I hadn’t heard of Betsy-Tacy books until I was doing a search for good chapter books for young girls over Christmas break. They were on my wish list for my daughter, but we lucked out big time to find 6 of them at a used book store here in town. They have an annual ‘fill-a-bag’ event, all the books you can shove in a bag for $5! My daughter is really excited about them!
As far as dictation goes, we did that weekly this last year. We transitioned to cursive this year. I wasn’t planning on it, but she begged me from August to Dec. Finally I caved, but her handwriting is very neat. She is good with audio memory too, in short phrases. {Brush your teeth, wash your face, get dressed, pick up your room, and do your devotion is another story…) = ) I watched the video on how to use Spelling Wisdom, and if it is something I can break up into phrases I think she would do fine. We are also working through the Increasing in Wisdom bible study for the summer. We just started it last week, but I use a lot of it like dictation to see how she handles it. (Writing definitions of words and verses out of proverbs) She does a good job with it.