WRTR for Parents: Lesson 10

4171838922_466530d778_zThis is a continuation of a parent series on WRTR.

“Advice” in the Fortune Cookie

#29  Say the double letters so you don’t forget them.

This is a weird rule to me.  It’s like a recommendation.  It reminds me of when you open a fortune cookie and get “advice” instead of a fortune.  “Don’t cry over spilled sake.” Why are you in a fortune cookie?  Anyway, this “spelling” rule and #5 aren’t really “spelling” rules at all; they’re “say something funny to remember how they’re spelled” rules.

Rabbit Rule

 An accented short vowel, followed by another syllable, with only one consonant sound between, the consonant is a DOUBLE. 

button, rabbit, kitten, bubble, muffin, gossip, address, tennis, mummy, paddle, giggle, bellow, silly

This is commonly known as the RABBIT rule.  Kit-ten words all follow the Rabbit Rule.  111 Doubling and 211 Doubling follows the Rabbit Rule.  But cam-el words don’t.  They BREAK the Rabbit Rule.  Now some consonants don’t double: H, J, K, W, Y, V, or s saying /z/ (Happy Jumbo Kittens Wearing Yogurt Vests), but the rest DO.

Relish, linen, denim, comet, lemon…if they were behaving, would be rellish, linnen, dennim, commet, lemmon. Naughty!

Rule Breakers…

Spalding recommends that you encourage the kids to find the rule breakers in the lists.  For AAS they “throw them in jail.”  Finding camels and words that break FLOSSY etc. helps break the monotony of the lessons. Then sometimes we make collections:  The camel in denim rode a comet made of relish.

Review

This is the abbreviated KEY WORD version of the rules as I use them when we’re dictating WRTR.  Red are those additions I’ve pulled in from outside WRTR.  They show up in our discussions of the rules and when we’re reading and spelling apart from WRTR, but as a general rule, I don’t redact the text in light of them.

        1. Q is a chicken. (L2)
        2. C says /s/ before e, i, y.(L2)
        3. G says /j/ before e, i, y.(L2)
        4. Open Syllable Rule for a, e, o, and u. (L2)
        5. I and Y have only two sounds. (L2)
        6. English words don’t end in I, please use Y. (L2)
        7. Silent E Jobs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (L3)
        8. Her first nurse works early. Wormy Word Rule (L3)
        9. 111 Doubling Rule (L4)
        10. 211 Doubling Rule (L4)
        11. Dropping Rule (L5)
        12. I before E Rule (L5)
        13. Shiny Fish Friendship Rule (L6)
        14. Special Motion Mission Rule (L6)
        15. Tense Tension Rule (L6)
        16. Persian Fusion Rule (L6)
        17. Flossy Rule (L7)
        18. Words ending in /A/ are spelled AY. (L7)
        19. Old Wild Words (L7)
        20. X already has an S. /ks/ (L8)
        21. Prefixes aren’t Flossy (L8)
        22. Suffixes aren’t Flossy (L8)
        23. Huge Fudge Batch Rule (L8)
        24. Suffix Changing Rule (L8)
        25. Magic Milk Truck Rule (L9)
        26. Proper Noun rule (L9)
        27. /z/ is Z at the beginning of a word (L9)
        28. Ed-Duh-Tuh Rule (L9)
        29. Double Letter Advice (L9)

Other Rules That We Use

  • Kitty Cat Rule.  (Goes with #25) K takes e, i, y; C takes the rest!
  • Pumped Raft Rule.   (Goes with #28) Regular past tense uses ED; base words use D or T
  • Crisp Ker-nel Rule. Every syllable has one and only one vowel phonogram.
  • Broken Bell Rule (#30):  only ng says /ng/ (ing, ang, ong, ung), but the bell breaks when you add /k/ or /g/ and the G melts into glue.  ink, ank, onk, unk, bungle, jungle.
  • Extra Tall Squash Rule (#31): Every unaccented open-a syllable will change to schwa.
  • Rabbit Rule: An accented short vowel, followed by another syllable, with only one consonant sound between, the consonant is a DOUBLE.