Second guessing myself - SWO vs. AAS

[ccouch]

DD (6) is a fantastic reader. She pretty much taught herself, and is reading at around a 3rd grade level. I'm planning on using Spelling Workout with her (because we both liked the workbook approach), but I'm wondering if that's the best program for us to use.

 

Because we never really went through a phonics program, per say, I wonder if AAS would give her a better foundation.

 

*sigh* Any thoughts?

[EJCMom]

:bigear:

I'm wondering about this as well. These are the two programs I'm trying to decide between also.

[Aludlam]

First of all, have you already tried SWO, or at least held it and looked at it?

 

Angela

[Guest tbarrac]

I switched to AAS last year or the year before (I can't remember) from everything else I'd ever tried for spelling. My dd is like yours, an amazing reader. However, she's a HORRIBLE speller, and I realized it's because she didn't learn to read using phonics (for the most part), so she didn't have a sense of the little parts that words are made out of. She has improved in her spelling, although not as much as I'd like, but I've definitely seen progress. I will never switch from AAS - I really believe in it, and it was what we needed.

[monalisa]

My dd7 taught herself to read also, at age 5 prior to her K year. She went to private K, and had a little bit of phonics. For first grade, I still went through most of OPGTR with her and started AAS. I've read that even if they are reading well at K/1, they can get to a point later where they hit a wall without a phonics base. I can see even now that with very long words, sounding out with her phonics knowlege is work; before OPGTR and AAS, should would completely guess at long words. A workbook approach to spelling would be more convenient for me, but I'm now seeing the results of her totally grasping spelling with phonics so I'm going to stick with it.

[Dana]

There was a recent thread about this.

 

I used SWO for two years with a boy who was already reading without any phonics. We switched to AAS and I'm very pleased. It was definitely the better choice for us.