advice on wordly wise

[trisharog]

My upcoming 4th grade son is coming from a classical Christian school that used Wordly Wise for Spelling. I looked at the curriculum and the accompanying workbook and it looked cumbersome. He already knows that system so I hate to reinvent the wheel. In addition, spelling is his passion . He wants to be homeschooled so that he can enter spelling bees because his school didnt have one. I have heard that Spelling Workout is user friendly. First, what are the thoughts about Worldy Wise . Second, would it take some ramp up time for him to change systems.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

Trisha

[trisharog]

I wrote the original message but I am brand new to HS. I think the phonics program I was describing was Spell to Read and Write. Please see above post for the details.

[summer]

I have used both Wordly Wise and Spelling Workout. Based on what you have said, I would just move on to Spelling Workout. We are almost done with level F and then will be dropping it only because I do not want to continue to do spelling tests and such. My DD prefers Spelling Workout to Wordly Wise.

 

I would definitely do Spelling Workout based on what you have said. I would also throw in Word Roots (it is a computer program so it is no addition work for you and will help with the spelling and vocab because it teaches roots).

[summer]

I want to add that Wordly Wise is not cumbersome, but trying to do Wordly Wise, Word Roots, and Spelling Workout, got to take too much time for us. It really is not THAT time consuming, but if you are doing SWO (spelling workout) you do not exactly need Wordly Wise and both are excellent programs. Word Roots by Critical Thinking Press in the computer game format only is what I use there because it is kind of fun and just a side thing. I would not bother with it if you are going to do with workbook on it. From there, I would recommend the study of Latin, Greek, or French as those are the main languages our language comes from.

[trust and obey]

My oldest ds has used Wordly Wise for 3 years. I don't think I can honestly say he learned a whole lot from it. Yes, he learned definitions and did the excercises, but once we moved on to a new set of words he forgot them. We are ditching it next year.

 

I have found both my ds learn vocabulary best from reading - either readers or read -alounds. As we read, when we come across an unfamiliar word we dicuss its meaning. I find they retain info better this way because they learned it within context and because their curiosity initiated their desire to learn.

 

Next year we are using Latin for Children to help with vocab as well as continuing to expand vocabulary through reading.

 

Hope that helps!

[kRenee]

Were you really asking about Spell to Write and Read and Spelling Workout? SWR is a bit cumbersome in that it isn't an open and go workbook. It requires your involvement but I consider it a better program to learn spelling IF your child needs the phonics emphasis. I also prefer the word list in SWR - there is no grouping of similar sounds and so I think is less confusing.

 

Spelling Workout is problably just fine for a natural speller who doesn't get confused with the word lists.

 

It would be easy to switch. There is no 'method' with SWO. Just open the workbook and start doing exercises.

[Jen in DE]

I think Sequential Spelling is great for really learning how to spell - not just memorizing words. I would also add Word Roots, and dump the monotony of book work in Wordly Wise and Spelling Workout.

Jen