Often I came across parents of children in grades 1-3 (and higher) who were trying to help their child with

The following is from a handout I wrote to help parents explain some of the rules to children while doing reading practice and helping kids spell words.

Yes there are exceptions to the rules – but it is easier if you learn the rules first before you learn all the exceptions. When I worked with a child who used the rules on a word that was an exception I used to praise the child for following the rules but explain that that word was an exception that we needed to remember. Along the lines of – it is the word that is silly (English is a silly language), the child has done a great job of applying the usual rules. This is one of those silly ones you will need to remember. 

For those of you are at this stage with your child’s schooling I hope the following helps.

The importance of recognizing Short versus Long walking vowels

The short vowels are

‘a’ as in cat

‘e’ as in bed

‘i' as in pit

‘o’ as in pot

‘u’ as in cup

Long vowels are walking vowels. The following rules generally apply for walking vowels.

¨      When two vowels go walking the front one does the talking

¨      Walking vowels usually (but not always) say their letter name.

¨      Vowels walk when they are together or when there is only one consonant in between them.

¨      Vowels are stopped from walking if there is more than one other letter between them.

Walking vowels include

The ‘aye’ sound in cake, pain, say etc

The ‘ee’ sound in beef, leaf, bee, we, etc

The ‘eye’ sound in kite, sky, rye, pie, etc

The ‘owe’ sound in goat, boat, rote, etc

The ‘you’ sound in cube, beaut, ute, etc

Short vowels have some spelling guidelines associated with them

-         A ‘k’ sound at the end of a short one syllable word containing a short vowel is written with a ‘ck’. (Unless there is another sound between the vowel and the /k/ sound eg desk, sink, milk). But a ‘k’ sound after a long vowel is written with a just a ‘k’, because if  you wrote a ck after a long/walking vowel then you would stop the vowel from walking.

-         If the word has a short vowel then you need to stop the vowel from walking when you add –ing or –ed, so if there is only one letter after the vowel you double the last letter before adding the suffix.
 (Vowels are stopped from walking if there is more than one other letter between them).
For example;
words with a -short vowel, hop – hopped, hopping

        Milk – milking
      -long/walking vowel , hope – hoped, hoping

So when the child is reading and they come across;

-         a word with only one vowel they should be encouraged to sound it out using the short vowel sound.

-         a word with two or more letters between the vowels they should be encouraged to sound it out using the short vowel sound. (Vowels are stopped from walking if there is more than one other letter between them).

-         a word with ck, ng, nk, sk after the vowel they should be encouraged to sound it out using the short vowel sound.

-         two vowels together eg ai, or ay, or ee, or ea etc or a split vowel eg a_e, o_e etc, they should be encouraged to sound it out as the long/walking version of the vowel. (When two vowels go walking the front one does the talking, Walking vowels usually (but not always) say their letter name) An example would be pain- sound out as ‘p’ ‘aye’ ‘n’.

-         a word with only one letter between the vowels, they should be encouraged to sound it out as the long /walking version of the vowel.. (Vowels walk when they are together or when there is only one consonant in between them)

And when a child is trying to write an unfamiliar word they should be encouraged to work out if it has a short vowel sound or long walking vowel sound.

This then gives them some guidelines.

As a general rule if it is a short vowel:

-         it will be written as a,e,i,o, or u

-         it a /k/ sound follows the short vowel then it will be written as ‘ck’ (unless there is another sound between the vowel and the /k/ sound eg desk, sink, milk).

-         You may need to double the last letter before adding –ed or –ing, eg shopping Vowels are stopped from walking if there is more than one other letter between them

As a general rule if it has a long/walking vowel;

- it will be written with two vowels either together (eg, beach)or split (eg kite). (When two vowels go walking the front one does the talking, walking vowels usually (but not always) say their letter name).

-         - a /k/ sound following the vowel will be written with just a ‘k’, because if you wrote ck then you would stop the vowel from walking. (Vowels are stopped from walking if there is more than one other letter between them).