pronounce words correctly. It’s hard for your child to spell library correctly if she pronounces it “libary,” for example. Sometimes just learning to pronounce the word properly is all students need to help them learn how to spell the words right.
Correct pronunciation spares your student the trouble of misspelling, and it can spare you the trouble of having to rewrite a copper label!
About Marie Rippel
So true! I think anemone is a common name to mispronounce.
Have you ever had trouble remembering a word if you don’t know how it is spelled? When I was learning Spanish, that was a big thing for me. Maybe because I am a visual learner.
At what age should you start correcting a child’s pronunciation? I’ve heard that with pronouns, for example, it’s best to model using them correctly such as restating their sentence using the correct words, but not to make a child say it again the correct way. Is that true?
What do you think about pronunciation? Do you start correcting pronunciation when a child is ready to start spelling? Before? Play it by ear and go with the child’s development?
Hi eskimo princess! Good questions. I agree that the best method for helping a child’s pronunciation is through purposeful modeling.
Outside of formal spelling or reading time, I wouldn’t interrupt a child to correct his pronunciation. It’s important to keep a positive environment for speaking.
My daughter used to say “mu-zay-um” for the word “museum”. At the time, she had a rock museum in our basement, and she would have family and friends over to visit her museum. Word got out, and a newspaper reporter and photographer even came over! So as you can imagine, she used the word “mu-zay-um” quite often. I didn’t want to make her feel self-conscious about her pronunciation, so I just intentionally modeled the word museum whenever it came up. “Oh, good! You labeled the new rocks for your museum!”
If your child says “I’d like some more pasgetti,” you could respond, “More spaghetti, coming up!” If your child talks about an ambliance whizzing past your car, you could say, “The ambulance must be headed to the hospital.” These are gentle, almost invisible, corrections.
You made an interesting observation about having difficulty remembering a word if you don’t know how it is spelled. I am the same way. When I am trying to recall a word, it helps if I visualize how it is spelled or what the word looks like on the page. Perhaps with older children who are visual learners, this would be a good technique for helping with pronunciation!
My husband has been telling me this for 12 years but it didn’t help until I learned syllable division and pronounciation. It also helped to learn to spell the base word first. I had really never heard these spelling basics before. I keep reminding my kids to do each of these steps as well. I love this article and learning along with my kids.
I think I’ve always gently corrected my kids’ speech. Even as babies. Sometimes I adopted their cute sayings, but many times I just gently restated–if they said “mik” I cheerfully repeated, “Oh, would you like some milk?” and so on. Sometimes I might model for them instead, “Mom, may I please have some milk? Sure honey!” As they became developmentally ready to say more sounds or longer sentences, I had them try to restate things, but it was always done in a light manner. If I could see it frustrating them, I backed off.
I remember a “Funniest Home Video” of a little 2 or 3 year-old girl who wanted some grapes. She would ask for them but not say please, so her dad was trying to get her to say “please.” He’d model the word, she’d repeat, then he’d ask if she wanted some grapes, and she nodded happily and said, “mm-hmmm!” They did this over and over, and it was funny to watch, but I kept thinking, give the poor girl her grapes already! She just didn’t get it that she was to say please when he asked the question!
Pronouncing for spelling is a great strategy though, and has helped my kids a lot. So even if you haven’t corrected some (or any) words before, I don’t think it’s too late to start. I had teachers in school who drilled correct pronunciation on “because,” “library,” “February,” and “aunt” over and over! But it helped us!
Merry :-)
Some great ideas for helping with spelling :)
Making sure to pronounce words correctly is definitely a necessity. There is another matter of words that are not spelled the way they are pronounced (or pronounced the way they are spelled?). When my children need to learn to spell a word such as “Wednesday,” I’ll tell them that even though we might pronounce it “Wenz-day” (yes, I looked it up in the dictionary), we can think “Wed-nes-day” in order to spell it. This works well for words with silent letters, or where an unaccented vowel has the “schwa” sound. To learn “know,” think “k-now.” Of course, I ONLY do this if the child knows the correct pronunciation!
These are beautiful purple flowers. Im going to Lowes to see if I can find them. I am going to plant them with my boys in the spring! Beautiful!
Great point. Sometimes I’m unsure about pronouciation myself
Thanks for this post. It’s a gentle reminder to share more knowledge with my kids as we work in our garden.
My favorite flowers, though I have never been able to grow them. Now that’s live in a more temperate climate, I am trying them for the first time. I know it is off topic but any tips?
That’s something I have not thought of. Thanks for the reminder.
That’s so true that correct pronunciation makes spelling easier! Great post!
This is something we seem to struggle with on a regular basis. Living in the Southern Appalachians we say words with many twangs. For instance the word Pen comes out Pin…Ben is Bin…and so on. This has been a hard one for my son to get. We do work on it though! Thanks so very much for your curriculum…it has been a life saver for my son!
