Spelling Workout - Poll for those who have tried/used it.

[nmoira]

This is one of the recommended programs in WTM, and my sense is that by far this is the one most often abandoned, no matter the subject. We tried it and abandoned it; I didn't like the way it was organized and the words chosen for the lists made little sense to me.

 

I'm just curious how many people have stuck with it or found it to be a good fit for their child(ren).

[TheAutumnOak]

We are trying it this year...I actually made the switch from R&S Spelling to SWO, so I will see how it goes...Maybe I will post on this thread in January after we have used it a while :tongue_smilie:

[G5052]

Looking at what it covered, I didn't see the point and started them with B after they finished phonics. We used G with my oldest for a few months, and then decided to move on to roots and vocabulary with other resources.

 

My youngest is finishing F within the next few weeks, and that will be the end of our Spelling Workout days. It feels strange!

[CarrieF]

We started with it, left, and are now back to it. :D At first, I did not understand WHY the Wise girls (as I affectionately call them even though technically Susan has "moved on" to become a Bauer!) chose it as their "go to" spelling curriculum because it seemed too easy/simplistic. Now I see that their point is to not sweat it over spelling: teach the rules, know the rules, have your children read. SWO accomplishes this - my kids can do it independently (for the most part), and even though I don't always like the organization of the lists, they DO follow/explain the rules of spelling and work well enough. We're going to stick with it this time unless we have some MAJOR problems (which I don't foresee). I have looked at every spelling curricula under the sun (and purchased my fair share, too!) and this is just the most simple and straight-forward one out there. For example: I REALLY wanted to love AAS (and purchased 3 levels of it!), but even though it is a wonderful program and solid in its teaching of rules, there are just too many "bells and whistles" for this Mama to keep up with.

In my experience, sticking with the Wise Girls has paid off, so I am sticking with their recs. whenever humanly possible! ;)

[Jonibee]

I'm on child 4 with these books, having used Spelling Workout for hmmm, 10 years? Why? It's simple, direct, easy. Like the previous poster, my kids don't stress over spelling. They think it's easy and why should I look for hard? I've been tempted to skip it altogether at times, but my kids have always enjoyed that they feel smart because it's so easy.

 

I don't remember how SWB says to do it. My kids do 2 pages Monday, 2 pages Tuesday, spelling test on Wednesday. We skip all the reviews, so it's just 30 lessons per year. It's always the first book of the year to get finished -- signifying that summer is really near. Routine is good.

[lmrich]

Other - because we are not done with one of my kids. She is my weakest speller. The secret to the series is the little box in the left hand corner with the rule listed on it. We use AAS too and the rules are helping.

[MyLittleBears]

We started with book B then C during 3rd grade, and book D for 4th. I have mixed feelings about it. My ds is not a natural speller but I can see that he did learn a lot. He still makes a lot of spelling mistakes but I think it is mostly due to mild dyslexia. We are probably going to continue with it but are also using AAS. I think it is great for natural or even average spellers, though.

[TheAutumnOak]

We started with it, left, and are now back to it. :D At first, I did not understand WHY the Wise girls (as I affectionately call them even though technically Susan has "moved on" to become a Bauer!) chose it as their "go to" spelling curriculum because it seemed too easy/simplistic. Now I see that their point is to not sweat it over spelling: teach the rules, know the rules, have your children read. SWO accomplishes this - my kids can do it independently (for the most part), and even though I don't always like the organization of the lists, they DO follow/explain the rules of spelling and work well enough. We're going to stick with it this time unless we have some MAJOR problems (which I don't foresee). I have looked at every spelling curricula under the sun (and purchased my fair share, too!) and this is just the most simple and straight-forward one out there. For example: I REALLY wanted to love AAS (and purchased 3 levels of it!), but even though it is a wonderful program and solid in its teaching of rules, there are just too many "bells and whistles" for this Mama to keep up with.

In my experience, sticking with the Wise Girls has paid off, so I am sticking with their recs. whenever humanly possible! ;)

 

 

:iagree:

I am not at a place where I can say it has paid off for me yet, but I do share your sentiment about this...

[cathmom]

My 4th child is the first one in our family to use it. He just finished A. I like it because it is something that he can do while I am working with my twins. I have a theory that one can either spell or not, so I don't really care what curriculum we use. I like that this is a subject that can go up SWB's scale:

 

I. Levels of supervision

Parent at Elbow (PEW)

Hovering Parent (HOP)

Assign and Check Parent (ACP)

Start and End of Day Parent, On Call (SEDPOC)

Start and End of Week Parent, On Call (SEWPON)

Tuition Paying Parent (TPP)

 

 

Basically it's an ACP for him now.

