Online Spelling Tests Help Your Child Get on the Right Track

Spelling may be one of the more important things your child will learn during elementary school.  This skill will not only affect his or her grades as the school years progress, but is a crucial skill that will determine what type of future is in store.  The ability to graduate from high school, to write college entrance essays, to complete college with a good grade, and to submit quality resumes are just some examples of important mile marks in your child's future that will be affected by spelling skills.

Education Requires Parental Involvement

Although school is where most academic learning takes place, parents have the ultimate responsibility. 

In the old days, all a parent needed to do was pack a lunch and walk a child to the bus.  The child would receive a well rounded education that would serve him well for the rest of his or her life.  Unfortunately, public education has declined for a variety of reasons, including lack of funding, overextended classrooms, and other factors.  In some public schools, the classroom is filled with children who speak English as a second language, causing the entire class to fall behind.

As a parent, it is up to you to make sure your children acquire the skills they need in order to make their own way in the world as adults. If your child is having trouble learning how to spell words, it might be time for you to step in and lend a helping hand.

Practice Makes Perfect, So Long As It's Fun

Children become bored with rote memory exercises and practice.  A fun and more engaging way to encourage your child to practice or her spelling is to have him take a few online spelling tests. Using a computer is great fun for a child -- and there's an added benefit:  Nowadays, children need computer skills just as much as grammar and spelling skills.  Online spelling tests are a wonderful resource that offer help for different ability levels.  They are graded instantly, and best of all, they are generally free. Since there are many online spelling tests out there, you and your child will always have variety so that your child will not become bored.

Online spelling tests vary not only in difficulty, but also in length. This gives you a great deal of flexibility in terms of setting up a spelling lesson routine for your child. If you want your child practice on a daily basis, then shorter online spelling tests consisting of 10 to 15 words would be ideal. When you think your child is ready to handle more, you can progress to online spelling tests containing 50, 75, or even 100 words.

Beyond Online Spelling Tests

As you start browsing around for online spelling tests, you'll soon discover that many of the web sites offering these free quizzes also carry several other products that you might find useful for helping your child learn to spell. Ready-made flash cards, vocabulary books, and lists of commonly misspelled or hard-to-spell words are all useful tools that you can either print out or purchase.

"Online Spelling Tests Help Get Your Child on the Right Track," contributed by Doris O'Shea