Teaching my kid spelling - HELP PLEASE
My daughter has dyslexia (guessing she got it from me as I share many of her challenges). She's in 5th grade and has to do weekly spelling tests. When I was a kid, we just memorized all words until we magically internalized whatever logic the English language has (or grew up to rely heavily on spell check). The internet & elementary school teachers now say teaching phonics is the way to go and is a reasonable strategy. But given her dyslexia, it seems to me that it makes every word a mini-logic problem that requires a lot of executive function and effort.
For example, her current word list is 20 words focusing on the -o- sound and includes: bought, taught, paw, lobster. I say and hear all of these -o- sounds the exact same way.
So, if I'm understanding the phonics rules and system that she's meant to follow, it should go:
recognize the "o" sound
it's probably the letter o unless it's any of the following:
end of a word, then it's -aw
part of -ought, then it's -ou
except when it's -aught, but that's just a random one to remember.
If it's in the middle of a word and in between consonant sounds, then it's -au (this ignores the fact that all vowel sounds come between two consonant sounds).
This is an insane ask for someone who struggles to identify the sounds in words and the direction of letters! Seriously, is this actually easy & automated for some people?
Am I thinking about this wrong? What worked for other people?
Please do not say Orton-Gillingham; she has written words in the sand, jumped, used playdough, etc.; it doesn't answer her question: "But when am I supposed to know which vowel/vowel team to use?"