I would suggest that you call me on the free Spelling Power User's Help Line. It is a FREE service to owners of the program. The telephone number is printed on the copyright page of your manual. Since, I too am a home schooling parent I do not answer the telephone except between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursdays and some Fridays. (This schedule is determined by my dd's music lessons and outside activities.) If you give me a call, I am confident that I can help you with the spelling needs of your son. Spelling Power is a program that has proven to help all types of learners improve their spelling ability and skills. It is based on solid research and has proven itself over the last 16+ years. I am here to serve you, Beverly L. Adams-Gordon Author

Oh I love Ottobre! Kelli where do you get Ottobre here in the states? I bought a year or two of back issues at the Puyallup Sew Expo a few years back. I Can't find it around here. Found it at a Barnes and Noble in San Diego once. I still love SB and also Australian Smocking and Embroidery mag. In addition o making clothes and costumes (for performances) for Brittany (dd 15), I have five grandchildren. Nice running into you again Kelli.

I made a form my dd fills out for every book, both recreational and required. It includes all of the bibliographic information usually required for a report, including a short remark about the book/selection. I think it is a good habit to form to record all of the information in this way. When it comes time for her to put her college package together, she will have everything she needs plus a quick memory jogger about the books. My middle daughter was one of the first early entry students in our state. At that time the colleges had seen very few home schooled students and they really didn't know what to do with us. The admissions interviewer asked her about various books on her list-- which surprised me -- I guess he thought it was a made up list meant to impress him. Fortunately, she is one of those people that never forgets a detail about a story and he was well impressed. My youngest will need the memory jogger if she gets asked about anything she has read -- even if it was the day before. lol. Well maybe she isn't that bad, but her focus is more on the here and now. Now, if they asked her about music she has played or the composers, she would go on forever and bore you with every detail. lol

Kelli, Actually, you didn't cause me any problems on the SB boards. I really enjoyed knowing there was another home educator who loves heirloom sewing. I still lurk there, I just don't post very often. I found that what you write on the SB boards can show up when someone Googles your name. As you may know, Martha as a diet and exercise and a prayer request sections. It was quite embarrassing to find out my request for prayers and comments about my weight loss struggles show when you do a search of my name. (No fair going to look!) So I became a bit paranoid about posting. Lately, Ive come to realize my weight loss struggles are pretty apparent anyway! lol

Careful! That is how I entered this whole home education thing about 22 years ago! Someday I might just master it, but I don't think I will ever master teaching Algebra. I am good at it just not good at teaching it. I did survive dd#3's first time driving yesterday, so I guess I can make it through anything. One thing I did learn from that experience is that we need to work on knowing which is right and which is left. hmmm... how did I miss that one? lol

My dd put her hand over my mouth when she was 18 months or so and said no sing mor mor (what she called me). I am tone deaf and am not someone you really want to hear sing, but a baby had never complained when I sang lullabies before -- blew me away. Her voice and piano teacher say she has perfect pitch. One of those people who can change her voice to match famous singer: Patsy Klein to Barbara Streisand and Elle Fitzgerald to Charlotte Church. I love to sing, she still gives me "the look" if I sing in public though. lol.

My daughter, who is now 15, "talked" but I could only understand some of what she said maybe 75%, my m-i-l could get abut 50% and dh about 25% the rest of the world it was at most like my dh. She went to speech therapy and we discovered her problem was she hadn't developed her facial muscles as she had failure to thrive (she's adopted btw) and gave up the bottle at about 11 months. But she also talked backwards, saying things like pack back and pud muddle and there hi and so forth. She is dyslexic, but very smart. She reads well above grade level now thanks to Sing, Spell, Read and Write. She can learn anything if it is put to music! She ADHD and OCD with auditory processing problems. But almost savant when it comes to music and art. Her first oil painting was as good as the teacher's. BTW Einstein did not talk until he was four. Edison was three. Both were sent home from school because they were too dumb. Their mother's taught them at home!

It is just as some one else said pure selfishness. I live in a little town where the average age is 60+ I have watched so many older people get a cold or flu and never bounce back. Our town's little grocery store didn't used to give sick leave and the workers would come in sick (because they had to). We had a huge rash of senior death -- I am talking in a town of 1300 six deaths in one week. The health department convinced him to at least not punish or fire workers that took off when they were sick. This is a little grocery with the deli and meat department. Just what you want is people breathing germs on your food! Yuck! BTW Does the coach not realize that he is legally responsible for this kid and the any other child that gets sick. It could have real legal consequences. especially with all the health notices about the swine flue this year. As for the mom some one should tell her the Child protective folks consider this kind of behavior as child-endangerment. CPS can take a thing like that and use it to take the kids away. I know of cases like it. Not a thing she really wants to find herself messed up with!

