Teach one letter sound at a time. Begin with one letter and teach children the sound of it for a few days. When one sound is mastered move on to the next one and continue until all forty-four sounds are mastered. There are twenty-six letters of the alphabet. However, there are forty-four different phonetic sounds that need to be taught to children. For a list of these sounds visit A to Z Phonics.com.
Read books daily to children such as Dr. Seuss' "Hop on Pop" and "The Foot Book." These easy reading books help children to put the phonics they have learned into practice. This is the foundation of teaching children to be better spellers.
Use a phonics curriculum such as "Phonics by Spelling" to enhance the knowledge of phonetic sounds. This curriculum includes musical CD sets along with colorful books, that explains the sounds of the letters and the different sounds that letters can have --- such as the "schwa" sound is words such as about, but, and the. Children will see how words have similar sounds and spellings.
Use flash cards to help ingrain the sounds of similar words. One website that offers flashcards already made for you is donpotter.net. This site offers eight free printable lessons that list similar sounding words children can repeat to help them remember the spelling of their phonetic sounds.
Turn the Television on to watch educational shows such as "Word World." This cartoon on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) teaches children to spell out words and enhances the classroom experience with captivating and adventurous cartoon stories. This show uses parts of words and combines them to "build a word." According to the U.S. Department of Education, "children learn to use parts of word families they know to identify words they don't know that have similar parts. Children use their knowledge of key words such as must and ate to read the word frustrate."