What are you thoughts on Sequential Spelling?

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

This is intriguing to me for my 5yo who is finishing up 1st grade.

[nnbmomof3]

We love it! My dd (9) has used it for 2 years. Her spelling has really improved. Before SS she would memorize for a test, but now it makes sense to her. Now, she uses correct spelling in her daily writing assignments and is loves to teach her younger brother (5) how to spell.

[rowan25]

I'm going to use it in the fall with my 1st grader. Phonics bore her and her reading skills are pretty advanced. I'm thinking she'll get a kick out of adding letter to make new words. More like a game than just memorizing a list of words. I hope it goes well!!!!:tongue_smilie:

[EKS]

I used SS for four years, from ages 9 to 12, with my dyslexic son. His spelling improved quite a bit during the first two years and then leveled off. I also have an advanced 7yo who reads well above grade level. He is a strong speller who needs some instruction but generally "gets" it. I am not using SS with him. SS rapidly ramps up to 25 words per day. Since my 7yo has a limited amount of writing energy, I choose to focus that energy on work that has more value (IMHO) than a spelling list. For a younger kid who doesn't mind a lot of writing, SS could be a good thing though.

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

How often do words get revisited? I notice that you will have the progression of pin, pins, spin, pinned, pinning, etc. Once you move on to a new family, do those get introduced again later somehow? I'm trying to picture the program on a long-term basis. So far I'm really impressed with what I'm seeing and hearing about it.

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

:001_huh:

[EKS]

I honestly don't remember anything getting systematically revisited, except for weird, frequently misspelled words, which are randomly inserted into the lists. Just so you know, what's on the website is a "best of", meaning the most logical, sample of SS. There are many, many lists that don't go that logically, which were very frustrating for my son.

[Mary in MN]

I thought Sequential Spelling was a great program, and it helped my poor speller. However, we dropped it after a year because it was such a time suck. I have a limited amount of time to spend with each kid, and spending 20-30 mins. a day on spelling felt like too much, especially in the early years, when you're spending so much time one-on-one teaching reading, reading out loud, hearing narrations, working on math, etc. However, that's just us--I freely admit that I lean toward "lazy" homeschooling; I like curricula that my kids can work on independently. That said, I've never found a satisfactory workbook approach to spelling.

[Matryoshka]

I love Sequential Spelling. It has worked very well for my two non-natural spellers (I also have one natural speller who would spell well even without a program).

 

I start them when they're working at a 2nd grade level in general, and perhaps reading a little better - that was 7 for one, and 6 for the other.

 

I have to fess up to not being completely consistent about doing it, but it seems to have worked well anyway. I tried to switch my older dd to a different program that's less teacher intensive, but she wouldn't hear of it. She really likes Sequential Spelling. For her I mostly just read the list now, which takes 5-10 minutes (she's finishing up 5th grade).

 

When they're younger I spend more time writing on the white board talking about homonyms, etymology, spelling rules/patterns, etc. SS doesn't explicitly point out a lot of that other than homonyms and sometimes heteronyms, but I like to. I think my younger dd has not gotten as much of that, since I have more demands on my time than when her older sisters were doing it.

[Melissa in CA]

My understanding is that SS is for 3rd/4th and above. Is this correct? I'm not sure I would use it with one so young. I think I would continue working on phonics with ETC books, along with lots of copywork, until at least third.

 

That's just me though. ;)

[Cindy in NY]

They (meaning Avko) did market it for 3rd/4th grade or above when I bought it several years ago. I checked their website recently and they now say 2nd grade to start. They also are actively marketing to homeschoolers now and an earlier start means more sales.

 

I started my boys in 3rd grade and I personally I pleased we waited until that age. It has been a success with my natural spellers and my extremely phonetic speller. It is quick and easy. They are all 3 on different level and we can finish 3 lists in 20 minutes. I think if you start it younger it could be more tedious.

[swimmermom3]

We started SS last year with dss (4th and 7th at the time). I used level 1 for both since youngest is natural speller and older is phonetic speller. We are ending Level 2 this year with words like "appropriation", "illiteracy" and "deliberation". I confess that SS takes us no more than 10 minutes a day since we do not use it as recommended. I read the words, dss write them. They correct their work and then write the words they missed 3x each. I will return to word groups that they missed throughout the year. That doesn't happen very often. My dc are older so this works fine with us. The down-side: they don't know any spelling rules.

[Matryoshka]

The down-side: they don't know any spelling rules

 

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but I keep hearing this complaint about SS, and I keep wondering if that's a problem, why not just mention the spelling rules as they come up? I know they're not listed in SS, but so what?

 

We have never used any spelling program other than SS, and my kids most definitely know these rules, or patterns (the biggies):

 

"If a word ends in an "e", drop it when adding a suffix starting with a vowel"

 

"A short vowel is usually followed by two consonants, so when adding a suffix beginning with a vowel to a word with a short vowel, you have to double the consonant to keep the vowel short".

 

Now, those are horrible, long, convoluted "rules" that I have probably not expressed in any kind of usable way, and I don't expect my kids to memorize - but I do point them out when they come up in the SS lists (I'd probably say for the latter one "remember to double the consonant to keep the vowel short"), and the nice thing is that they come up over, and over, and over, and usually the whole day's list focuses on one pattern, so while I don't think any of my kids could recite these, they have internalized them (or in the case of my youngest, started to), which I think is much more important, and I really credit those SS lists to helping us toward that goal.

