Pam Penny's two eldest children can spell almost anything. "I just assumed if one child could spell 'parenthesis' at age 9, then they all would," she says. Then Ms. Penny had three more kids.
Her next child, Veronica, struggled with words while her older siblings were winning spelling bees. Her second-youngest, nine-year-old Paris, recently stumbled on the word "porch" at the mike.
At first, the Hamilton mom, who home-schools her children, took a hard-line approach with word drills and writing out errors three times. The girls barely improved. "After two or three years, I decided it wasn't that important," Ms. Penny says. "They just don't have it."
Indeed, many of us -- and our kids -- just don't have it. Allegedly, Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison were all deplorable spellers.
Many non-native English speakers, especially those whose mother tongue is spelled phonetically, are often confounded with the mysteries of English spelling.
Ms. Penny's son, who is the Spelling Bee of Canada's Hamilton champion, and Wenyi Yin of Toronto, who is a top speller even though English is her third language, are exceptions.
"There's a stigma to bad spelling," says Elena Turner, a communications-skills coach from Hamilton and a self-proclaimed queen bee of spelling. "It doesn't matter how smart you are or how many letters you have after your name, if you spell poorly, people will think you're not very smart."
And while we can lean on spell-checkers, they're not always available. (Plus they rarely pick up on pesky homonyms such as there, they're and their.) Young people especially get caught without a technological crutch while filling out a job application or writing an exam essay.
Is it possible to turn your child's scrambled scribbles -- or your own -- into orderly spelling? The experts say yes. Perhaps not enough to help your child win spelling-bee ribbons, but enough to look smart when it counts.
You just have to know the secrets of great spelling and get past the myths.
First up, plowing through more books will not help. "Twenty-five per cent of people who are good readers are poor spellers," says Dianne Fenner, program co-ordinator of English and literacy for the Toronto District School Board.
Second, stop sounding it out. English is derived from numerous other languages and the sounds of words have precious little to do with the way they are spelled. "There's a whole bunch of words that you just have to learn by sight," Ms. Fenner says.
That's why the best spellers can see words in their head. When someone is imagining the letters of "onomatopoeia" before they write or recite, they actually look in a certain direction. "People who spell well always look up, either to their left or their right. But people who spell poorly look anywhere but up," Ms. Turner says.
Her technique for helping bad spellers is to coax them into visualizing words. She places words so the speller is forced to look up (getting the mind to kick into visual mode) or has them spell a word starting from the middle letter. "The more you use the visualization muscle, the stronger it becomes," she says.
Other ways to cement a spelling include writing down a word, covering it up and spelling it out loud, then repeating that three times. "If you're an auditory learner, this might help," Ms. Fenner says.
So-called kinesthetic learners (who learn by touch) prefer drawing out words in the sand or playing with letter fridge magnets.
Others can memorize how to spell a word better by thinking about the shape the word makes and taking note of tall letters or ones that dip below the line.
These techniques are free. You can also spend money on gizmos, games and books that teach spelling or exercise the brain. Shannon Sheppard, an education consultant and volunteer with the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario, suggests being wary and choosing products that have been clinically studied. "My honest belief is you should try something until it works and if it isn't working, try something else," she says.
If changing how your child's brain tackles spelling isn't getting results, consider the world of shortcuts. Mindy McAdams, a journalism professor at the University of Florida and a stickler for correct spelling, thinks highly of mnemonic tricks. "You make an association that works for you," she says. These don't always work universally, as everyone has different associations that stick for them. Ms. McAdams, for instance, has a little self-created saying that has long helped her tell "siege" and "seize" apart that's pure nonsense to others. (You probably won't die if you're seized, so it's not the same as die, whereas siege has the same "ie" as die.)
The best bet is to encourage your child to come up with their own trick to remembering that there are two r's in tomorrow and independent ends with "ent." But there's nothing wrong with tossing in a few classics such as the rhythmical chant for Mississippi and that dessert has two s's because you go back for seconds.
Ms. Fenner says the best tricks ride on meaning. The fact that the word "here" is hidden in "there" is a good one for keeping this homonym apart from their and they're. "If you can make a connection with a meaning to it, that'll stick the most," she says.
But all the spelling secrets have one common component: They take some work. That's something Ms. Penny plans to put in if her younger girls never master putting letters in their place. If Paris is still stumbling in high school, she'll sit down with her for an hour a day to work on spelling.
For now, when her daughter flubs a word, she says: "Oh, Paris, don't worry about it. I know you're great at geography." (Indeed, the girl knows every U.S. state and capital off by heart.)
The spelling gurus agree that if you push spelling too hard, or make it a drag, nobody's going to learn a thing.
Ms. Fenner specifically warns against overcorrecting when kids write, as they will stop using new or challenging words, and that can stunt their vocabulary and creativity.
So keep it fun, keep it light and remind kids that, except when you're at the mike in a bee, spelling is not an end in itself.
Dianne Peters is a freelance writer in Toronto.
Spelling fun
Always start with easy words to build confidence.
Practise visualization by drawing letters -- and then eventually words -- on a child's back and have him tell you what you're drawing.
Play Scrabble.
Turn on the closed-captions function on your television to connect written with spoken words. Watch the news and identify any spelling mistakes they're making.
Get letter fridge magnets and reshape new words every day.
When you're driving around, talk about how street signs and store names are spelled. (What are the other ways to spell Yonge and shoppe?)
Draw out words in the snow or in sand at the beach for a hands-on experience.
Have kids change how they pronounce certain words in their heads (Wed-NES-day, independ-ENT) so they spell them right.
Don't get hung up on old sayings like "I before E except after C," because there are often too many exceptions.
Enter your child in a bee. If there's a money reward, that's a real motivator.
-- Dianne Peters