Quiver0f10 Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Anyone have experience with this? Does it teach them to spell using spelling rules? I'd love to hear your review :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison in KY Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Hi Quiver, from what I remember it doesn't teach spelling rules. I believe it's just basically drill...It starts off slow, like maybe 5-7 words, then will gradually increase. It was too tough for my very bad spelling boy. He was too easily frustrated. You have to type in the words which was another problem for us. Then, at the beginning sign on you have to make sure you do your name with a capital letter or it won't accept it. Anyway, for us it just didn't work out. One other suggestion, which is similiar but for me much more user friendly is called Phonics Solution. My version does have a few glitches...and I can't quite figure out how to find the results file on my computer...but usually my son tells me how much he got right or wrong. Anyway, with this program you use your mouse to pick the letters. For the first level I think it begins at 5 words, then it might increase to 10 (can't remember)...but once you log on then there are spaces (at level 1) so you know how many letters are in the word. You use your mouse to click on the letters, you can delete letters also with the mouse...then if you miss something it will give you one more chance, deleting only those wrong letters. So if you spell the word spill as spile then it will come back a 2nd time with spil and give you one more chance to get it right. Then after the 2nd chance it will say no sorry and let you see the corrected word..you can also see the spelling rule which it comes from (but my son never voluntarily looks at them so I don't know how good this feature really is). Overall, it's pretty easy for the teacher and student, I just don't know how effective....my son stinks at spelling and I really can't tell if he has improved or not because I don't stay over his shoulder when he does his test. The program will bring up frequently missed words and re-use them over and over in the lessons until the kids get it right. I think it has 6 levels, and not all of the levels give you two chances and show the spaces for the words. I still look around for spelling programs...but again this is low maintenance for me to use, I just click on the icon, then log in and go to spelling. the picture of it on their website is exactly like what the kids see (blue background with the words highlighted.)). Good luck. Alison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted April 25, 2008 Author Share Posted April 25, 2008 Thanks for the review! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zee Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Hi Jean, Yes, it does not do the rules. Just typing of the word that is spoken by the computer. If you type too slow, it will mark it wrong. It seems to keep track of how fast you type. Anyway, my son did not have the trouble with this that the above poster did. He was about 8 when I gave it to him. I liked it because it took less than 5 minutes. It was a supplement for us and I can not see using it as a program for anyone other than an exceptional speller. If you have a struggling speller, I think it is good reinforcement, as long as they don't get frustrated easy over things like the typing speed or capitalization that was mentioned. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted April 25, 2008 Author Share Posted April 25, 2008 Thanks again for the review. I did buy these, but I don't think it's going to be a good fit for our family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodgollycr Posted April 25, 2008 Share Posted April 25, 2008 Do you think it would be a good fit for a 9th grader who needed help in spelling? I was just looking at these last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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