Making Irish spelling easy for 7 year old

jeanb wrote: »

Thank you for all the responses. I absolutely know it's only the start of learning the language and she is very young but is this not the time to engage kids when they love school and learning? I just think there must be a different way of learning it. Having lived in other countries, it seems a shame that their method of teaching foreign languages seems to be so more effective than us teaching our own national language. Why can't they just speak away "as Gaeilge" in classerooms with maybe some reading thrown in for the first few years until they get over the discomfort and get used to the sound and sight of Gaelic words?

There should have been 3 years of Irish without reading or writing from junior infants through to the end of 1st class. The curriculum states that writing & reading should start in 2nd class with the main emphasis still on games, songs , stories and other communicative forms but how teachers choose to teach Irish can differ from the curriculum unfortunately. For instance, officially English should not be used during the Irish lesson at all.

jeanb wrote: »

No, I am a bit reluctant at the moment. The teacher is just following the curriculum anyway so I think that her hands are tied.

The teaching world is like a lot of other worlds....imperfect....where there are good and not so good.....where some know where their pupils are at and others do not know.....and wind up teaching "over their heads" - "above their ability to grasp what is being taught". On the matter of the curriculum.....where there are a number of teachers in the school - as pupils change classes and teachers...there is a possibility of a vacuum developing unless there is joined up thinking on what is taught in each class (i.e. that the next class takes up where the previous class left off).

I would suggest that initially for your own benefit have a look at the School inspectors reports on the school - see Map search at:- http://www.education.ie/en/Find-a-School/

You will need to get the actual School roll number in order to access the school report....and you may have to do a little digging around in the education.ie website in order to get this.

Why don't you teach her a few individual diphthongs and build up on that so that she'll have confidence at learning a few bits. The great thing about Irish spelling is that it's so much more standard than English so if she learns a diphthong that's it done.

Then maybe do individual consonants and how the seimhiu affects the sound of it, one by one.

Etc. Etc.

zeffabelli wrote: »

Im not really sure I understand your question. I'm limited in what I can answer because the charter forbids criticism of the language or of its imposed and required learning. So I can't really say anything about that here, the rest of your question is bewildering and not sure how it pertains to having to learn a language you are indifferent to.

The relevancy of your first paragraph is entirely unclear.

And this post is relevant to the thread because...

Remember though, it's not about learning a language which you are indifferent to, it is about your children learning a language which you are indifferent to.

OP,how many spellings does your child get each night?

Our school doesn't give any until 3rd class.

jeanb wrote: »

My daughter has just started 2nd class and in week 2 seems to be already struggling with Irish spellings along with several of her classmates. The problem is that they have been taught to read and spell English phonetically which has been a major success, with the level of reading and writing in English at this early stage being incredible.
She is a very bright child but cannot however phonetically spell the Irish words as they do not sound at all like English eg ceapairí and this is really upsetting her. I have also spoken to a number of other Mums who are having tears and tantrums at home because of this.
It seems that Irish is still being taught in schools now the same way I learnt it over 30 years ago with no focus on oral before written and you can see already that the kids are taking a turn against the language.
Does anybody have any suggestions on how to teach small children how to spell Irish and make it actually enjoyable whilst challenging to them?
Thank you

1. You need to speak with the teacher.

2. Regarding spelling, I'm not sure if it's right that there should be emphasis on it so early. Nevertheless, if you explain even the most basic rule of spelling - i.e. "caol le caol, leathan le leathan" - that will help her immensely with writing. From that, she'll know (most of the time) what vowel will come after a consonant. It will give her good confidence about her spelling, and that makes other things easier to learn.

3. Although it's used from 2nd class on, I would find it helpful to have Leon Mac Aogáin's verb glance card around the house, if only for you at this stage to be able to help her with patterns in her homework - e.g. "fidh/faidh" being endings in future tense, etc. I think making a point of seeking patterns is the key to cracking any language

4. Regarding pronunciation, at a basic level, this is a very good introduction.

5. I've been in teachers' homes and they've got everything in the house with a poster with its Irish name - e.g. doras/an doras sign on the door, fuinneog/an fhuinneg on the window, etc. I think their children actually made/drew them, learning spelling lessons that way. I think that's a brilliant way to bring the written language into their everyday lives.

6. Although I've never used it, Gaschaint (including cds) is widely respected and is used for Junior infants up according to that website. I have Leabhar Mór na bhFocal Gaeilge and it's certainly great for younger kids (4-7 years old), with pictures and names attached to each one.

Not much of this would be the teacher's fault, Irish is generally taught crappily, but if there's a whole class complaining maybe see the teacher just in case. OP make sure it's clear to your child that this is a different language, and the phonics she learned in Junior infants don't apply to Irish. This may sound blatantly obvious but being 7 she's probably too young to understand that. Imagine if you tried to apply English phonics to a French sign, because you're not aware that "h" could make another sound than "huh"; it's exactly like that. Reassure her that she will get the hang of it with some practise, and please please please try to avoid a bad outlook on learning Irish, it's a trap that so many parents and children fall into and does them no favours academically. Like I said, it's taught horrendously in non-Gaelscoil schools, so you could try and make it fun for her. You could encourage the oral use of the vocab she learns around the house "put the scuab behind the doras", or you could go all-out, doing stuff like getting her to make label cards and stick them around the house with blu-tack as a fun project; she'd see them every day and know their spelling and pronunciation out of familiarity. I hope it gets sorted, good luck!