Learning ladder

Kids have an interesting way of learning.
We tried teaching spellings to our kid in different ways but it just wouldn't work.
Finally we made a 'word game' between us. One would say 'apple' and the next one had to say something beginning with 'e' and so on and so forth went the game...
It worked and now we have managed to build a good vocabulary.
Learning is a subconscious process for some. Fear doesn't operate at that level.
Here winning the game was more important at conscious level and learning spellings came subconsciously.