My 15 y.o. dd has a passion for music. She loved anything with music from the day we got her! She plays the pipe organ at our church, then goes to the Methodist church to play their organ or grand piano and then comes home to do about four hours of practice on her organ, piano, harp and voice. She practices at least four hours a day and teaches three students piano. All the professors at Washington State University school of music know her by name, she has been studying pipe organ there since she was 13 years old. She already has won a music scholarship for organ study (for college). I think this might qualify has her passion. (Am I bragging about her too much -- really she is an amazing kid.) But she loves anything artistic too. She oil paints and makes jewelery that she sells in our bookstore. Just, Please don't ask her to do math -- it just won't stick. I had always heard music and math abilities went together, but not in her case. Can someone tell me why?

I used to answer my older girls with "Chocolate Cake and Ice Cream." The younger of the two, always fell for it. lol DD3 never asks, she just cooks her own and sometimes cooks for all three of us. My mom lives with us (for almost one year now) and she does a lot of our cooking. I love it! I just don't care that much for cooking, unless it is a special occasion. My husband is so lucky my mom moved in and is teaching dd to cook.

I agree with Mdemama. The term kid or kids drives me crazy, but kiddo is a term of endearment. I personally call my youngest chickydoll -- don't ask me why. Just something that has stuck. lol

I don't think you are grasping what the others are saying -- the book you chose is meant to give the child experience answering textbook type questions. It is a small part of a very detailed and well thought out program! I understand that you wanted to see what it was like, but perhaps you would be better off looking at an actual lesson plan for that C.O.R.E. It isn't fair to judge a program by one small part of it. You wouldn't judge a spelling program by only teaching and testing every 10th word would you? I don't use Sonlight myself, but a dear friend has used it for years and I know it is very in-depth and advanced. Her two older boys graduated high school with Applied Science Degrees from the local college. They were very well prepared for early entry exams at 16 years old! While Sonlight isn't for me (I like putting together my own) and it may not be for you, It isn't fair to publically badmouth the program based on one very small part of the program. IMHO

Many programs are actually teaching diagramming from the opposite direction. I mean they are teaching the student to compose sentences by giving them a sentence patterns to use to build their sentence. I like this approach a lot with younger students. It really seems to grow into more advanced sentence patterns easily and expands well into traditional diagramming. I think the traditional sentence diagramming is pretty much reserved for advanced placement classes in public schools. What a shame, these are the students that need it the least because they probably come to proper syntax naturally (from home environment that uses proper syntax.) I really loved diagramming, I took to it like a duck does to water! BTW, In the 70s it wasn't introduced until 9th grade. It was like figuring out puzzles to me -- I only wish I had known how to really use it before graduate school. I think "kiddos" need to be shown how to use it to improve their language. Just because they can solve the puzzle, doesn't mean they know what to do with the answer!

First let me say, since you mentioned you have a second grader, that Spelling Power is designed for students over the age of eight who have had basic phonics instructions. The program does not have groups of words for the consonant sounds or common blends unless they are known to cause reoccurring problems to children and adults. There are developmental (verses academic) reasons for the age eight and above recommendation as well. There is an adaption to the program for younger students who are ready to begin formal spelling study. By being ready I mean has finished a good phonics program, is reading above 2nd grade level, and can write with some ease. If you are thinking of getting Spelling Power primarily for a child younger than eight, visit the company website for a copy of the Readiness Checklist. You needn't be concerned about the amount of time you'll use -- even with a bunch of students. It is used in regular school classrooms as well as in home education programs. I think it is one of the most time efficient and effective programs available. The total daily time a student spends on spelling lessons is 15 minutes per day, but it only takes about five minutes of your time per student per day. (Of course, this is after the first week or so when you are conducting placement testing and introducing the program.) You'll spend five minutes per day retesting or pretesting words from one of the 47 groups (which are organized by phonetic principle or spelling rule.) Each word is corrected immediately after it is tested. You stop testing when three words are missed or when the five-minute timer goes off . Then, your child will spends five minutes studying those words that he has missed (and only those words) using a totally multi-sensory 10-Step Study Sheet. The study sheet guides you child through using five different modalities: seeing, hearing, touching, feeling, and spelling aloud to master the word. The study steps also include having your child compose a sentence using the spelling study word. Students usually can do this on their own after a few sessions. The final five minutes of a daily schedule are used to complete skill building lessons and activities. These activities address the phonetic principle or spelling rule related to the word list on which your child is currently working. There are also activities that drill words, teach dictionary skills, and proofreading skills. (The new 4th Edition has a very handy index that makes assigning activities easier than the older editions.) The newer edition is also more user-friendly and comes with a teacher resource CD-Rom and a Quick Start DVD seminar. I hope this description helps you, if you have any more or specific questions about Spelling Power please feel free to ask. Beverly L. Adams-Gordon