Hi everyone and welcome to today’s homeschool curriculum forum! Today we’re discussing the every so popular subject of spelling.
It’s no secret that I LOVE All About Learning Press products. And I’m particularly fond of the All About Spelling program. I started using them last year for our phonics and spelling help and we’ve never looked back.
One thing to note, there are only about 25 lessons in both the first and 2nd level books. I’m used to doing 1 lesson/day with my other curriculum, so obviously that wasn’t going to work. Some of the lessons for my 1st grader are pretty easy so we’re blazing through them quickly, but you are to teach to mastery with this program so after talking to the super nice people at All About Spelling I realized that you don’t need to go through 1 lesson each day. Instead you are to stay on that lesson until they’ve got the rules down pat, so we’ve slowed down a bit.
Why do I love All About Learning Press so much?
- It’s easy to do with no prep work on my part
- The phonics rules are reviewed often so kiddos remember them
- It’s a hands-on learning style that makes learning fun
- Results: I personally witnessed in overnight improvement in all of my children’s spelling and reading skills
- The kiddos love it. ‘Nuff said.
We also rotate around how we do things, some days they use tiles, some days a white board, and some days my iPad chalkboard app. We’ve stamped words, said words orally, and something we lovingly refer to as Stair Phonics. I love the flexibility and effectiveness of this program, and my kids love how fun it is.
Pros:
- Hands-on.
- Great review using flashcards and key questions.
- Easy to teach.
Cons:
- Can be pricey if you purchase multiple levels at once. To help combat this we share the student flash cards.
- Is teacher intensive time-wise as you direct all of the lessons so it’s not something you can hand to your students to do on their own.
- Word lists are appropriate for each skill, but typically too easy for my students, so we’ve added in BJU Spelling workbooks for a spelling list each week.
So, now comes the fun part!
What are your favorite Spelling curriculum, resources, websites, etc? Leave a comment below discussing your choices for this year and why.
Feel free to ask questions or reply to each other too!
It’s my way of doing a forum without actually doing a forum haha!
And hopefully this will help us all as we start the process of researching curriculum, and trying to decide what will be the best fit for our homeschool.
Note: Please keep today’s conversations geared towards SPELLING, I will be posting one for each subject separately so we can keep our comments organized.
Click here if you missed my previous Homeschool Curriculum Forum posts!
Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post, I may however be affiliated with one or more products mentioned. The opinions expressed in this post were not influenced by the company. They are products I have used and felt like sharing, cuz’ it’s my blog and I can if I want to.
I am considering using the All About Spelling curriculum. I am interested in what level I should use for my daughter who will be going into 5th grade. Everything I have read suggests starting at Level 1 and working our way up…Suggestions for those who have used it?
very helpful for us , i think for all student use and feel happy . I liked how A Beka’s curriculum overlapped with their lessons. , I just liked how A Beka’s DID. We did NO SPELLING this year in K. I’m not sure our big box curriculum even had spelling in it. thanks here in site very find more of helpful i love that.
Student always try to learn and make a best future for himself and for all.
——————————————————
http://www.ipracticemath.com/
just came across this forum trying to find a spelling curriculum for my 8 yr. old boy who has Auditory Processing Disorder. I was wondering if any of you more experienced homeschoolers could share some advice. He struggles greatly w/ spelling since it’s more of an “auditory” subject. He has a hard time remembering things and so writing repetition is pretty much useless. I haven’t found much info to help me in this area, but I’m feeling if I take it slow and help him remember the rules of spelling, and words, more visually and hands on, then it will stick more? I’m wondering if this program would be what I’m looking for or is there something out there that would work better for him? Thank you for any info that you have to share!
Hi Shari…
My daughter is homeschooling for the 1st time this year. I’m 99% sure that she has APD too so I feel your pain:) I don’t know if All About Spelling is the answer or not…still trying to figure that out:) I will say that is very multisensory. It also has a lot of repetition. And it really teaches auditory phenomic awareness.
My daughter has a terrible memory and she is remembering things because of the repetition. It is mastery based so you can go at their pace.
