Be sure to check UPS rules about insurance for the shipping process and who packs it. IIRC, UPS storefronts (with the copy machines and mailboxes) won’t ship things unless THEY pack it themselves. If she’s present to do the sign in, can she escort movers up to her room and supervise their packing/moving? So she’s present but doesn’t have to do the hard work all by herself?

https://treasuredconversations.wpcomstaging.com/2020/05/06/back-in-business-sale/ For all the mobile users, you might not have noticed that @8FillTheHeart's siggy changed! 15% off until the end of the month, too! ETA: Congrats, 8!!!!

Well, I'm glad they are doing validation tests, and I'm sure an article like this will bring attention to the changed instructions!

So what I'm hearing is ..... (1) assuming AAS is working, i.e., in-the-wild spelling is equivalent to what has been taught, keep progressing forward with AAS as the explicit, instructional portion. (2). Dictation, in whatever form, is another crucial component. Cold dictation will challenge DC to apply the lessons learned to in-the-wild scenarios. Studied dictation will provide the scaffolding to proficient, in-the-wild spelling because (a) we are slowing down the student to actively think about the spelling (b) we model and collaborate on the word analysis that is needed (c) can cover the common--but-yet-to-be-learned words. This explicit modeling of a word analysis makes so much sense. AAS does a bit of that, but I can see how adding more dictation (and thus more guided word analysis) to AAS would be helpful to a dyslexic. And I can see how the color coding system would provide another input to help retain the information. So, @forty-two, if I don't have SYS, is it worth purchasing a level to become introduced to their philosophy or could I just jump into DDbD/Modern Speller? (I've wondered for years about doing DDbD with this kiddo.) And @PeterPan, DC's typing skill is pretty good. We do type the words sometimes, but I'm still of the opinion that hand writing is better for the memory than typing. But you're right, that typing the words could be a good way to get the repetition in. (and actually, I see more spelling errors when DC types than when written by hand. Perhaps because the brain is wanting to go so fast and get the ideas out that spelling goes by the wayside?!?!?) But wait - now that I type that out ....... how do I get the spelling of the words to become automatic? What if during spelling lessons, it seems like it's working because it's all word lists and meaningless dictation sentences with no time pressure. But then when DC is composing a paper, e-mail, or whatever, the ideas can't get on the paper fast enough, so spelling is neglected. Maybe that's what I'm really asking for help on?!?!?

But as the article pointed out, the author of the study (Procop) didn't follow the instructions in the Abbott test. So, if a user fails to follow the instructions of the test creator, it's not surprising that you get wrong test results. Quoted from the article.... and then further down in the article ...

It's hard for me to know how far "behind" DC is since the older sibling is a natural speller. But your description of your children sounds about right for mine. 🙂. You have given me hope; thanks! Why do you think studied dictation is so important? What advantages does it give over cold dictation? Is it the repetition of a purposeful, analysis of a word? I *think* AAS is working, just not as fast as I wish. So, I like your idea to finish AAS and then move on to a morphograph based program. I appreciate your help and encouragement! Thank you, forty-two.

Maybe what you said above is what has me antsy with AAS. Thanks, 8, for the honesty and reality check. I need it!! 🙂

I dropped the ball with spelling this past year. Does the hive have any ideas/tips/curriculum/plans on how to accelerate spelling instruction over the summer? I'm imagining a crash course / boot camp / jump start /summer intensive type of plan. I fully understand that spelling is best taught in a regular, consistent manner, and I might be asking for the impossible in this post. This is for a finishing-5th grader who is likely a stealth dyslexic. We've used AAS1-3 and are in the back-half of AAS4. And since this isn't my first child, I have AAS 5&6 on my shelf. Do I keep going through AAS as fast as possible? Do I drop AAS and go to Megawords? or something else?!?!

Has anyone skipped Magic Lens 2? If so, how did it go? Was it too big of a leap from Magic Lens 1 to Magic Lens 3? OR if you did do Magic Lens 2, did you find it too repetitive and not enough new content from Magic Lens 1? TIA!

Thanks for sharing your find, OP. We fell in love with his Exploding Dots last year, and I never thought about what else he has created. Thanks!!

If I recall correctly, it happened when they switched to the current version of the boards - back when they shut down for a few days and they merged your store account at WTM with your login here. So a couple of years ago?!?!

If you don't want the extra space when you hit return, push shift+return. It'll look like these two lines.

I don't have any answers for you only commiseration as my dyslexic kiddo does this .... even on word lists!! You are right - it's immensely frustrating. It's like their brain is in a rut, a deep rut, and can't get out once they have their initial idea of the word. Something that has helped a bit is the tap-and-say that we've learned from using ABeCeDarian .... and he has to physically use his finger to sound out each letter to get out of the rut. Most of the time he can sound out words, letter by letter, without using his finger, but when he's stuck in a rut and saying the wrong word even after sounding out each phoneme, I have to ask him to truly tap his finger on the page or table. It's happened enough times that I've started calling it his "magic finger". shrug. Oh, also, I think Don Potter was the one that suggested when they get stuck in a rut, have them sound it out end-to-beginning then beginning-to-end then blend. so for example for the word cat, if they get in a pickle, have them do /t/, /a/, /c/, /c/, /a/, /t/, /cat/. That works sometimes too. These techniques, though, are not magical enough to cure the kiddo's frustration or whining - unfortunately; it just gets you to the next word.

Is he a perfectionist? I think lots of 2nd graders have a lot to say, but when it comes time to transfer those thoughts to paper, the kids become overwhelmed with all there is to do to get those ideas from their head to the paper (generate ideas in head, remember those ideas, write the words on paper, form the letters correctly, write the words neatly, write the words with correct spelling). And then when faced with all those challenges to just answer the question, it's not something they want to do so they just put enough effort to git--r-done. Then if he's a perfectionist, he's not going to like when he creates words that he *recognizes* are spelled incorrectly. In other words, he knows *what* he wants to say and he knows what it should look like, but the resulting product is *not* what he had in mind. (now that I type it up, it's kinda like me and drawing .... hahaha.... and why I only draw stick figures now .... and avoid playing Pictionary. I laugh, but really, I guess it's the same thing.) Maybe you can scribe for him to ensure he's generating the ideas for the assignment. And then at the end have him copy the sentence that best sums up his answer. That way you can separate the act of generating ideas from the act of handwriting. Then have a separate time to just work on his handwriting. And then have a separate time to work on spelling. Maybe loop the ELA subjects instead of lumping them together every day would give him more confidence.

Maybe those people pushing under the bag think they are touching a less-used surface?!?!