Beacon Learning

Spelling isn’t about guessing… it’s about knowing what to do next.

If your child gets stuck when adding endings like -ed or -ing, it’s usually not because they “forgot." It’s because no one showed them the pattern.

These 3 rules do most of the heavy lifting:
• Change y to i
• Drop the e
• Double the consonant

Instead of telling them to try again… give them a process.
👉 “What rule do we use here?”

When kids have a checklist, spelling becomes something they can figure out — not something they have to memorize.

Save this so you can use it during homework

Beacon Learning
Academic Therapy and Tutoring
Virtual and In-Person
Mount Pleasant, SC

Many kids are told to “sound it out.”

But sounding out a word actually requires 3 important skills:
• knowing letter sounds
• blending the sounds together
• reading every letter in the word

Part 3 is the step many kids skip.

Instead of reading every sound, they look at the first letter and guess.

Examples parents often see:
horse → house
went → want
from → for

There are 4 TIPS in this post to try when you are reading with your child this week.

When kids learn to read all the way to the last sound, guessing starts to disappear.

Save these 4 tips to practice at home.

Many parents are told to tell their child to “sound it out.”

But sounding out words actually requires three separate skills.

Kids need to know:
• letter sounds
• how to blend sounds together
• how to look at every letter in the word

Blending is the step where kids push the sounds together smoothly to form a word.

Example:

m / a / p → map

Without blending, kids often say the sounds but still can’t figure out the word.

Save this to practice blending with your child at home.

Part 3 coming next.

Beacon Learning
Dyslexia Therapy

If reading more fixed dyslexia, it wouldn’t exist.

Dyslexia is not an effort issue. It’s a language processing difference.

Without structured, explicit instruction, struggling readers often develop coping strategies like guessing or memorizing words.

Progress happens when we teach the brain how to connect sounds to letters in a systematic way.

If your child is working hard but still not progressing, it may not be about effort. It may be about instruction.

Beacon Learning
Academic Therapy & Tutoring
Mount Pleasant, SC📍📚