For APD, Earrobics is a great program. Make it more challenging by adding a metronome, sound machine, or other competing noise to the background. You have to be careful what you buy, as I think is only compatible with older operating systems. It is not really a spelling program, but more of a sound segmenting program which should improve their understanding of how sounds go together in words, and in the end spelling. I’ve also been using Explode the Code with 2 of my children who are second language learners. They have done really well with it, even when I worried over certain rules and how I’d explain them with a language barrier, they have caught on. It is a good “pre spelling” spelling curriculum, affordable, and easy to get through.
I have taught in the classroom, home schooled my own children and now help others with the challenge. I like our recommendations. Currently, the family I’m working with uses Bob Jones, which I’m not that found of, but it is via a home-school depot they are involved in. We work with it.
Regardless of your curriculum I believe that the best way to learn spelling incorporates old and new ways of learning. Nothing substitutes for reading and writing those words. Activities provided with your curriculum should emphasize the “usability” of the word.
I also like to use free online software to create games. It puts a little bit different spin on working with spelling words. Whereas, I first thought this was a waste of time, I’m seeing that the mistakes made in transitioning from reading and writing to technology are the very mistakes which need to be eradicated and practiced.
Just my two cents on spelling. Thanks to everyone for your input.
Lenora
Related article: http://voices.yahoo.com/homeschool-helper-tips-teaching-spelling-homeschool-12532653.html?cat=25
Although we LOVED AAR level 1, AAS level 1 was not such a hit. What made AAR great was the hands on fun activities that helped cement what we were learning. I found that AAS really did not have that. Moving the letter tiles around was just not cutting it for my hands on learner. He wanted activities, fun worksheets and games again and AAS level 1 does not offer that. Spoke to Marie and she said they will be adding fun stuff, but I don’t know when. So, looks like I am going to try A Reason For Spelling with him for 3rd because he is still not a strong speller and not even writing sentences yet.
I homeschooled 4 sons who had to work hard at spelling and my daughter who spelled well naturally. We tried many different curricula, but especially liked A Writing Road to Reading for a really solid understanding of phonograms, marking each word as a study aid, and keeping a spelling notebook for rules. Later we used Spelling Power and were happy with the multi-sensory methods. Now that all of my children have gone on to college and career, new spelling programs continue to be offered. I am very impressed with All About Spelling. If it had been available for 1988-2011 when we homeschooled, I would gladly be using it. The author, Marie, basically guarantees it.
Hey everyone! I have been looking at all about spelling and reading to use with my 7 year old son this year. He does so well with everything in school but struggles so much with reading. We used My Father’s World for 1st grade and although it helped him a lot, he is still struggling. I am pretty set on using the reading program, but think the spelling program may be too close to the same as reading program and that he may get bored with it all. For that reason I am wondering if I should pick a different program for spelling, just to give him some variety and keep him interested. Another question I had was if these programs introduce grammar at any point. If it does when, if it doesn’t then what do you all use for grammar? I feel like having 3 programs (phonics, spelling, grammar) Is going to be a little much. For that reason I am wondering if I should find an all encompassing program, but don’t even know if there is a good one out there. Thank you!
Hi Karen,
If you continue with MFW you’ll definitely want to find a good phonics program to supplement as we had the same issue when using theirs. I ended up using Abeka phonics/reading to get Strawberry Shortcake caught back up and she did great. We now use Abeka phonics/reading for our children until they get to first grade then we add in All About Spelling lessons for spelling/phonics.
What do you use for grammar, from 2nd grade one? All about spelling/reading does not include grammar, correct?
We have used Soaring with Spelling for many years with great success. (We also use Growing with Grammar from them too)
Can you recommend which level of BJU spelling would work best with each level of AAS? For instance do the rules taught is level 2 correspond with 2nd or 3rd grade BJU spelling? Thanks so much!
Hi Tiffany,
I don’t think the BJU Spelling and AAS program directly correlate. If you are planning to use both, I would just go with the grade level of your student for BJU Press products.
Thanks for this! We have used Spelling Workout and Spelling Power, but they are just not thorough enough for my 6th grader and 4th grader. I don’t really feel like there is enough mastery with these programs for them. I am considering AAS for my 3 oldest (6th, 4th and 2nd) and AAR Pre-Reading for my Pre-K’er who is really interested in reading and writing!