Start AAS with 1st grader or stick with Abeka Spelling for one year?

[half-dozenroses]

Looking for more All About Spelling wisdom :001_smile: -

 

At my assessments (I meet with a veteran homeschooler/ certified teacher who evaluates our work for notification purposes) - my assessor said she recommended starting AAS with my upcoming 3rd grader, and sticking with Abeka spelling for my upcoming 1st grader, as the Abeka spelling is going to tie into the words he will use in his Letters and Sounds and Language 1 book for the correlating weeks.

However, if I begin to get nearly as excited about AAS as many of you seem to be when I use it with my 3rd grader - am I going to regret not just not switching both of them over??? Thoughts??

 

Also, I asked before but still open to input - should I start my 3rd grader with level 1 or will level 2 have enough introductory review for him to be fine starting at that level? He has had 2 years of Abeka spelling.

Thanks!!!!

Edited July 27, 2010 by half-dozenroses

[siloam]

Looking for more All About Spelling wisdom :001_smile: -

 

At my assessments (I meet with a veteran homeschooler/ certified teacher who evaluates our work for notification purposes) - my assessor said she recommended starting AAS with my upcoming 3rd grader, and sticking with Abeka spelling for my upcoming 1st grader, as the Abeka spelling is going to tie into the words he will use in his Letters and Sounds and Language 1 book for the correlating weeks.

However, if I begin to get nearly as excited about AAS as many of you seem to be when I use it with my 3rd grader - am I going to regret not just not switching both of them over??? Thoughts??

 

Also, I asked before but still open to input - should I start my 3rd grader with level 1 or will level 2 have enough introductory review for him to be fine starting at that level? He has had 2 years of Abeka spelling.

Thanks!!!!

I am not familiar with Abeka, but unless the child already has their phonograms memorized, that A can say /a/ as in apple, /A/ as in paste and /ah/ as in father, type stuff that it would be better to start with level 1, even through most of it will be easy. My oldest went through book 1 in 24 days, but my 2nd dd took closer to 48-this was only a year and a half ago.

 

As for your 1st grader, I assume the sounds and letters book is reading? There is some weight to the idea of keeping those on the same page. You can use the AAS tiles, to add some excitement. AAS is also coming out with a reading program around October/November that might work as well. If you already have the Abeka books then I would just plan to use those for now, and wait to see how it goes. If you haven't bought it yet....well maybe buy AAS first (you would probably want the first two levels), and take a good look at it before you order Abeka. If you order directly from AAS the shipping is spendy but it is sent priority.

 

Heather

[half-dozenroses]

Thank you, Heather!

 

Sorry I did not explain.... Letters and Sounds covers phonics.

Language 1 covers early grammar principles, suffixes, prefixes, basic sentences and some reading comp.

And I did forget to add that we will use Abeka 1st grade readers as well.

Perhaps I should stick with Abeka Spelling 1 - which I already do have, and use AAS tiles to reinforce.....

 

For my 3rd grader - yes, he does know those basic concepts. So would he have enough cards if he started on level 2? Or does he need the cards from level one for review?

Sorry - having never actually "seen" AAS, I am basing my decision on the website and the advice I get here.

 

 

[MerryAtHope]

I agree with Heather that you may want level 1. Level 2 does a very quick review of the main concepts from Level 1 but doesn't really re-teach them. But if your 3rd grader is pretty solid on phonics concepts, the quick review may be enough. You would still need a level 1 materials packet. If you thought your 1st grader will do it also, you might just get the level 1 & go through it quickly with your 3rd grader first, highlighting any new teaching (but you wouldn't have to make her spell all of the easy words, just learn the concepts). Have you read the FAQ article, Should I start in Level 1 or Level 2? That might help you decide. As Heather pointed out, when the article asks if your child knows the phonograms, it means the multiple sounds (O has 4 sounds, CH has 3, S has 2 etc...).

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[campmom]

Hi, I'm not familar with AAS but I will be using SWR with mine in the future for spelling. Right now I'm using some abeka phonics but for spelling I teach the SWR rules and word markings etc so they will just flow into it in the future. Could you do that with AAS? Use the abeka spelling words but incorporate some of the way AAS does it? Maybe how they mark words, use thier rules instead of Abekas or both, that is what I do. I modify the abeka rules. Abeka will state something as being a certain way and I will teach that it is usually that way or that it may be that way, according to how SWR words the rule. Does that make sense? I don't want to teach them one set of rules now and another one in a year or two. They seem fine with it. I have seen alot of phonics progress with the abeka material, it wasn't something I was planning to use but someone gave it to me. Also if AAS uses any games and things like that you should be able to do that with still using the abeka spelling words.