[abbeyej]

I've used it off and on with both kids. I kept *trying* to like it. But the only part I really found worthwhile was the editing (at the end of each lesson). Otherwise, it seemed like busy work: Not enough to teach a poor speller, but just a time-waster for my good spellers.

 

I bought book B for T when he was 5 and promptly returned it for book C. Even that was useless. I tried it again with F when she was 7 or 8 and we did books D and part of E, I think. I don't think either kid got anything from the rather haphazard "rules", and all they needed to learn the words was to do a pretest and be told their mistakes. ... But I doubt it would work any better for a poor speller, since the rules aren't really rules at all and simply say things like, "sometimes we write the /ay/ sound like this and sometimes like that", etc.

 

I guess if I just needed to hand something to a child to keep him or her busy while I worked with another child, it would be fine. :)

[Donna T.]

We used it for awhile but I dropped it because it had the children looking at words that were spelled incorrectly.

[Jen+4dc]

My older ds used levels D & E and did fine with it. Then, we moved on to vocab for him, spelling comes easy for him.

 

My younger ds used A & 1/2 of B and just did.not.learn.that.way. After too many weeks of tears and torture (for us both!) we moved on to AAS. Now he *gets* it; he is actually succeeding at spelling, and he enjoys it! :001_smile:

[elise1mds]

We started with B (I bought A but we didn't really use it - I simply did oral quizzes to see where we needed to start) and are almost done with C. I have D 'in storage' to use as soon as we're ready. I plan to use it through the end of fourth grade.

[sassenach]

I really don't get this recommendation. I think it is only good for natural spellers, and even then it's not a great program.

[Harriet Vane]

We use it and love it. We have used it for several years and have no plans to change that. It's simple and thorough. I rely on Rod & Staff grammar to be the heavy-hitter on grammar and phonics rules. The two are the ideal combination, IMHO.

[Jean in CA]

Last 3 levels are excellent. We didn't think A and B were that exciting, but the series builds year after year. We find it easy to implement, and sufficient.

[JenC3]

We started at A and DD is finishing C now. I have D in the cabinet to start in July. She is a natural speller though.

[robsiew]

Well, I would have voted "We started using it and are still using it." We are only in the early books though. I used AAS with my older 2 and absolutely love it... as do they. I just need **something** that is not so teacher intensive. Since my kids are pretty good spellers I chose spelling. SWO gets it done and it gets it done pretty independently. My youngest still needs me a bit, but I'm trying to wean him off my help and have him do it mostly independent. My older two are resistant to being switched to SWO so I may just finish out the AAS series with them... my oldest is in Level 6 and my dd is in Level 5. Makes sense to finish out with my oldest, but I'm contemplating just finishing out 5 with dd, then switching her to SWO.

[tinkgumby]

We started with it, left, and are now back to it.

 

This is me - with one of my kids (who's pretty much a natural speller anyway). We didn't keep up with AAS, and he didn't care much for Rod & Staff, so he actually asked to go back to SWO. My older son, on the other hand, does NOT like all the crosswords and extra activities, and it didn't seem to be helping his spelling at all, so we're sticking with R&S for the moment for him.

[Aubrey]

This is one of the recommended programs in WTM, and my sense is that by far this is the one most often abandoned, no matter the subject. We tried it and abandoned it; I didn't like the way it was organized and the words chosen for the lists made little sense to me.

 

I'm just curious how many people have stuck with it or found it to be a good fit for their child(ren).

 

:iagree: We quit for the same reasons you've listed.

 

As far as WTM recs, I've learned to separate the philosophy from the recs. I LOVE their phil, but I've ended up STRONGLY disliking all of the top recs I've tried. Imo, it's personality, not anything to worry about on either end. But it's much cheaper & less stressful to realize that, lol!

[Mommy22alyns]

Rebecca used A in kindy - it was just busywork.

[Chris in VA]

We used it each year we homeschooled. I almost switched to Spelling Power in 4th, but didn't.

May use it again in 7th for the roots work it provides, but probably will just go with a straight roots program.

[nmoira]

 

Well, I would have voted "We started using it and are still using it."

Gah! I knew I missed something. Sorry.

[mcconnellboys]

I used it with both boys. I started it later with the first, because we came to WTM later. I believe I started him in the third of fourth level of it. I used it all the way through with the second. I thought it worked well for both of them, but then I never tried a different sort of program to see if another might have worked better....

