This is a really old thread! I’m not on the forum much anymore simply due to time constraints with my brood. However, I popped on for a few minutes tonight and thought this title rang a bell.
Nbingham – SWR is super effective, but crazy time consuming. Once familiar, I just set a timer for 30 min. and called it good. However, I am no longer using SWR because I LOVE Reading Lessons Through Literature the best of all. So very similar to SWR, but much, much easier to implement in my opinion. DS7.5 is in grade 2. We did some phonemic awareness with phonograms in K, but he wasn’t really ready to go until last year in first grade. This year in grade 2, we spent 3-4 weeks reviewing phonograms after summer break. Then I began the schedule below which takes us 10-20 minutes per day with ds7.5 who is my only one who does this.
- DD16 has no formal spelling any longer. She has improved much over the years. She is taking English at the local college through Dual Enrollment this year.
- DS13 uses only Phonetic Zoo at this point. I can’t say why exactly, but he does much, much better with this than prepared dictation and time wise, something had to go.
- DD10 is a natural speller. She does some dictation and some just gathering and learning words on her own.
Reading Lessons Through Literature Schedule I use for Grade 2:
– Monday: Dictate 1 list of 10 words. Read Word Lists.
– Tuesday: Reading Phonogram Quiz. Read Story from Monday’s list.
– Wednesday: Dictate 1 list of 10 words. Read Word Lists.
– Thursday: Writing Phonogram Quiz. Read Story from Wednesday’s list.
DS7.5 is redoing all words from last year and will add another 40+ lists this year. This translates to his spelling on his own very nicely and he naturally sees patterns (ie. we learn fast and he knows past, last, mast, cast, etc.).
Hope that helps.