I have always been a pretty good speller but I find that after teaching my children I have improved in some areas; better understanding of why some words are spelled as they are and the rules now make sense in my mind.
I have always been a great speller….but some of my children have really struggled with this area. God is teaching me patience and new ways of learning as I help them.
This was a great post! And a beautiful picture.
It’s amazing to me how much more closely I watch my pronunciation now that I realize the importance in spelling. Love the purple flowers in this post … they remind me of spring!
My kids and I love the wildflowers in my garden plus all the ones across the mountains, hills and valleys here in Montana!
Great reminder to be careful about pronunciation. From the very beginning I have (almost) always responded to my children using correct pronunciation, even when it was tempting to mimic their oh so cute mispronunciations.
I remember my father used to always correct the way I pronounced library. He’d always say “Libary? What’s a libray? I can’t take you there if I don’t know what it is.”
Copper plates for labeling plants. Must say I love that. I will have to see about doing that myself. I am sure it looks stunning.
For years, long before they were old enough to try to spell it, I had to keep telling the kids: A library is not a fruit!! (li-berry).
We have a very midwestern type accent (normal) and we speak proper English most of the time. I have always told my children that what sounds right to them (from hearing it at home) probably is right since we make every effort to speak properly. I remind them what a benefit and asset this is to them in their studies that their ears are already attuned to proper pronunciation and grammar. However, spelling still can be a pain, due to words that do not follow rules and the fact that you can spell certain sounds more than one way. This is just a matter of memorization at that point. My 4th grader would benefit from a purposeful planned spelling curriculum and I am looking at yours to fill this gap.
thanks for the great post!
A good reminder! I have always gently corrected my son when he picks up pronunciations that will make spelling more difficult.
My friend and I have a rivalry about the right way to say clematis. I just love them.
We’ve noticed this in our spelling lessons! I’m a military kid with roots in the midwest…and my pronunciations are a bit off at times. So AAS is helping my kids learn to spell and me to speak.
This is SO true! It really bothers me to hear words pronounced incorrectly, especially to children. They will never learn to spell them correctly, if they don’t hear them pronounced correctly. Thanks for the reminder!
Pronouncing for spelling is such a great tool we’ve learned through AAS. We have some laughs getting our mouths in the right position to say words in ways that are different from our everyday speech. But, we’ve also had a lot of great conversations about how this is helpful to remember how words are spelled and how I did this as a child on my own!
We work really hard on this, our son has autism and was nonverbal. I’m just glad he is saying anything at all. He is also very aware that things come out wrong and he gets upset.
I couldn’t agree more! My daughter has a horrible time pronouncing words correctly so in turn she spells them wrong. Sometimes it takes actually hearing the word for her to pronounce it correctly, thank goodness for computers, I guess.
We have never used a lot of baby talk around here, and I think our kids have pretty great vocabularies and pronunciations. We have done the gentle modeling and occasional correction (like “lellow”) as you describe. But As my youngest child’s language skills explode, I find myself missing some of their cute words. My DD no longer says “Blanklet” for her beloved companion, and this Christmas she pointed out blinking lights instead of “blinkling” ones. So I think I will let my son hang on to “Bargage truck” just a while longer! ;o)
When I moved over 10 years ago I planted flowers all around my home and did not label them. We just moved again and I am hoping to have huge flower garden. I am going to look for these labels and make more of a longer lesson out of it.
Great post as I am an avid gardener who speaks latin in the garden. Both my kids have a botanical name and they can’t quite understand why no one else has a latin name like they do. But it is also a great lesson with them about language and usage as most of our other gardening friends do not know the latin names. Latin is also great because it is mostly phonetic, so spelling their latin names and those of other flowers are pretty easy to sound out. I’m thinking I may give my daughter the job of labeling those rare and choice flowers in our garden this summer. Thanks.
Great reminder how pronouncing words correctly has such a big impact!
Being a southern girl I never thought much about my accent until trying to help my daughter with spelling. I really have had to think about pronouncing my words correctly. There have been several times she has spelled a word incorrectly because of the way I say it.
I’ve never really thought about it before, but the correct pronunciation is vital. And like a previous poster, I have so much trouble learning a new word in another language if I don’t know the spelling. I really enjoy reading your blog posts!
True, and it is so common now days.
good point. My girls are just learning to write so it’s something I have not thought of before. Perhaps I will have to start correcting my daughter when she says “Yew Nork” but it’s just so stinking cute the way she says it.
I love wildflowers so I was interested in this post. I would love to see more pictures of your garden.
Yet another reason I love AAR & AAS! My son has a few mild speech issues. In working through his phonics and spelling lessons, he is becoming more aware of the errors he makes in pronunciation and is beginning to correct himself!
Thank you for all your helpful insights!
