The note
How schools teach it now
Not taught in school. The 11+ strategy: run a finger along each gap between two words, reading four letters at a time across the gap, trying 1 + 3, 2 + 2 and 3 + 1 splits. Ignore spaces, capitals and punctuation.
5-minute kitchen-table activity
Write a sentence on paper, then rewrite it with no spaces. Hunt together for words hiding across the joins, using a pencil to circle them. Then make up your own sentences that hide a word for each other.
Worked example
Find the four-letter word hidden across two neighbouring words: The horse ate the hay in the stable.
- Read across each gap: e|hor, se|at, te|th...
- Horse ends in se and ate starts with at: se + at = seat.
Answer: seat
Common mistakes to watch for
- Finding a word inside one word rather than across two.
- Only checking 2 + 2 splits and missing 1 + 3 or 3 + 1.
- Rushing past the first word of the sentence.
Encouragement
- Try saying
- “Slow and steady along every gap. You're a brilliant word hunter.”
- Rather than
- “It's right there, how can you not see it?”