Among the first words your child will learn to write are the trio to, two, and too, three homophones that give some adults trouble.
Homonyms are words that have different meanings and spellings, but which sound alike. Children can be introduced to the concept at the same time they are exposed to the Dolch list of 220 words taught to beginning readers. In addition to the “to” trio, the Dolch includes the following six homonym pairs:
ate/eight
by/buy
for/four
no/know
red/read (past tense)
right/write
Even for children who will grow up to use computers for writing, learning homonyms is an important basic skill.
SpellCheck will catch unique spellings like definite and separate, but the only insurance against misspelling homonyms is to learn them by heart.
Here are twenty homonym pairs that may come the way of your six-year-old:
be/bee
cell/sell
brake/break
die/dye
him/hymn
not/knot
here/hear
mail/male
meat/meet
past/passed
pair/pear
plane/plain
road/rode
sail/sale
see/sea
some/sum
son/sun
waist/waste
whole/hole
would/wood