Helpful suggestions!
makes sense! A few of those have popped up for me over the past year or two: treatise and Worcestershire sauce. :)
That is so true! There have been several times I’ve noticed that with my son! Thanks for the reminder!
I never thought about the way we say things as part of the problem with my kids spelling. Guess I should have but haven’t. Thanks for the info.
My children have all surprised me with the words they didn’t know they were pronouncing incorrectly until they learned how they are spelled!… Thank you for the reminder to be modeling good pronunciation. (and I love to garden too!)
Great info & great reminder!
Great point!
I have a daughter who always pronounces “Draw” as “Drawl”. She is 6 now and I still haven’t corrected her because I secretly love the way she says it. Now I think I will show her how the word is spelled and practice it with her. I guess the time has come! I think showing her the spelling will really help. Thanks for all you do!
The Littles
This is my biggest problem with spelling. Hopefully all the times I repeat the proper pronunciation for my 4 year old will help when he starts learning to spell more words.
Love this post! :) My son and I enjoy gardening! What a nifty idea concerning the copper labels!!!
I agree, pronunciation is very important. I have always corrected by boys (even as toddlers) when they mis-pronounced things. This is a key element to speech and spelling.
I love to look up what words mean. It helps them make sense and gives more of a rich picture to what someone it trying to say. I wish I had more time to study latin roots, but for now I’m enjoying the feature on kindle e-readers to look up any word in the book just by selecting it. I would never do it if I had to go find the hard-copy dictionary only to find out that obscure word wasn’t in it.
Thanks!
Marie, thanks for pointing out this simple yet important spelling tip! I think the same goes for grammar–speaking correctly is a step toward using grammar properly when writing.
Where do you get copper labels?
Mispronouncing words has been one of our biggest spelling obstacles ever since we’ve been learning all the real spelling rules.
I was drawn to this blog post because of the gorgeous picture; however, as I read the post I was reminded of the importance of correct pronunciation.
I found this post because I want to enter the contest to win $100 toward your products. I’m searching for a new spelling program for our family as our oldest struggles with spelling. I think All About Spelling might just be the answer.
Thanks for the post!
Great point about pronouncing words correctly. As a visual learner, I want to see the word to be able to pronounce it correctly in the first place. Thanks for bringing this point up for us all to be intentional about with ourselves and our kids!
So true! I often correct my 6 and 8 year-olds when they’re mispronouncing words (‘hostipal’ instead of hospital, for example). My oldest used to get frustrated when I did this, but now he sees that it does help with his spelling. Thanks!
Love the info. Thank you:):)
We have two interests in common…All About Spelling and Gardening! : )
I agree! Pronunciation is so important. I try to always model the correct pronunciation, but it is hard when my husband pronounces words incorrectly and I’ve been reminding him for a while about some words so our girls get it right!
So true. It’s hard when they’re little and their mis-pronuciations are so cute! I hate to correct them. Eventually it’s a must though.
So true. This is also true for sounding out beginning and ending sounds for toddlers just learning. If they can’t say it right then they surely can’t pick out the correct sound.
It is a very good point. I also think sometimes their mispronunciations are funny and cute when they’re little, but when it’s time to learn to spell correctly–pronunciation is key! :)
Great post and excellent points. I am the blessed mom to 2 daughters that are in speech therapy so I need to be particularly aware of pronunciation issues.
My favorite thing about home learning is that learning is a normal function of life and extends to each person in the family not only the children. During my childhood school felt like punishment and definitely not something to enjoy. I love your post about your garden and how it inspired you to learn something new.
Thanks for all your posts!
Have you considered making a workbook? I love your program, but my daughter likes busy work, so she’s put off by the program… What do you suggest?
I realized this early on and quickly started cleaning up my pronunciation and correcting the kiddos whenever I hear it. We live in the south and it’s amazing what the dialect does to words down here:)
We begin English from the Roots Up next year. I am very excited to give my girls this Latin foundation for pronunciation and spelling.
Pronouncing for spelling has really helped us a lot! Our son had several words like that… “renember” was my favorite. As we started spelling, I realized I needed to correct some of those words that I loved to hear. He thinks it’s funny because I pretend to be sad that he’s growing up when he starts pronouncing them like a big boy.
I get nostalgic that my 7 year old (who reads well) has stopped saying things wrong, because it was so cute! I am HOPING that it works the opposite way, as well . . . and that my 5 year old will (you know, if he ever learns his letters) start pronouncing words correctly. I.e. “this” instead of “dis.” We also have some minor speech issues, though, so that is part of the problem that we’re addressing.
This trick is so common sense, yet I have never thought of it before! I will definitely be making more of an effort to correct my child’s pronunciation. Thanks for the help!
Having a couple children that have had speech issues, I realized early on how important correct pronunciation was to both spelling and reading.