bnrmom Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Can you tell me what your daily/weekly plan looks like? I have all 3 books (SP, Homophones and Dictation) but am having a hard time figuring out how to get started. I don't think I need to do the pretest, as I know where my kids are, and my older son (10) needs to start pretty far back. So, I pick a list. Then what? How do you implement this in your home? I'd love some detail of how you have them go through learning the list. The instructions in the book break it down into classwork vs. homework, and obviously that doesn't apply here. Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OK Family Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 (edited) This is our second year using it and very pleased with it. I have a hard time fitting in all that I would like to do so I scaled back a bit. I alternate weeks between spelling list one week then the following week we do the corresponding dictation list. For the spelling list we go over the words by saying the word, spelling the word aloud then he writes the word. Thats about all i do sometimes if i think of it i will test him orally. To be honest my son benefits the most from the spelling dictation. When we previously just did spelling lists he couldn't spell the word after test time. ( which is why I switched to spelling plus) Anyway the dictation has really been effective for us. I guess I didn't know there was a third book, homophones. Edited September 11, 2011 by OK Family added comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeinfl Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 First week I have a schedule. We first write the words on the white board and discuss the spelling of each. I address any rules or phonograms he should pay attention to. We then try to spell the words outloud. On Monday my son writes the words 2 times each. On Tuesday he does sentences of the first 8 words. On Wednesday he does sentences of the other half. On Thursday puts the list in ABC order. On Friday we go over the words orally and then if he feels ready, we take the test. Any missed words go on the next week's list. The following week, we start dictation of 5-6 sentences daily. We do this Monday through Thursday. On Friday we work on one or two homophone (from the homophone book which we love) worksheets and we go over the words orally again. (I noticed that there is more retention if he can say them orally several times) We start the same routine again on the following Monday with the next word list. My son retains more words this way because of the dictation. Dictation has done wonders for his spelling, handwriting, and even his grammar. We love Spelling Plus in this house! :lol: In the second half of the school year we will work on dictionary skills once I know that he's got his alphabetical order down. HTH, Dee in Sunny FL! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Week 1 - Monday - Introduce the list for the week go over any missed words and the corresponding rules. Tuesday - Thursday - Practice the words as needed. One week we practiced 5 a day. For the next few weeks we are accelerating through the first grade lists because he knows most of them. We do a list Mon, Wed, and Fri. He only missed two words on Friday so we spent 20 minutes doing a spelling lesson, including the homophones in the lesson. (I did not buy the homophone list, I am comfortable teaching them without extra help.) Friday - Test for the week. We will get back to this when we find the place in the book we should really be. Week 2 - Monday - Friday - Dictation for the corresponding list. 2-4 sentences a day. This is very easy for us to complete in 5-10 minutes a day unless we hit a word for which he does not know the spelling rule. If we need to do an actual lesson, we spend 20 minutes that day. *DS has always been a good speller. If he struggled, we would do more practice during the week. Practicing what he already knows makes him hate school. And that is one reason we homeschool, so he won't hate school.:D I love Spelling Plus because it is SO flexible. If a child struggles, you can do the tracing, writing, and oral practice everyday as well as rule review daily, take an extra week on a lesson, do more dictation for a tough list. Or pull back and do less when they get it. ETA: Plus, it has no spelling worksheets! My son hated spelling worksheets. Phonics and math he does for hours, spelling, he just hates and so do I. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeinfl Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I forgot to add that spelling only takes us 10-15 minutes a day, sometimes less. One could very easily use it the way one wants, but for us, I found that having a few exercises to do with the words cemented them in my son's mind. When I'm short on time, or have an easier word list to work from, we may very well skip our regular routine, go over the words orally or on the white board and then test out quickly, but for us the one thing that remains the same is dictation. We have found it such a valuable exercise that it is one thing we will not eliminate. If you could only get one book, I would get the Spelling Dictation because it has the word lists, the spelling dictation sentences, and it has lots of grammar and punctuation extras. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 I forgot to add that spelling only takes us 10-15 minutes a day, sometimes less. One could very easily use it the way one wants, but for us, I found that having a few exercises to do with the words cemented them in my son's mind. When I'm short on time, or have an easier word list to work from, we may very well skip our regular routine, go over the words orally or on the white board and then test out quickly, but for us the one thing that remains the same is dictation. We have found it such a valuable exercise that it is one thing we will not eliminate. If you could only get one book, I would get the Spelling Dictation because it has the word lists, the spelling dictation sentences, and it has lots of grammar and punctuation extras. :lol: I love the dictation, too! It lets me know that he really gets the spelling, and that he is understanding sentence structure as we learn it in Grammar. I do use the extended lists in the back of Spelling Plus. We were working on the double "s" rule and I used the extended list to go over more words with that spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 We're still on reviewish words, but so far, the kids copy the words Monday or Tuesday and I point out whatever phonics rules are involved, study the words twice with a timer using the covering up method from the book, then take the test Friday or over the weekend - whenever we get to it. So far so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandty Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 We just started this program in the past month and are no in a routine yet. I had my kids do the pre-test and I take out the words they knew and put words that they struggle with on the weekly list. Our schedule is not 100% yet, as I am still working on getting a good fit for us. Monday we look over the list and go through any rules that are needed and we do the "daily practice together". They do the "homework" during their independent work sometime in the day. Tuesday we do daily practice and dictation together. Boys do homework on their own. Wednesday is the same as Tuesday, but during daily practice or homework they are allowed to paint their words or spell them in playdough. Thursday is post test day. Any words missed is added to next weeks list. This will go to a two week schedule once we hit a list where we have 15 or more words to learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bnrmom Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 Thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed! I'm looking forward to getting started tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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