How to help your child with the Friday spelling test (10 minutes a night)

What should I do on Monday?

Two minutes with the list, not a lesson. Read the words out loud together and find the test day on the sheet. If the words share a pattern, such as a long "e" spelled "ee" or "ea" (green, queen, teach, dream), name the pattern once. Then ask your child which words look hard, and circle them. Put the list where you will both see it: the fridge, the homework folder, the car.

If a word is new, say what it means and use it in a sentence now.

If the test is not on Friday, count the nights back from the test day. A Wednesday test means Monday is the first look and Tuesday is the check. If the list comes every two weeks, spread the same steps over more nights.

How do I quiz my child each night?

Say the word, use it in a sentence, then say the word again: "teach. My aunt will teach me to swim. teach." Your child writes it on paper, or spells it out loud on a tired night. Keep the list out of sight while they spell.

Go through the whole list before you check anything. Stopping after each word turns practice into a string of small verdicts. At the end, check together and mark the misses.

Change the order from night to night. On test day the words may come in any order, so a child who always hears "green" first is practicing the list, not the words.

Ten minutes fits most evenings. If the homework asks for copying, do it, then add one hear-and-spell try.

What if nobody can read the list aloud?

Then a recording does the reading. The free way is a voice memo on any phone. Record the whole list twice, in two different orders. For each word, say the word, a sentence, then the word again, and leave about five seconds of quiet: "green. The grass is green after the rain. green."

Your child plays the first memo, pauses when needed, and writes on paper. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they skip ahead to the words missed the night before. On Thursday, they play the second memo, in its new order, as a practice test. You still look at the paper together at the end.

An app is the other way. SpellOwl reads the list from a photo that you check first. It says the word, a sentence, then the word again, and your child types each spelling. Missed words can be practiced again in a short round. SpellOwl is free for 7 days, then $39.99 a year or $4.99 a month.

What do I do with the missed words?

Start the next night with them. Look at each missed word together and name the part that went wrong: "three: the ee, not ea." Then quiz those words again, and only then run the whole list once.

A simple rule for the week: a word is ready when your child spells it right on two nights in a row. A word right on Monday and missed on Tuesday is not ready yet, and that is normal. Tuesday is when you find out, not Friday.

On Wednesday night, count the ready words. That number tells you where Thursday's 10 minutes should go. Thursday is a practice test: every word, a new order, no list in sight. Then one more look at any miss before bed, and nothing new.

What should I avoid?

Each of these comes from wanting to help, and each is easy to slip into on a tired evening.

• An hour on Thursday night. By then the work is to check, not to learn.
• Spelling the word out loud, or giving away letters by stretching the sound ("thrrr-eee"). Say it again, use the sentence again, then wait.
• Correcting in the middle of a word. Let your child finish, then look at it together.
• Turning misses into a grade, a punishment, or a comparison with a brother or sister.
• Saying "this one is easy". If it was missed, it was not easy tonight.
• Extra words from other lists during the week. The test is on this list.

If a night gets skipped, start the next one with the missed words. The plan bends; the order of the steps stays.