If you use CLE LA (spelling?)

[mom2jjka]

If you use CLE LA do you like (or even use) the spelling portion of their curriculum, or do you skip it or supplement it with something else?

 

I love CLE in general, and I think that the grammar (and even the penmanship) portions of their LA are wonderful, but I'm not using it right now because I found the spelling 'lacking'. And then, the more I thought about it, it seems that almost everyone else I know who uses CLE has 'issues' with their spelling, and my DH asked me last night... "So has anyone ever given feedback to the company about it?" :001_huh:

(which was sort of a 'duh' moment for me):glare:

 

I haven't...has anyone else here?

 

Maybe we should give some constructive feedback.

If they heard it from enough customers - (or potential customers) perhaps they would improve that portion of their product. They might gain more customers, and we would be happy consumers.

 

(just a thought) ;)

[Marie in Oh]

my girls are natural spellers and have no problems. My oldest, a boy, has had trouble with spelling til we did Megawords with him last year, and even though he we didn't do all the levels, the method stuck, so CLE has been fine for him this year too.

 

I can see that if spelling were an issue, a program like Sequential Spelling or All About Spelling would be necessary, but my kids litterally learn the lists by using the words over and over again during the week. I don't see it being much different than a program like Spelling Workout or A Reason for Spelling, and those programs work for lots of folks.

[mom31257]

I am not supplementing it at all. I've seen comments about how CLE's doesn't follow any rules, but that's not how I see it at all. Some are phonics rules as well, but at this level (he's in 2nd grade) I think it's good to do that. He gets 45 words per LU, so I think 450 words a year is great, especially covering 3-8 rules per LU.

 

Here are the rules covered in the LU we are in right now.

List 1: adding suffixes to words that end in silent e

List 2: Sounds of y, adding s or es to y

List 3: adding suffixes to words with a short vowel and ending in one consonant

The next LU:

List 1: C sounds like s or k and when

List 2: G sounds like g or j and when, ge and dge endings

List 3: vowel pairs for long a and long e, and k or ck ending

 

My dd is using the 8th grade LA and most of the work with the words is vocabulary building. She is an avid reader, but has learned new words in the program. I wish I had know about CLE many years earlier.

[Joyofsixreboot]

I'm using their spelling. The kids seem to be good spellers and the lists are from commonly used words. I (ducking 'cause this is blasphemy) don't think all the spelling rules really help. Either you can spell or you can't If you can't make the dictionary/spell check your friend. YMMV

[mom2jjka]

I'm glad to hear it's working well for you all!

I have been talking about it w/ several IRL friends and we were discussing that we wished the older grades followed more of a phonics/rules-based approach like R&S does.

 

My daughter did well 'memorizing' the CLE word lists up until the point of her tests, but afterwards there just wasn't much retention. CLE does so well in the younger years teaching the phonics rules, maybe they just assume that the kids know them already from that(?)

 

But for kids who didn't start w/ CLE, (my DD went to private school through 2nd grade and they used more of a sight-word approach to reading :rolleyes:,) I think many of their lists for the older children are rather 'random'.

[homeschoolally]

We love CLE LA, but don't use the spelling. My son has a huge gap between his grammar and spelling abilities.

 

Still love it, and finding it prepared him very well for the English portion of the ACT. I can't recommend it highly enough-- with or without spelling

[homeschoolally]

 

My dd is using the 8th grade LA and most of the work with the words is vocabulary building. She is an avid reader, but has learned new words in the program. I wish I had know about CLE many years earlier.

 

:iagree:This is very true in the 700-800 Light Units. Although the spelling is too difficult for my son, we will often go through the words to brush up on his vocabulary. There are some great lists of topic-specific words I might not have ever exposed him to.

[FriedClams]

We use CLE and the spelling. I don't think there is any perfect spelling program, especially if the student is not a natural speller. So, we use CLE. And we read a lot. And we correct spelling on papers. And they will learn to proofread and use a spell checker. :)

[Dawn E]

I had purchased the SWR Spelling Rule Cards a long time ago when I was considering the program. I ended up selling everything else, but held on to those. We weren't really having trouble with the CLE spelling because dd has a great memory and was learning to spell by memorizing the words. However, I pulled the cards out to add in just to give her more tools for understanding why things are spelled as they are.

[Heather in OK]

We skip it.

 

We use Wordly Wise for vocabulary + spelling.

[WiseOwlKnits]

We use CLE, but I use Sequential Spelling with DD. She's very mathy and spelling is her weakest subject. SS appeals to her because it teaches the patterns in spelling, which makes perfect sense to her.

[blessedmom3]

We don't skip it . My 7yo is a very advanced speller and rarely misses any word but he still does it for reinforcement . CLE is phonics based at least in 2nd grade. We do supplement spelling with bigiqkids.com .