The scientific teaching of spelling requires that words shall be taught
in the grade in which they are first used. When the child first enters
school his speaking vocabulary is comparatively large. His reading
vocabulary varies from nothing to one fairly large, depending, in part,
on the home from which the child comes. His writing vocabulary is very
limited, even under the best of conditions. This latter increases very
rapidly during the first three years. The teaching of nearly 2,000 words
in the second grade becomes, of course, a gigantic, even an impossible,
task. The ALDINE SPELLER obviates this in two ways:
(_a_) By postponing the teaching of the words least likely to be used in
the second grade until a later grade.
(_b_) Many of the words which should be taught in the early grades have
basic parts which have been called phonograms. By use of these phonogram
groups, or “families,” the number of words taught in the first and
second grades can be very greatly increased, and the best possible
foundation given for the development of a _spelling sense_. The ALDINE
SPELLER makes full use of this principle, and a very complete list of
phonic “families” will be found at the close of the work of the second
year. (See page 65, Part I.) Attention is also called to suggestions for
teaching such words on page 28 of this manual.