Hi Samval,
Can I take it that phonetic words imply words such as mat, plant, frog, storm, sheep, fresh etc?
In phonics, there are various methods of teaching. One school believes in phonograms (family words). If you are teaching blends and phonograms, then memory work is required. For instance, the kids are requried to remember "bl", "at", "ack" etc. So, your gal is doing right by learning spelling through memory and phonics.
Another school of phonics believes in blending and segmenting words according to the individual sounds. In this case, there isn't much memory work but practice is required. For instance, the word "black". The child should be able to hear the sounds and write "blak", "blac" or "black" and choose the most appropriate spelling.
<table border=1><tr><td>Words</TD><TD>School 1 (phonograms)</TD><TD>School 2 </TD></TR><TR><TD>bat</TD><TD>bat</TD><TD>b-a-t </TD></TR><TR><TD>black</TD><TD>pl-ack</TD><TD>b-l-a-ck </TD></TR><TR><TD>plant</TD><TD>pl-ant</TD><TD>p-l-a-n-t </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD></td></tr></table>
Er... I hope I'm not being too technical and have you confused...