There are several activities you can use to help your child learn spelling in an enjoyable manner.
Forget those boring word lists; mastering words out of context contribute little to the process of learning spelling.
Boys have especially been found to easily lose interest in spelling drills. Teachers must then find various ways to arouse their interest when it comes to mastering spelling.
One researcher, for instance, found that a problem-solving approach to reading and writing appeared especially appealing to boys. In such an activity, they were found to enjoy the verbal interaction through which the 'investigations' are carried out both in whole class and small group discussions (Huxford, 2004).
Another observed that "students enjoyed working with peers to practice spelling words" (Taylor & Alber, 2003).
As we are social animals, we naturally enjoy interacting with people of the same age. Friendly competition and peer tutoring are therefore effective ways to learn spelling because of the element of enjoyment innate in them.
Spelling games such as Scrabble, Hangman, or Boggle, provide hours of entertainment because of the social aspect of these games.
When a player takes his turn in Scrabble, for instance, using a word unknown to the others, the word is "challenged" and a dictionary is consulted. It's pretty certain that after the game, all the players would be able to remember that word hence – both its spelling and its meaning. When the word is nonexistent, or not found in the agreed-upon dictionary, there's bound to be friendly ribbing, which is all part of the learning process.
In the absence of playmates, spelling software such as the Ultimate Spelling software can be used, as it is interactive and user-friendly.
In fact, even kids with little training in computer-use can easily figure out how to use the software.
Audio pronunciations of more than 20,000 words make it even easier to learn spelling because the user doesn't have to depend on a human being to pronounce difficult words for him.
Using the Ultimate Spelling software, however, does not have to detract from the children's social interaction because it can be used as a supplement to learning spelling at home.
For instance, siblings of almost the same age can tackle the word lists of various levels and see if they could catch up or compete with each other. Parents can then formulate reward schemes for top performers to make the kids even more motivated to improve.
References:
Huxford, L 2004, 'Developing an understanding of the pedagogy of writing in the middle years (age 8-11)', The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 27, no. 3.
Taylor, L K & Alber, S R, 2003, 'The effects of classwide peer tutoring on the spelling achievement of first graders with learning disabilities', Behavior Analyst Today, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 183-201.