Even in an era of computer spell check programs, children still need to master basic spelling and vocabulary. You can play low-tech games with your kids, such as hangman, that require nothing but a paper and pencil. However, there are lots of websites that provide free spelling games that will appeal to children who find "playing" on the computer to be more fun.
KidsSpell.com
KidsSpell.com touts its site as "the absolutely free and totally fun way to improve your spelling." Children can choose from more than 400 lessons that introduce new words or review recent words. You can also customize your own lists of words. Words from the lists are then used in games categorized as "easier," "harder" and "hardest" to help very young and older students fine-tune their spelling skills.
SpellingCity.com
SpellingCity.com is another free site that allows you to enter your own list of words for practice. Once the words are typed in, the site flips to a new page and quizzes you by announcing the word and using it in a sentence. After you've spelled all the words on your list, you can click to find out how well you did. You can also let the program "teach" you how a word is spelled and used in a sentence, or you can select "play a game" to find a list of games and activities using the words in your list.
Puzzlemaker.com
Puzzlemaker.com is run by Discovery Education and allows children to practice their spelling lists by making puzzles out of their words. You or your child can choose to make word search, criss-cross or double puzzles from a list of words you enter on the site. Kids can get spelling practice by typing in the words and by using them to solve the puzzles.
PrimaryGames.com
PrimaryGames.com offers a See 'N Spell game that lets children work on word groups, such as short vowels, long vowels and plurals. Kids look at a picture of something, such as a dog, and then drag the letters they need to spell "dog" into a box on the screen. They can click to find out instantly if they got it right.
Quiz-Tree.com
Quiz-Tree.com can help children and adults with their spelling by offering quizzes on frequently misspelled words. The site gives you the meaning of a word and then offers you a choice of four different ways to spell the word. You get a red light or green light if your answer is wrong or right, respectively.
