trying my best Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 (edited) This is the only thing i am having question about... DS was tested to be on level 2 before we even got this system. I wanted to start with level A because he doesn't know spelling "vocabulary". We are half way through level 1 and easily doing 1 lesson a day. I am glad we started with 1. Tiles are super easy for him. He gets bored making words out of them because in his mind he can write them faster than he can put them together. I still do it because its a good practice for him to put tiles back. Doing about 15 words on a board make him bored out of his mind and he acts up because its not challenging. - during the dictation (when i am not looking) he moves tiles with his nose, fist, elbows and what not. I really try to hurry through this exercise as fast as I can. We do all the words and extra words on the paper the same day as well. My question is when we REVIEW the previous lessons how do we review WORD CARDS? on the board? on the paper? How do i know what words he needs to review if he knows them all so far? Edited January 9, 2011 by trying my best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy Inman Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 From personal experience, I tailor the program to my son. We only use the tiles for teaching portion of the lesson or when it's very helpful like with suffix/prefix work or vowel teams. He just doesn't care for using them. I give him the choice of spelling the 10 words/more words orally, on paper, or on the wipe off board. When we did level 1, we breezed through.. especially the early stuff that he already knew. If he knew it.. i only made him do a few of the words to prove it and zoomed on. As for reviewing cards, we start out most lessons with them. The day after we've done the 10 words portion of the lesson we review them and then move the ones he knows well to the mastered section. From then on we'll start lessons with whatever we have in review section. We do them orally and that is totally based on what my son needs. He is visual and can spell anything on paper... but he needs practice with orally spelling so we do it that way. If there are no cards in the review section or only a few, i will pick random ones from the mastered section to keep things fresh. My point is that this program is highly customizable to your child...don't feel like you have to do it one certain way. We're in level 4 and we just love it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1GirlTwinBoys Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 So your son is only 5, right? My children don't like using the tiles, so I have them write the words on a small lined whiteboard. This is also good handwriting & letter formation practice. I feel like we're accomplishing two things at once. Actually their handwriting has improved so much since doing it this way. :). Especially my 6 year old twin boys. My DD already has nice handwriting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairie rose Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Yup, I wouldn't force him to use the tiles either. If you want the alphabetizing practice, have him right out all his words and then alphabetize them. None of my older kids liked the tiles when they used AAS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I pushed using the tiles because my son needed practice with the idea of segmenting a word. We're using AAS to do some phonics work, so I see the segmenting as important for that. I don't generally do the word review each lesson. I'll write the words he has trouble with in one lesson (and it can be due to a handwriting problem rather than a spelling problem) in the next lesson and I just include them when we're doing the day's dictation. For the overall review, we use the cards and do the spelling orally. It's a game where he tries to catch me - take a step forward if he gets the word right, back if he gets the word wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trying my best Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 good idea about orally reviewing! thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cabertmom Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 (edited) We love AAS as it has been the only thing to finally help my 13-year-old son who has a lot of trouble with spelling, and it is solidly working with everyone younger than him. I'm wondering whether you are talking about reviewing the current words or previously mastered ones. Here's what we do: On the first day we go through a new list of words, the children spell them orally. If they don't get it the first time, then I have them use the tiles. That way if it's easy, it's fast, and if they need extra practice, we use the tiles to help with the multisensory aspect. After that, those words all go under review even if they got it so I know it isn't just short-term memory from being introduced previously in the lesson. Then the next day, we start with the card box, and again, the words are done orally. Any that are mastered easily the first time go under the mastered tab. Any that are wrong or questionable at all stay under review. Every 5 or 8 lessons or so, there is a lesson that begins with reviewing mastered cards. At that point, we do what the author recommends and pull out the mastered cards in each section (phonograms, key cards, words, etc.) and go through a somewhat random selection of each. If I see that they are missing words from one set of 10, I go through more words from that section since each set of 10 words focuses on a particular rule of spelling. If one set is easy, I may just do one from that and go on. Does that make sense? I find the tiles helpful, and we use them every day, especially for introducing new concepts in each lesson prior to the new set of words, but when it comes to the word list, we only use them when the word is something less than easy. FYI, we are now in book three, and we don't usually do a whole lesson per day like we did in book one when they were shorter. For my 8-year-old who has a rather short attention span but spells easily, it usually takes us 3 or 4 days to get through a lesson, and I do split the dictated sentences at the end in half, doing half each day. I have never had a 5-year-old capable of doing spelling, but at such a young age, you might consider only doing as much of a lesson as he can concentrate on well rather than making it a negative experience. Charlotte Mason (or at least Karen Andreola) recommends very short (10-15 minute) lessons so that the children can learn to give their whole attention to something for a short amount of time, building up the time as they grow older rather than teaching them the bad habit of giving only half of their attention to something. The more children I have had, the more this makes sense to me. Edited January 9, 2011 by Cabertmom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 My kids are older, but I let them choose how to practice the spelling. We use the tiles to introduce new concepts, and sometimes my dd will use them to practice those--but by the time we get to the list of 10 words, she will just write those on a hand held white board. My son prefers to write on paper. It's ok to let your son not do all of them in tiles. Also, if the words are easy, you don't have to make him do all of them. Teach the concept, and choose a few words for him to demonstrate--maybe the ones that might be hardest if you think he'll know them all. If he can do those easily in tiles or in writing, you might skip the rest and move on to the next step. I agree with keeping lessons very short for him at this point--10 or 15 minutes is plenty for a 5 yo. HTH! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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