Photos of his spelling test pages

I started off having him practice his spelling test words twice a day. Teacher gives a new list roughly every week. It started off with just 5 very easy words, out of which he already knew 3. Slowly over the months, the list became 10 words and some of the words became trickier (non-decipherable or were the "irregular words" phonetically speaking), with words like "conserve", "tasteless", "branch".

Now, he just revises his spelling once a day at most, if at all. I think he's finding it harder, and so is more reluctant to revise.

The teacher has the list on her whiteboard, so kids revise it in the mornings before class starts. I think that helps him a lot too, to be able to visually see the words often (well, if he bothers to do so cos he'd rather play with his friends in class).

I'm glad that I started him off early on phonics. Although it was seemingly a slow start for him, it was a strong foundation.

I still remember his previous year's class teacher saying that the other kids can read but he cant. At the time the comment was made, he was saying the sound of each letter, then slowly blending 3 letter words like c-a-t, cat. Meanwhile the other kids were "reading" long words like "elephant". I knew in my heart that they memorised that the long e word pasted on that precise location, on the paper stuck up on the wall, to be "elephant". I suspected that if that word was in a book, they would not know how to "read" it.

I knew it was important for him to be able to read. But I didnt know until today, just how important it is, especially in terms of getting into a school. Back then, I only wanted him to be able to read because I wanted him to be independent, and to have access to written knowledge (also part of being independent).

Being able to read better than some of his classmates has given him an important boost to his confidence.

Reading, goes hand in hand with spelling, and he is doing well there too. The kids seated at his table in class are aware of it too. One day when I came back to his class with his probiotics (he complained of tummy pains), the kids were about to start their spelling test. One girl sat at his table commented that he is good at spelling, and the other girl agreed. Hey, that's a confidence booster for sure!

Btw, he now also has Ujian Ejaan (spelling test of Bahasa Malaysia words). It's about 6 words weekly. But with suku kata, it's not too difficult for him. He does though get confused between the Malay sound for "a" and the English sound for "u".

Here's some proof that he's doing well in spelling. Though the photos are a bit grainy, you can just about make out the "Good" and "A" grades given by the teacher.

Oh, and you can see his handwriting is legible but not very nice looking. Perhaps I should take photos of his handwriting a year ago for comparison. He's come a long way in that area too.