Spelling Wisdom

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  • January 1, 2010 at 5:33 pm
    amandajhilburn
    Participant

    My daughter is on lesson 28 of Spelling Wisdom book 1 and has yet to be challenged.Undecided We had been having 3 spelling lessons a week before the holidays and I am wondering if I should do one lesson per day when we start school again until we get to a point where she is challenged. She is such a great speller (not something handed down from me 🙂  So, should I skip some lessons or do one per day? Should I go through the book with her in one sitting until we come to a lesson that would be a good starting point?

    Also, I feel the same about her Queen’s language work. She is reviewing a lot of what she did last year and is beginning to be a little frustrated. Should I skip through that one too????

    I know that it sounds like I should just use common sense and skip to the point where she needs to be, but I don’t want to skip over anything that might cause problems later on. However, I don’t want to hold her back either. Help please 🙂

    January 2, 2010 at 5:49 pm
    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    It sounds like your daughter has developed the skill that Charlotte talked about as key: looking at how words are spelled as you are reading. With that skill in place, she should be in good stead all her life. So don’t worry about skipping to an exercise that will contain an unknown word. Go right ahead. If she has the habit of looking at words’ spellings as she reads, skipping a few exercises won’t cause problems later on.

    I haven’t used the Queen language work, so I can’t address that specifically other than to say what I always say, “Teach the child, not the curriculum.” (You all are so tired of my saying that, aren’t you?) Wink

    January 2, 2010 at 11:58 pm
    amandajhilburn
    Participant

    Thanks for the advice, Sonya! It felt like the right thing to do, but I was not confident enough to “skip stuff”…..Surprised

    And even though I have read tons on posts on this forum, I don’t remember reading your words of wisdom about teaching the child… I needed to hear that. Thanks again!!

    Amanda

    January 3, 2010 at 2:17 am
    jsharpe
    Participant

    If I ever run into pages  that are too easy, I do what I call pretests. With spelling I would ask them to spell the words orally to me, we can cover many lessons at one time and I’m sure I’m not missing a word they need to learn. It may take many lessons to come up with enough words to make a list to study from.

    We use the old version of Learning Language Arts Through Literature and only have spelling words if something is misspelled in a dictation.

    Jenny S

    January 3, 2010 at 5:24 am
    amandajhilburn
    Participant

    Jenny,

    I have in the past looked at LLATL for my children. It looks great on their site, but there are TONS of bad reviews online for almost every level of the program. All the skills that are listed on the scope and sequence look great and the books listed for 3rd and 4th grades look good too. It looked like a lot of the reviews were written by people that had their children tested and were not happy with the results. I am not concerned with standardized tests, but I do want my children to learn what they need to know about language arts. I have been thinking of trying it out in the fall, but I’m scared to (to be honest). What are your thoughts and experiences with it?

    January 4, 2010 at 11:52 pm
    jsharpe
    Participant

    Hi Amanda,

    I really like LLATL, and have had great results from it. My husband is an excellent writer so maybe some of it is genetic. Anyway, our children have almost always enjoyed doing the lessons. The lessons are short and sometimes they can do all 5 days at 1 sitting. I usually stop them after 2 or 3, but it is very nice to have something quick and effective. Test scores attest to them being well ahead of their grade levels.

    The bad reviews I think are for the New version of LLATL. I have seen a couple levels of the new version and it does appear they ruined a good product. If you can find a used old version it would probably be inexpensive and worth looking at. We are in our 20th year of homeschooling and have many years to go. Our oldest is 25 and our youngest turned 3 the end of SeptemberLaughing so I won’t be parting with our books for some time, maybe never, one of our boys is married and they plan to homeschool too.

    What levels would you be looking for? I can keep a look-out, I have a friend with a bookstore that sells new and used curriculum.

    JennyS

    January 5, 2010 at 4:03 am
    amandajhilburn
    Participant

    Jenny,

    What is the difference in the old and new???? How do I tell the old from the new? I must have been looking at samples of the new stuff on their website, huh?

    I will be needing grades 3 and 4.

    Thanks,

    Amanda

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