A common stereotype about Montessori children is that they’re bad spellers!
While we eventually do encourage proper spelling, it’s true that when we first teach children to write in non-phonetic languages like English, we don’t focus on spelling.
When children first learn to write, they sound out words based on the letters they hear. They’ve learned to identify letters by the sounds they make. Initially, each vowel is associated with just one sound.
For example, “a” makes the A sound in Apple, but “ai” makes the A sound in Train – and also in Day and Cake. Alternate spellings of vowel sounds are taught later.
A child might write the word “green” as g-r-e-e-n, but they might write the word “Monday” as m-u-n-d-a-i. We would not correct this spelling!
Later, we teach “puzzle words” like She and Why that have to be memorized, as well as alternate spellings of vowel sounds. In a non-phonetic language like English, we focus on correct spelling only after a child has developed confidence in writing phonetically.
We want children’s initial experiences with writing to be joyful, so we give them the freedom to develop a love for writing before we ask them to focus on conventional spelling.