 

There are other rules (or patterns - I like that better) that I point out as they come up, though I can't think of them at the moment - but the point is, there's no reason you can't point them out to the kids, and the lists are set up in a perfect way to reinforce them.

[swimmermom3]

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but I keep hearing this complaint about SS, and I keep wondering if that's a problem, why not just mention the spelling rules as they come up? I know they're not listed in SS, but so what?

 

...but the point is, there's no reason you can't point them out to the kids, and the lists are set up in a perfect way to reinforce them.

 

Well, in my case, I am a natural speller and I don't remember the rules:blush:. The nuns would be so disappointed with me:D But I get your point and should probably find a list of rules somewhere. I'm a bit lax in the way I teach spelling.

[siloam]

I just don't get it. I am dyslexic, and I am good at patterns, but I need direct repetitive instruction to get things (which is normal for dyslexic students). Intuitive, indirect instruction is not my thing. To me it just felt like a time sink. If my dd asked why, I didn't have an answer. I tried it for a while with my natural speller, and she decided she preferred something with rules too. :D

 

Heather

[TiaNKids]

We love it! My 12yo didn't have very good spelling skills and I have seen improvement since using SS. :001_smile: This is after using several other spelling programs and none of them working :001_huh:

 

-Tia

 

This is intriguing to me for my 5yo who is finishing up 1st grade.

[ElizabethB]

But I get your point and should probably find a list of rules somewhere.

 

My spelling lessons go through all the rules fairly quickly:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Spelling/spellinglessonsl.html

 

Here's a good thread with links to rules:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77560

 

And, this free online book teaches using rules, it has a good list, they start on page 43:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=6QISAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=spelling%20book&lr=

[Mary in MN]

 

And, this free online book teaches using rules, it has a good list, they start on page 43:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=6QISAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=spelling%20book&lr=

 

 

Thanks for this book link! The earlier exercises are just what I need for dictation.

[HeatherLynn]

Well, in my case, I am a natural speller and I don't remember the rules:blush:. The nuns would be so disappointed with me:D But I get your point and should probably find a list of rules somewhere. I'm a bit lax in the way I teach spelling.

 

Me too! However, DD is not a natural speller. I am starting her in 1 of SS this year, and we'll see. She can't do anything BUT improve.

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for this book link! The earlier exercises are just what I need for dictation.

 

You're welcome! Don Potter found it, it is a great book. I haven't added it to my website yet, I need to.

 

I love Google Books, there are a lot of great resources there.

[heart'sjoy]

We started SS after the ETC 7. My 7 year old was slowed down a bit by the 25 words, sometimes many long 3 -4 syllable words. It seems each child hits a jump where the fine motor skills can keep up with what their brain is telling them to write. This happened for the 7 year old at about 7.6.

 

My 9 year old could have started SS at 6.5 because her fine motor was ready.

 

Conclusion: SS is a go when the fine motor won't slow down the input of spelling sequences into the brain.

 

What to look for(IMHO):

 

• They can write 3-4 sentences 7-11 words without stopping, getting hand tired, or looking at a handwriting chart.
  

Spelling rules: We just put the rules on index cards in their memory work box.:)

[LadyR]

So far I am very happy with Sequential Spelling (Level 1, 2nd grade). It doesn't take us very long to get through the list. If my ds spells a word wrong he immediately corrects it. I might write that word on the board to help him see why he misspelled it and to talk about the correctly spelling. Then we move to the next word. I don't do any other writing on the board. A form of the word is presented for several days so he has more opportunities to write it correctly.

 

One thing I started doing is, after the initial lesson that introduces the new words, I might skip a few words in a subsequent lesson that I know he can spell correctly - or I'll ask him to spell it orally. This cuts down slightly the amount of words he has to write out and I can get spelling done quicker.

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

What to look for(IMHO):They can write 3-4 sentences 7-11 words without stopping' date=' getting hand tired, or looking at a handwriting chart.[/quote']

 

That's a good rule of thumb, I think. My daughter has been writing since about 3 years of age, and is writing stuff all the time. She likes to write "reports" about dinosaurs, make grocery lists, jot down facts about animals, or sometimes just copy a few sentences out of an animal book that she is interested in. We sat down the other day so I could see if she liked this approach to spelling, and we went through the first 4 days of words from the sample of the first book. She wanted to keep going, but I had to work, so she found something else to do. I think she would be ready for it, so I might go with it. When we orally went through some of her R&S 2nd-grade spelling that I was going to use for her next year, I was surprised to see how many words she already knew how to spell. I just randomly picked words that I thought might be challenging for her. I think she would be ready for this, so I think we might have to try it. If it proves to be too much, we can always shelve it to use later when she's more ready. I really think she likes the interactive part of it, though. She likes that I give her a word, then we go over it together to see if she spelled it correctly.

 

(I just realized I'm rambling. I'm going to bed now. :D)

[gevs4him]

My understanding is that SS is for 3rd/4th and above. Is this correct? I'm not sure I would use it with one so young. I think I would continue working on phonics with ETC books, along with lots of copywork, until at least third.

 

That's just me though. ;)

 

 

 

:iagree:I was told to use it when they were at the 2nd grade level or above. So it is a good possibility that you are right. I too am going to stay working with phonics until my son reaches at least 3 rd grade level.

I do love SS and think it is a wonderful spelling program :)

Lisa