Would using Sequential Spelling and R&S together be too much

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Both programs appeal to me. My son, who will be entering 5th grade, is definitely spelling challenged. He has an "A" in spelling at his private school (they use BJU) but I know it is only because of rote memory. A week later, he completely forgets how to spell the words. He always misspells even what I would consider the simplest of words in his writing assignments.

 

Do you think both of these programs combined would be overkill, too time consuming, etc. Thoughts??

 

Thank you!

 

Blessings, Lisa

[Rhondabee]

much the same circumstances - I started hs'ing my now-7th grader in 5th grade, and spelling was horrible.

 

We started with Sequential Spelling (I heard about it before I'd heard of WTM or R&S). Then, one day after about 3 or 4 months, he told me it was "pointless" to continue because he had figured out that every word was going to use the same spelling pattern....

 

BUT - SS *is* what got my dc thinking "phonetically", and that is *so* important. Then, we went into R&S-5 which teaches all the "rules". I tried to keep up the SS, but it quickly went by the way-side.

 

(I did do some of the rules with SS after reading The ABC's and All Their Tricks - but if you'll google "spelling rules" I think most of the phonics-based rules are listed in a website somewhere. I'll try to look later.)

 

This was a very good path for him. I think doing the SS first really did help, but I *LOVE* R&S Spelling for how well it teaches how to build words.

 

We still have trouble with some spelling patterns which were ingrained thanks to the public school's policy of never checking for spelling, but he is now doing R&S-7 and doing well on both his tests and in his written work.

 

hth,

Rhonda

[blessed2fosteradopt]

Thank you, Rhonda.....I have a few more questions.

 

What SS book did you start him with and at what point did you stop? Maybe I can start my year with SS and segue into R&S5 at some point. Since both are relatively inexpensive, I don't think I could go wrong with both. How long does (or did) it take you to get through R&S5?

[Rhondabee]

We went through Book One of SS pretty fast. At first, we did just one list a day. But, as he grew accustomed to doing it, I would combine two lists at once by alternating between them (since they're basically the same words, just with different suffixes).

 

We also did spelling twice a day - simply turned to another section in the book (like, start on Lesson 1 and also Lesson 60 on the same day, I hope that makes sense, it's hard to explain in words :confused:)

 

As he grew more and more confident, and began associating letter combinations with specific sounds, I would even combine a whole week's worth of words into one day's list. So, I think we got most of Book Two, and a bit of Book Three done before we stopped.

 

I'm not sure exactly how long it took for R&S-5. I think that was something we did for a few weeks into the summer to be sure that we finished the book. We did skip R&S-6, but if he hadn't improved so much, I wouldn't have skipped. (He did have the benefit of over-hearing his younger brother's phonics and spellings lessons :D)

 

I also think that all the reading and the read-alouds we did that year really helped build a framework for him he hadn't really had before, so I would really encourage you to read, read, read as well as work on spelling.

 

hth,

Rhonda

[pbjmeyer]

We used R&S 5 this past year (my son is 10), and I was using spelling workout book C (which is 3rd grade) because my son struggles with spelling. I just wanted to encourage you that you can do spelling with R&S 5, but you may want to repeat what you worked on last year so the words and rules 'stick'.

All of a sudden, after Christmas my son started spelling better when writing. I think his brain just had to get to a certain developmental point before it made sense. We'll be using grade 4 next year, with R&S 6 - but I'd rather he build a good foundation.

So hang in there, whatever you decide to use,

 

Joyce