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need help for gifted 6th grade speller


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Hello everyone,

My oldest daughter will be starting 6th grade this fall. She was homeschooled from 2nd to 4th. We moved and she had to attend 5th grade in public school, but we are, as planned, going back to hsing this fall.

 

We used Abeka spelling before, but used a grade level ahead of hers. She is just a natural speller, I wish I was. I liked Abeka's spelling, but that is all we use from them. So ordering just 2 workbooks seems wasteful because it costs so much to ship them. Anyway, I have looked at Spelling Workout, but they seem too easy for her as well. Though, I do like the other skills taught in them. But again, they seem a little expensive.

 

I think my daughter pretty well just remembers what a word should look like from exposure to it. I thought about Spelling Power and let her pick her own words to practice. We would also like something that teaches editing skills(and others) like Spelling Workout. Can anyone recommend anything that might work well? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Katie

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Are you sure she isn't ready to transition into vocab? And for the editing, yes, it's a great thing to do. We did Take 5 Minutes daily history editing one year, and it was great. I think this coming year we might do one of the levels of Editor in Chief. It comes as software as well, which I thought might be fun.

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I switched my natural speller over to Spelling Wisdom. She really likes it (although she still spells everything right!) A vocabulary program, as someone else suggested, might be good as well (or instead).

 

For editing practice, we use Editor in Chief from Critical Thinking Press. Very good, and it's just editing practice, so you're not paying for a bunch of stuff she doesn't need.

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M.K. Henry's Words might be good--it has both spelling and vocab. It's got a lot of information in it for the price.

 

http://www.proedinc.com/customer/ProductView.aspx?ID=989&sSearchWords=words

 

A free resource that also has both, although not integrated nicely like Words is, is Swan's Spelling Book:

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=8UAYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2&dq=swan%27s+spelling#PPA43,M1

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Hello everyone,

My oldest daughter will be starting 6th grade this fall. She was homeschooled from 2nd to 4th. We moved and she had to attend 5th grade in public school, but we are, as planned, going back to hsing this fall.

 

We used Abeka spelling before, but used a grade level ahead of hers. She is just a natural speller, I wish I was. I liked Abeka's spelling, but that is all we use from them. So ordering just 2 workbooks seems wasteful because it costs so much to ship them. Anyway, I have looked at Spelling Workout, but they seem too easy for her as well. Though, I do like the other skills taught in them. But again, they seem a little expensive.

 

I think my daughter pretty well just remembers what a word should look like from exposure to it. I thought about Spelling Power and let her pick her own words to practice. We would also like something that teaches editing skills(and others) like Spelling Workout. Can anyone recommend anything that might work well? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Katie

 

Honestly? (Don't tell the homeschooling police!) I would stop doing spelling altogether. I stopped spelling as a formal subject with my natural speller in about 4th grade. Now, I just make sure to correct any words misspelled in her writing and she writes them out. I found spelling to be just busy-work for her and she just didn't need it.

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I switched my natural speller over to Spelling Wisdom. She really likes it (although she still spells everything right!) A vocabulary program, as someone else suggested, might be good as well (or instead).

 

 

 

 

:iagree::iagree:I love this program and it really is challenging.

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I agree with Mindy and Cynthia. I see no reason to spend time on formal spelling when ds is years above his grade level and continues to make progress regardless of whether or not we do a program.

 

That said, he went to the district spelling bee this past winter and did very well (having only studied in the car on the way to the bee! ack!), and he is interested in trying to make it through the state Bee this year. To that end, we are considering studying specifically for the Bee, using both Bee materials and possibly Hexco products.

 

If he weren't interested in being competitive come Bee time, I'd continue as we have in the past -- simply correcting the very rare mistakes in his writing.

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I just checked out Spelling Wisdom. It looks great. My daughter loves dictation too. She will be 6th grade this fall. Would you think we should do the book that covers 7,8, and 9th?

 

I also have a daughter starting 4th grade this fall. She is not a natural speller. Sometimes she spells things correctly, other times she will write that same word incorrectly. Do you think this program would be good for her too, or should I go with a phonics based approach with spelling rules?

 

Thanks so much,

Katie

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I just checked out Spelling Wisdom. It looks great. My daughter loves dictation too. She will be 6th grade this fall.

 

This is just like my dd. I really don't think she need a spelling program, but if I took spelling away from her, it would be like a punishment. She loves dictation.

 

Would you think we should do the book that covers 7,8, and 9th?

 

My dd is also a rising 6th grader, but I bought it for her a year ago, and got level 2, as that goes up to 7th. I think level 2 ramps right up, but now I have a true confession - with two other kids to teach, neither of them natural spellers, guess what the first thing to be dropped is? We only did 20 lessons this year. (we did start mid-year, but still, I was aiming for twice a week...) :blush: She also has yet to misspell something in one of the dictations, but we're just getting to the place where they get longer.

 

Take a look at the samples online. It could well be that book 3 is fine - you know her better than I do. :001_smile:

 

I also have a daughter starting 4th grade this fall. She is not a natural speller. Sometimes she spells things correctly, other times she will write that same word incorrectly. Do you think this program would be good for her too, or should I go with a phonics based approach with spelling rules?

 

For my struggling spellers, I've used Sequential Spelling. This has worked very well for us. YMMV. :001_smile: Although I am also using WWE2 with my dd8, which also has studied dictation (the copywork on day 2 is the dictation on day 3) - I did notice once I added that that her spelling in context improved. For her I think the dual-pronged approach is helpful. She needs to see the patterns *and* apply them in context. My natural speller's twin, on the other hand, managed to improve her spelling with SS alone. I am pondering switching her over to SW, as SS seems to be getting easy for her now.

Edited by matroyshka
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I agree! We stopped spelling after the 4th grade when my son tested into the 11th grade level of Spelling Power. If your child has mastered spelling, then don't hesitate to move along!

 

We do vocabulary now, using Vocabulary from the Classical Roots. It is very good!

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