For day 5 yesterday, I tried keeping a list on my board. My daughter sometimes looked at my board when writing the next word, so it may help her figure out the patterns, even though she keeps a list on her paper. The drawback is that I have to write smaller to fit them all in on my board. But the colors may help her figure out the patterns better than her seeing them on her paper. I will try listing half the words and then erase, so I can write a little bigger.
And she missed the “test” word of “beginning”, but I think it is because she got in a hurry and wrote beging. I told her to take another look at it and she corrected it before I wrote it on my board. She is starting to learn the double the n rule. And she is starting to slow down when writing so she can hear the sounds the letters make.
We did not get the new workbook. I like that they can see how they can take a blank notebook and fill it in an orderly, meaningful way. It costs less too. But I like the idea of an activity to help them use their words, though I do not care for the word search, unscramble, and fill in the blanks. I like having her make up some sentences with her words. Depending on age and ability of the student, they can write their new words in their own sentence. For my daughter, I will have her tell me her sentence and I will write it, leaving a blank for her to write her spelling word(s). But the older or advanced student could write their own sentence(s). I think this would have more CM flavor than the workbook. She likes to put drawings with some words too. She is really having fun with it.
As for the kinesthetic and oral component at the end of each word, we forgot to do that yesterday. And the lesson was around 15 minutes instead of 25 minutes. Are you including this? I will try to remember to have us say it and write it in the air after each word.
I thought some kind of letter tiles could be used too, instead of writing in the air. You could use scrabble tiles, magnet letters, foam bath letters, or letter cards (we have some from Hooked on Phonics) for something more hands-on, if that is how they learn better. This would take more time, but may be what some students really need.