[Julie of KY]

I'd start a third grader in level one of AAS even though it will be on the easy side - some of it will probably be new.

[siloam]

Thank you, Heather!

 

Sorry I did not explain.... Letters and Sounds covers phonics.

Language 1 covers early grammar principles, suffixes, prefixes, basic sentences and some reading comp.

And I did forget to add that we will use Abeka 1st grade readers as well.

Perhaps I should stick with Abeka Spelling 1 - which I already do have, and use AAS tiles to reinforce.....

 

For my 3rd grader - yes, he does know those basic concepts. So would he have enough cards if he started on level 2? Or does he need the cards from level one for review?

Sorry - having never actually "seen" AAS, I am basing my decision on the website and the advice I get here.

 

 

 

The page Marry linked is probably the best way to gauge which you need. I generally am a mastery person, and would prefer to start at the beginning and move quickly through something than jump ahead and risk having a gap. My oldest had done three years of SWR, knew all the phonograms and could spell on a 7th grade level when we started AAS, and I still started her out on level 1. There was syllable work there that she had never done, so I don't regret it. But I also bought it for my 3rd dd, so I wasn't making the decision to buy it based on my oldest.

 

The thing that kids usually don't know is the phonograms. The order they are presented it is important too, because it is the order of use. In other words you learn that o says /u/ as in hut, /U/ as in use, /OO/ as in put because /u/ is the most common sound u makes, /U/ is the second most common, and /OO/ is the least common sound of U. Just knowing what sounds are more frequent will help the child in reading because they know to try the most common for first.

 

In the end though you know what the child has covered. I haven't seen Abeka phonics, so I really don't know how through it is.

 

Heather

[half-dozenroses]

I will go ahead and start my 3rd grader on AAS level one - there, one decision down!

 

I pulled out Abeka spelling, letters and sounds (phonics) and language (grammar). I think I loaned the readers out so I can't look at those right now. However, looking at the spelling and the phonics books side by side, there is not as much correlation as I had thought. Looking over the first 10 weeks - I only saw one rule that was noted in both books around the same time. Both cover various special sounds (consonant blends and vowel dipthongs) but not necessarily on the same week. Some lessons have a rule along with them, some just have words grouped by a topic, like a- prefix, for example. When it comes to certain lessons like ou in out, owl in owl, owl in bowl... there is no real explanation, just a list of words to spell that have one of these three sound patterns. Or another week's words - oo in book and oo in tooth, then 15 words that have oo making one or the other sound. I wonder if AAS would make lessons like this clearer?? Is there always a rule taught for each lesson?

 

I could still use Abeka phonics and readers which probably do synch up better with each other.

 

I do have a friend who will buy Abeka spelling from me, if I want to sell it.

Now I wonder if maybe I should??

[MerryAtHope]

I pulled out Abeka spelling, letters and sounds (phonics) and language (grammar). I think I loaned the readers out so I can't look at those right now. However, looking at the spelling and the phonics books side by side, there is not as much correlation as I had thought. Looking over the first 10 weeks - I only saw one rule that was noted in both books around the same time. Both cover various special sounds (consonant blends and vowel dipthongs) but not necessarily on the same week. Some lessons have a rule along with them, some just have words grouped by a topic, like a- prefix, for example. When it comes to certain lessons like ou in out, owl in owl, owl in bowl... there is no real explanation, just a list of words to spell that have one of these three sound patterns. Or another week's words - oo in book and oo in tooth, then 15 words that have oo making one or the other sound. I wonder if AAS would make lessons like this clearer?? Is there always a rule taught for each lesson?

 

I think AAS makes it very clear. When there is a rule, AAS teaches it. When there is not a rule but a word follows a common pattern (like ee vs. ea for meet and meat), AAS uses visual methods like word banks to help kids learn. AAS also points out common homophones to make sure kids apply the right meaning to the right word. And patterns that are visual are taught one at a time so that kids have time to master one before the next one is introduced. Once they have mastered a couple of similar sounds, AAS will use word-sorting exercises where the spellings are together.

 

HTH! Merry :-)