My son wll be third grade next yer and now that his reading has improved I feel like we need to add in some spelling! A friend of mine gave me All About Spelling to try out and it’s level one. I like what Sonya has to offer with spelling wisdom as well. Has anyone used and liked all about spelling?! What were the pros and cons and also who has tried spelling wisdom with great results. My son does not have much skill with spelling yet aside from what he gets with copy work and doing reading eggs online. He does reading eggs for fun after he finishes his school work.
I’ve seen good results with AAS, but know others have good results for a time, then find it’s no longer working. We haven’t come to that point. I also use dication similar to SW (planning to add the actual SW lessons next year). I’m hoping to combination helps to cover spelling from more than one direction. I tried lists, rules, dictation, and more lists with some of my older children (one type of approach at a time.) Those who were natural spellers, handled spelling well no matter the approach. Those who struggled with spelling, struggled no matter what we did. So, for our youngest two, I’m hoping that combining approaches will be beneficial.
We’ve found, with AAS, we needed to occassionally slow down. This cemented the phonograms, etc. So far, so good.
Both of the kids want to add spelling lists because their friends have them. I will only be using very simplified lists for our daughter (almost 8,) but I do plan to add weekly/biweekly lists for our son (14). I am pulling these lists from the back of our Essentials guide. The lists were originally found in Spelling Plus.
Sorry, I don’t have a one over the other response, but thought it might be helpful to know how we are actually being able to tackle spelling at our house. Sending you a PM.
We are using AAS, because my son is dyslexic, and nothing else was helping him with spelling at all. I am using ANKI for the cards though to make sure we are getting enough repetition.
It sounds like we use a lot of the same resources! I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try the all about spelling since I already have level one. I was beginning to think my son might be slightly dyslexic because he was reversing some letters but he is doing it less and less and realizes when he does it. When did you begin adding in spelling? What grade or age?
@ starting with level 1…Yes, per AAS suggestions….that way they cover all of the phonograms from the beginning. You can go through it as quickly, or slowly as needed. We’ve had various speeds. Quick for what’s already known. Slow down for newer/unlearned rules. Pick back up when things are clicking along.
DD9 has completed level 1 AAS and has just started SW. She is an excellent reader, but her spelling is weaker. AAS has helped her to spell words that are similar in phonics. She likes AAS better, but what she really likes is using Spelling City, so whichever curriculum we are using I allow her to work on her new words in the app, but in addition with SW she must study the passage for correct grammar. Since we are dropping grammar now I am going to require SW, but we will continue using AAS. I believe the combination of both will be good for phonics as well as grammar in spelling.
caycecronk – for Delta I started trying to add in spelling when he was in ‘Grade 4’, age 9. Although I had wondered a bit about dyslexia beforehand, when I discovered that he couldn’t spell…. well….. anything…. I really looked into it. He didn’t have letter reversals or anything like that – but he definitely has a LOT of dyslexia symptoms – and it is really obvious to me NOW. We were about 1/2 the way through that school year when I tried All About Spelling. It has made a huge difference for him – although he is (a year and almost a half later) – he is almost 1/2 of the way through Level 2.
I started Echo at the same time as Delta as she shows signs of dyslexia (well, I think it would be termed stealth-dyslexia right now, as she reads at about grade level…) – she used to mirror write naturally (ie, as soon as she started writing her name it was with all the letters backwards, starting at the righthand side of the page, moving towards the left….) and she really struggles with some of the numbers. So, I started AAS early, as I mentioned…. at about age 6.75 or grade 2….
I have to admit that I’m debating if I will do AAS with Foxtrot or not… She will be 6 and in Grade 1 in the fall, and reads at about a grade 3ish level right now….
Suzukimom, it’s good to read about using this program and doing spelling at all with children with dyslexia. My sons are 8 (2nd gr) and it seems they both have dyslexia. The one who is more clearly affected reads at grade level now, the one I’m not positive if he has it or not is about a grade behind. (With him it is hard to tell how much is a learning style/challenge vs his own personality challenges – he still only wants to play.) Anyway I was just getting online to ask if anyone had advice on starting spelling with dyslexic children. I was looking at the SCM spelling book and don’t think they could do that much writing still. (Even lesson 8 in Book 1 looks to be too much.) Is it appropriate to think they can start spelling lessons next year? I alreayd have AAS v 1 so would likely stick with that even though I prefer it to be incorporated into literature but they struggle so with the actual writing process I think they need something with less writing. (We still don’t do copywork and I WAS doing the Diane Craft’s 8 pattern but we’ve dropped it recently for no good reason.) I appreciate any and all advice!
Thanks guys for the advice! I was really starting to panic a bit and feeling like I was leaving a lot of gaps in his language arts but I know for my son that slowly adding in things works best for him. We did start English for the thoughtful child this year and going through it slowly for grammar. He likes it and it’s gentle but requires a bit of writing which he doesn’t like and I have to write his sentences to be copied due to poor spelling. I think I will feel better once we actually add in spelling and I will not feel like so many gaps are there anymore.
I’m sure the ladies on here will have some good advice for you. I’m not sure if my son is dyslexic or not…he has never been diagnosed but has struggled with reading but doing much better now that he is eight years old. I’m sure the other ladies can chime in as well on this!
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