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The 2 words in each list that have an *, do you remind your child about that * when they are getting ready to spell it? What about if you can tell they are about to get it incorrect?

If it looks like she is struggling then I will say "this one isn't like all the others." If she just goes ahead and spells it wrong, I let her spell it wrong and she corrects it (or does the practice activity) after looking at the card. Really it's not bad for them to get it wrong, especially on Day 2 because they've only seen it once before.

Well, how about if they are getting it wrong on day 5? I don't think spelling will be his forte. He tries to spell everything phonetically (or what he thinks is phonetically) and he wonders who the crazies are that spelled lots of our words incorrectly!! haha

I am not a spelling expert but my DD does often miss them on the last day too. I just do it as written. I have her review the missed words again (as suggested in the guide), but don't go any further than that. I'm sure others could share ways they have helped their struggling spellers. How long have you been doing the spelling lists? Basically the point of doing them the way HOD does is using their visual memory to spell, rather than phonetic (or along with phonetic). So they are supposed to look at the word and kind of "take a picture" of how the word looks and spell that way. So you are supposed to have them looking at the card often, when you do the "test" on day 2 and day 4, you don't tell them if they got it right or not, you show them the card and have them correct it (or realize they got it right) on their own. This is why reading is also a good aid to spelling. My 2nd DD is very auditory and she struggled a lot with the spelling lists at first so I had her looking AND saying the word and the spelling aloud for a while. Now we just do it as written.

I hope others can chime in with ideas that can help.

My ds had some trouble in first grade with the spelling words toward the middle of the first list. I began to have him circle the special sounds and mark the vowels in the words on day 1 and have him sound out the the words. This helped him very well and he moved on to list 2 and now dictation and has become a great speller! Seldom missing a word and doing a great job in his creative writing and his oral spelling.

Perhaps that will help? I read it on the message board, after I prayed for the Lord's help with his spelling trouble. Another Mom did that with her dc, I can't find the original post that quickly!

So if the word is 'best', I had him circle the 'st' and mark the 'e' short. I did ABeka with him in kindergarten for reading and phonics, before I discovered The Reading Lesson! So, he knew how to do that.

As for the words with an *, I would tell them on day 1 and 2, but not on the final day. I really tried to see if they mastered the spelling on day 4. If not, we would just follow the activity Carrie has in the guide and move on, getting back to the words again in the review week.

Success as you continue on this homeschooling journey!