Ow/ou - easy way of teaching 6 yr old the difference

Hi there. First time user on these forums so I hope I have posted in the correct forum 

My 6 year old son is learning to read and is progressing steadily. However, he struggles to remember the spelling for words which use the diphthongs OW and OU. So for example, he'll think owl is spelt oul and bounce is spelt bownce.

I need to find a rule or a way of being able to help him remember how to differentiate between the two spellings. I came across one rule that stated:

"Ou or Ow: Use ou in the middle of a word and use ow at the end of words other than those that end in n or d."

But this does not allow for exceptions such as owl, growl, towel, loud, fowl, foul etc.

 Any help would be really appreciated!

Thanks,

Jon 

jonathen

use ow at the end of words other than those that end in n or d

Final: now, allow, low, below, window, ...;  Exceptions:  thou, you, caribou

Final n: brown, down, own, shown, known,  ...;  Exceptions:  noun, pronoun

Final l: owl, howl, fowl, bowl, ...;  Exceptions:  foul, soul, ghoul*

*Note the wel's and wer's:  towel, dowel, vowel, ..., tower, power, ..., and owe.   (Use w, not u, between vowels.)

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The same rule also applies quite well with au/aw:  saw, fawn, shawl, laundry -- perhaps less well with eu/ew:  few, sewn, mewl, neuron, because there are fewer common words with eu or ew.

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I'm not sure a six-year-old is ready for all this. 

 CJ

down, town, clown, frown can easily be worked into a children's story.  It's probably best for the word to be encountered in reading quite a few times before writing is attempted.

The same is true of owl, howl, prowl, scowl.

And of cow, now, how, sow, bow.  And of  round, ground, found, mound, sound, loud, cloud, proud, out, stout, shout, about, bounce, ounce.

Go slow.

CJ 

Keep the two letter combinations separate as suggested above, and drill the shape of the words into him by repetitive usage - little and often. 

I think focusing on these spelling differences at this young an age can stunt a child's desire to write. As your son has more natural experiences (not forced lessons) with reading, word families and vowel tendancies-he will adopt specific spellings. I know its tough to watch your child mispell things, but try to focus more on writing ability not spelling. Spelling will come with age.