Need Spelling Help?

We REALLY needed spelling help. We had tried several different homeschool programs for spelling. We had done spelling lessons in all kinds of ways. Nothing seemed to work. When the kids wrote, the misspelled words they had been able to spell on the "test" just the week before. I scoured the homeschool curriculum reviews for SOMETHING, ANYTHING that would be different and WORK FOR US!

All About Spelling - It’s no secret that spelling is a thorn in the side of both my kids. I have struggled to find a good spelling program match for them. I couldn’t understand their problem since spelling always came easy for me. They are excellent readers with huge vocabularies and the spelling programs that we’ve used to date, they hate, because in their mind the words they are spelling are “baby” words….well, you have to start somewhere. We have tried Natural Speller, Spelling Power, a traditional spelling book, making lists of words they misspell in writing, and they just haven’t gotten it. We needed serious spelling help.

We started All About Spelling from the very beginning (the author suggests starting from scratch not matter what the age.) A friend of mine uses it with her dyslexic daughter with much success and suggested I give it a try. I thought we would breeze right through the first about 15 lessons. For the first lesson, you review 26 “sound” cards. Some are single letters and some are letter combinations. You have to know all the sounds that the letter (or combo) can make in order to consider the card mastered. Come to find out my sixth grader only had 18 of the 26 mastered and my fourth grader only 12. No wonder they can’t spell! So, we spent several days on lesson one.

I will say that if your children don’t enjoy flash cards (mine hate them) they will probably “balk” at these lessons. The program uses flashcards, a large magnetic board with letter tiles, paper and pencil activities and a few other supplemental word lists. At first, it seemed a little tedious and overwhelming, but I decided to stick with the program, and the daily lessons have become easy to plan - in fact, I don't really do much pre-planning for spelling anymore.

One suggestion I will give, whether your children are young or old, set a kitchen timer for 10-20 minutes (depending on your child’s age and attention span) and work on the lessons for a length of time rather than trying to finish a lesson a day or a lesson a week. Mastery is so important in this program.

In 7 months we had worked our way to almost finishing Level 3 with my 4th grader and starting Level 4 with my 6th grader. They are much better spellers in their everyday writing – the items they add to the grocery list are no longer a mystery to me. They have a long was to go for me to consider them “good spellers”, but I am AMAZED at how many phonograms and rules they know. I have an elementary degree with a reading specialization, and the explanation of the phonics rules has even taught me some things.

I have friends with younger children who are using this program with great success, but as expected they are moving more slowly through the books. We are “filling in the gaps” while they are learning everything from scratch. My oldest daughter complained about the “baby” words she was having to spell, until she missed one in the third lesson! I’m sure if I had started this with them in first or second grade, we wouldn't have felt the need to seek a new program for spelling help.

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