pwicks Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Hi! This is my first post and I am so glad I found this forum! I have DD who is in the 1st grade and DS who is in kindergarten (in public school). Both are reading at the level above their grade. We use primarily use Reading eggs (and mathseeds) but we really are reaching the end of reading eggs... more so that the kids are tired of it (we have been using it now for 3 years) and I need to find something new. I am looking for a language arts program to supplement what they are doing in school. At our first parent teacher conference (2 weeks ago) my daughters teacher mentioned to me "for her reading level her spelling is not where it should be". Now math and science were always my thing so it doesn't surprise me that she has some issues with language arts. I believe they are learning spelling by phonograms (words with short a, words with wh, etc.etc I think this is the orton-gillingham method?) is there anything out there that I could use to compliment what the teacher is doing. I was looking at AAS but it appears that I would be "reteaching" her what her teacher is already doing... but that is all I could tell from the free sample. Are there any worksheets with that method? AAS method does appear to be similar to how my daughter is learning this is school. I bought one month of clicknspell, just to try. But the spelling lists are pretty different from the method being used in school. I don't mind continuing it if it will give her confidence but if there is something that compliments her school work I would be for that. I am new to a lot of this (as reading eggs and mathseeds really worked for us up until now), so any tips/advice is appreciated. I have already found some really great math material and I am considering doing some science and history homeschooling over the summer thanks to many of the posts but the language arts piece is something I am still working on. Thanks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer N. Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 I would have suggested All About Spelling for you since it separates the teaching of spelling from reading. I have used Logic of English's Foundations program levels A-C with my 1st grade daughter (still in level C) but it teaches reading and spelling concurrently. There is a wide disparity between her reading and spelling levels though. She is a good speller for her grade level but much higher for reading. You could look at Explode the Code workbooks for spelling (not O-G but solid phonics). I like the first three workbooks especially. Or look at the How to Teach Spelling series which is O-G based but I think you have to do some teaching with those workbooks (there is an instructor's manual), I don't think those are as open and go as Explode the Code. You can look at some samples at Rainbow Resource I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwicks Posted November 11, 2014 Author Share Posted November 11, 2014 Thanks Jennifer. I have been looking at AAS but didn't know Explode the code has a spelling only workbook I will have to check that out as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer N. Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I have ETC books 1, 2 and 3 for my daughter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Hi, this is my first post, too. I have a DS in first grade as well. We do AAS afterschool. For awhile, I was reteaching him too, but that was a confidence booster for him. He loved playing with the tiles and using the white board. Now he has advanced past the school's teaching, and does very well on his pretests for spelling. AAS has also helped him build his dictation skills, which was important to me. I just bought book 2 and am glad we are sticking with AAS. I like its vision. We try to do one AAS lesson a week, and I include his school's spelling words in there, too. He spells words with the tiles one day. Then he spells them with the dry erase markers. Then he does the AAS dictation words. It works well for us. Even though it is a bit of an abbreviated version (15 minutes, 3 days a week), it is worth it. In the summer and breaks we will do more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwicks Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 Thanks so much Reed.... that is what I was hoping to do with my child. With the holidays coming up there will be a lot of opportunity to start and catch up with the class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lecka Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I think All About Spelling is worth looking at again. It has a lot going for it. While you are re-teaching, you are also teaching how AAS works and building a routine, it can be nice to build a routine and not be working on new/difficult skills at the same time. Plus -- maybe she knows how to spell some words, without knowing the explanation of why a certain spelling is used. I think it can be easier to learn the concept of "we are learning spelling rules here, it will help us spell words" when the words are known. Even if it is review in a lot of ways, she might get that "a-ha" moment, too. I have just ordered Logic of English Level A for my daughter, but she needs help with reading, too. If she were ahead in reading, I would do AAS. I think ETC might (possibly) be less focused on spelling than what you are looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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