AAS -- not lovin' it!

[Marie463]

Any AAS users here who can convince us to stick with it?

 

I really wanted to like this curriculum, but I'm just not. Ds6 is starting Level 2...he's doing fine, but both of us see it as a chore. He's quite advanced with reading (maybe a 5th or 6th grade level?) and seems to be a natural speller. Because he did not learn to read phonetically, I was hoping that AAS would help fill in the phonics rules that most kids study when they are learning how to read. Unfortunately, we're both a bit bored with the "rules" of AAS and he just wants to spell!

 

I'm really tempted to just get a typical spelling workbook that focuses on lists (and is less expensive!) Any reasons why we should stick with AAS? Convince me! :001_smile:

[jennynd]

if he is reading so well, isn't level 1/2 too easy? Maybe that is why he is bored? My good reader enjoy spell big words. He will probably bored if I ask him to spell 1st 2nd book of AAS as well

 

Any AAS users here who can convince us to stick with it?

 

I really wanted to like this curriculum, but I'm just not. Ds6 is starting Level 2...he's doing fine, but both of us see it as a chore. He's quite advanced with reading (maybe a 5th or 6th grade level?) and seems to be a natural speller. Because he did not learn to read phonetically, I was hoping that AAS would help fill in the phonics rules that most kids study when they are learning how to read. Unfortunately, we're both a bit bored with the "rules" of AAS and he just wants to spell!

 

I'm really tempted to just get a typical spelling workbook that focuses on lists (and is less expensive!) Any reasons why we should stick with AAS? Convince me! :001_smile:

[Crimson Wife]

I love AAS for my 2nd child but it wouldn't be a good fit for my "natural speller" oldest. I use Spelling Power with her. It's individualized so it doesn't have all the busywork of traditional spelling workbooks like SWO.

[matilda]

My young ds hates Spelling Power, so I have to adjust it quite a bit to make it work for him. So while I agree that SP might be a great option for you in the long run, you might need to modify it now to make it work for a younger child. One thing is that SP has you test on a list of words every day, and my ds doesn't have the patience to do that yet. I have to choose words that I am pretty sure he doesn't know and then he works on those.

[serendipitous journey]

We're happy with AAS, with minor adaptations, so far with Button but he's not a particularly precocious reader.

 

We use Phonics Pathways for phonics, and you can easily use it (see author's online site for more specifics -- here's a link to a page with a free how-to) as a spelling program. That might be less tedious, but still thorough? I started that way, but Button detests phonics (well, he hates starting it but cheers up as we progress; if his happiness curve went the other way, I'd find something else) and AAS makes things _more_ fun for us ... a handy consideration: you can prob. get a copy of Phonics Pathways through your library and give it a whirl free-of-charge.

[EKS]

My young ds hates Spelling Power, so I have to adjust it quite a bit to make it work for him. So while I agree that SP might be a great option for you in the long run, you might need to modify it now to make it work for a younger child. One thing is that SP has you test on a list of words every day, and my ds doesn't have the patience to do that yet. I have to choose words that I am pretty sure he doesn't know and then he works on those.

 

I heavily modify Spelling Power for my natural speller as well. We use a white board to write the words and don't do any of the activities. If he misses any, I simply add the word to his list the next day and again a few days later. Every few months we go through everything he missed again.

 

We have had periods where we go through a whole list each day, but lately we've been doing half a list. It takes maybe 5 minutes.

[boscopup]

We got halfway through level 3, and it DID help my son's spelling, but he wasn't really a natural speller. He does, however, pick up on spelling once he's written a word or learned the rules for a word. So we switched to Wheeler's Elementary Speller, and that's going well.

 

I'm glad I used AAS to give ME some teacher training. Now when we come to something new, I can point out the phonograms and/or rules, so he's still learning them that way.

 

You might take a look at HTTS (How to Teach Spelling) if you want AAS-like phonograms/rules but with harder words/sentences. You could probably start with workbook 2 (How to Spell), which is for grades 2-3. Many of the words/sentences would be given from the TM, which you could make as hard as you'd like.

 

I finally dropped AAS when I realized my son was reading beyond a 7th grade level, so he clearly had enough phonics for reading. I decided that spelling via dictation would be a better way to go. Wheeler's uses a mix of copywork, dictation, and writing from memory. Some lessons are lists of words, but most are poetry.

[twoforjoy]

My DS is also quite naturally good at spelling, and for me AAS was too much. He liked it. He liked playing with the magnets and chips. But, honestly, it was one of those curricula where I didn't feel the time/effort yielded an equivalent payoff. We ended up dropping it. I honestly haven't found a spelling program that doesn't bore my

DS (and me) to tears. I'm thinking of just adapting Phonics Pathways and making it as quick and painless as possible, just to make sure we've covered the basics.

[JeanM]

I love AAS for my 2nd child but it wouldn't be a good fit for my "natural speller" oldest. I use Spelling Power with her. It's individualized so it doesn't have all the busywork of traditional spelling workbooks like SWO.

:iagree: I do the exact same thing, but it's my 1st child that uses AAS and my 2nd that uses Spelling Power.

[poetic license]

For Spelling Power, do you all just use this big orange book?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Spelling-Power-3rd-Beverly-Adams-Gordon/dp/188882719X/ref=pd_cp_b_3

 

I see that the 3rd edition can be purchased used for a reasonable price--is there any compelling reason to get the 4th edition?

[rbk mama]

Any AAS users here who can convince us to stick with it?

 

I really wanted to like this curriculum, but I'm just not. Ds6 is starting Level 2...he's doing fine, but both of us see it as a chore. He's quite advanced with reading (maybe a 5th or 6th grade level?) and seems to be a natural speller. Because he did not learn to read phonetically, I was hoping that AAS would help fill in the phonics rules that most kids study when they are learning how to read. Unfortunately, we're both a bit bored with the "rules" of AAS and he just wants to spell!

 

I'm really tempted to just get a typical spelling workbook that focuses on lists (and is less expensive!) Any reasons why we should stick with AAS? Convince me! :001_smile:

 

I would never use AAS with a natural speller. It was great for my dyslexic DS, but way way too much for my natural speller DS. The latter learns a spelling after being corrected once or twice, so we don't use any program. He makes occasional mistakes - he corrects them, and I rarely see that same mistake again. I think spelling programs are a waste of time for natural spellers.