[Critterfixer]

I made it through SWO A but we will not continue with B. The word lists didn't exactly puzzle me, but I don't like not having the why clearly laid out. Perhaps it is explained in the teacher's manual.

I think in this instance the reason for switching curriculum would fit in the "Makes you want to stab your eyes out" category.

[Guest]

Started at C, went to AAS and some other stuff. Started again at E, stopped part way through because I realized MegaWords was the better choice for my kids because the words are broken down into syallables. All the rules in the world did not help mine.

[StartingOver]

I really can't answer the poll correctly. The first time around I used it through to the last book with my older children. With the younger, I bought the first book then moved on to All About Spelling. It was the best there was back in IMO, but now there are so many more choices.

[NittanyJen]

Answer: Still using and plan to stick with it.

 

Love that it makes so much sense, is not busywork at all, does an awesome job of teaching spelling rules, as the lessons are organized around either a spelling rule or a language word root, and then have the students actually USE the words in different contexts, which help them learn to spell better than just making lists of words or other types of exercises. That's pretty much the opposite of busywork! If you learn how to use the word correctly and see different contexts for it, you are more likely to find its spelling relevant and remember it.

 

We also circle any trouble words in the main word list, so after doing the review lessons, any words that were problematic appear in the review spelling test for another attempt at mastery-- any word (very rare) still giving problems will be seen again later, too. By the end of the book, the boys can reliably spell all of the words in the book-- and even better for my learning disabled child who has trouble with reading, he has gained confidence READING all of those words as well.

 

My older child (age 10) finished level H and we are doing Vocabulary Workshop instead of spelling, but I require correct spelling while he works through the books. The rare problem word appearing in VW goes on a specialty word list in his notebook and he practices those periodically. I don't call it a trouble word list because I don't want him to automatically think negatively about them.

 

Jen

http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

We used it for at least 3 or 4 years.

 

I ended up stopping it because it had become a fill in the blank exercise for the kids rather than a learning experience. (No matter how creative I was about approaching the word list in a way that forced them to think.)

 

We ended up switching to Spelling Power. It is one of the recommendations in the latest edition of WTM although I don't remember how I found it-maybe from someone here on the boards. Spelling Power isn't perfect but it does force them to think more. It may be less user friendly for the kids in K-3 or 4 as there are no fun workbooks. But that is impossible to judge for a child I've never met.

[athomeinMT]

My oldest started D in 3rd and finished the series. He loved it and it worked well for him. My dd tried but we didn't even finish C, it just made no sense to her at all. She loved R&S spelling and did it through the 6th grade book.

Once I realized that it was okay if they did different things we were okay. That is part of why we are home after all, to give each one what they need.

[janainaz]

It worked for us - we have one book left. I never felt the need to obsess about it. To me, spelling is spelling. Just pick something and stick with it.

[Penny from Tenny]

We switched to Christian Liberty Press Spelling after the first year of SWO. We have used CLP ever since and have no regrets.

[Dana]

I made it through SWO A but we will not continue with B. The word lists didn't exactly puzzle me, but I don't like not having the why clearly laid out. Perhaps it is explained in the teacher's manual.

I think in this instance the reason for switching curriculum would fit in the "Makes you want to stab your eyes out" category.

 

It's not explained in the TMs. :glare:

[mommyofthree]

I wanted to like this program. I really did. We started with B and made it through to D but I felt as if something was missing. The best part of Spelling Workout for us was the editing. I just don't get this recommendation.

[Gailmegan]

We started with B and ds1 finished F and ds2 finished C. We are planning to continue next year - I actually bought DEG and H already. My boys like it. They never complain about spelling and they usually do very well on the tests.

[Tam101]

Did A & B in 2nd grade and half-way through C I chucked it. It was busy work, my son's spelling wasn't improving, he was feeling like he wasn't "smart" because he couldn't pass the test at the end of the week, I was frustrated, he was frustrated...ect. Now he keeps a spelling notebook and we review the common mistakes he is making. For example he often has trouble with the OU vowel combination, so now he knows to watch for that! It has improved his spelling so much and he feels more confident.

[kalanamak]

I liked it, but the paper was a bit "scratchy" for kiddo, and the spine was fought with. I liked the reading intro and the proofreading marks. I don't know about de novo learning of rules, as we did SWR to learn to read, and he had the rules memorized already.

 

We switched to SWS for the top spiral spine and the neater paper. We may go back for extra on level practice before moving ahead into words he is not ready for.