I REALLY wanted to like AAS. Truly, I did. But...

[dixiebuckeye]

We started AAS probably a year and a half ago with my DD. She is now on Level 2. We did take a brief break because things weren't clicking to try Spelling+. That was an absolute failure for her at her age. Went back to AAS. Went back and retaught the latter parts of Level 1...retaught the first lessons of Level 2. I swear, I follow the instructions on how to review. Yet, like today, she was supposed to spell the phrase, "hates kisses." She spells it "hates kisis." Now, if you ask her what the rule is with short vowel words ending in f, l, or s, she can tell you. If you ask how to make a word plural, she can tell you "s, or es." If you ask her what the base word of kisses is, she can tell you. I really don't know where the connection is missing.

 

The particular lesson she is on, is the one about adding an e to make the long vowel sound. Well, she's caught on to when you're going over the spelling words that she needs to add an e, but in the sentence that was dictated, she didn't add the e. Asked her to read the sentence to me and she caught the mistake.

 

She was tested in May and scored great on reading comprehension, sentence reading, and word reading. Did VERY poorly on word study skills. Did proficient on spelling. But I don't know if either of us are going to survive continuing this, and I honestly don't know what to do. I am so frustrated that I'm about to break out the Abeka 1 spelling book that I have from when we first started school and start there. Maybe someday we would catch up to actual grade level. I'm at a loss.:confused: With those testing results and that info, does anyone have any advice?

Edited June 26, 2012 by dixiebuckeye

[happycc]

Is she reading a lot on her own?.....perhaps for some words where she struggles with you can do projects such as have her draw lips and the correct spelling of kisses of it as well as copywork of passages with that word. Maybe she just needs more repetition of seeing that word spelled correctly. I have one like that. Spelling Power has a lot of these ideas. Perhaps tracing that word in sand, shaving cream if she really consistently gets it wrong.

 

If she misses that word, I add it in the word list to review problematic spelling. AAS doesn't have way to add misspelled words from the dictation section so I just put a star next to that word to keep adding that to the spelling list each time until it is mastered. Or you can write those words on an index card and add them in the review spelling section. I also add in words that they get wrong in their regular writing into AAS. I implemented this idea from Spelling Power. This way the older kids can be still challenged by harder words.

 

My kids don;t think of applying the spelling rules while spelling for some reason while they are writing. It just doesn;t click but it is an extra tool I can use when they ask why or need to see a pattern. It gives us a vocabulary that we mutually understand. Just also remind your child the rule if she makes a mistake and see if she can catch her misspelled word when you are correcting it. For example, when my child misspelled a word-I ask her "Now make sure you spelled it correctly. Go over your work." If she still doesn't catch her mistake, then I give her a hint using the Spelling rule. At first you can do it as soon as she is done with the word. Sometimes I give several spelling words. And then have her go over the list and see if she catches the one that she got wrong.

One of mine struggles with remember the rules so that makes it even trickier but sooner or later it may stick with them. A lot of the spelling rules stick in my head years later and then I have an epiphany and say " OH I get it now" and I am 40 years old!

 

Also are you using WWE and FLL too? I make my kids do all the optional/enrichment dictations and copywork from both these books as well otherwise they just don;t get enough repetition. Some kids just need that. Others don't (lucky them!)

 

Sometimes it is just time and maturity. For one of my daughters, I introduce something, we review it, she still gets it wrong, we review again and again and again and then I finally just give up because I am about to seriously lose it with her and move on to something else and then we come back to it months later and it just suddenly clicks. Strange how the brain works.

[lillehei]

I think she is only 7 and making developmentally appropriate mistakes for her age. Your dd is young and level 2 is a good place for her to be. I would stop worrying and just give her a little guidance and patience. You could be like me going through Level 2 with an 11 yo....

 

I would also wait for Merry to respond. She has great ideas and advice.

[dixiebuckeye]

Thanks for the responses. She does read quite a bit. She's not an avid reader, as I was, but she likes to do it before bed (mainly, I think, because she thinks she's delaying bedtime). She's a good reader though, even though she doesn't like it.

 

That's what I need to know, if it's developmentally appropriate, then I will try my hardest to be patient with it! But then do I move on and just do reminders and work on it? Do we go back and then reteach that lesson in Level 1 that she's missing the word for? How would you proceed in this situation?

 

I think it's also hard for me to understand completely because spelling is very natural to me. So I find it hard to even see where the disconnect could be. Now math, on the other hand...;)

[truebluexf]

My son is 10, and finished 4th grade. He spells words wrong often in his writing, and I was getting concerned. He took the CAT, and scored 12th grade level, 99th percentile, in spelling. Apparently he can tell when something is spelled wrong but moves too quickly when writing to notice *he* has made a mistake. I'm less concerned now!

[queenie]

I could have written this same post and my daughter is seven as well so everyones comments make me feel so much better:001_smile:

[precious4b]

Good to know :)

[PeterPan]

Are you doing dictation with her? I mean just normal, open up her read aloud for the day and start dictating Pooh or Swiss Family Robinson or whatever to her dictation... If you're not doing that, it might help. For my dd it wasn't about one magical program. AAS is great, but NO program is magical. Well I take that back, Barton is pretty magical, but it's $1K a level magical. Back to reality. No program is magical, and you can't fault the program if your kid isn't applying it to their work or having it click. Could be readiness. Could be they're extremely visual learners and need a lot more VISUAL input with the words. When my dd was around that age, we were doing 3 and 4 types of spelling a day, I kid you not. That's what it took. A good friend told me to do dictation, dictation, dictation and stop assuming the theoretical programs would make it stick. You need the theoretical programs (AAS, SWR, WRTR, etc.), but that's not the same as application (dictation, writing, USING the words, seeing them in context). So I had to alternate times where we focused on conceptual and times where we focused on application. We would do as much as a page of dictation a day. That's a lot with little hands! And I got her the Calvert spelling on the computer, just to let her SEE the words. It changed the TONE of our dynamic from negative to positive.

 

I made spelling a team effort, not a test. Sanseri says never to let them spell a word incorrectly. I made it my goal to have her turn on her brain to whether she knew the word or not. If she had a correct mental image, she at least knew that and could slow down and think about it, kwim? I made it easy for her to ask for help with spelling and encouraged her to ask. Should have used m&ms and rewarded her, but I thought of that later! Or get a Staples easy button and make it a game where she gets to whack it every time she asks for help on a word. Make it cool to spell correctly, kwim?

 

Typing reinforces good spelling as well btw.

 

So yes, for us it was about a lot of forward, backward, forward, backward. We'd cover lists 3 times. We'd do them lots of different ways (kinesthetically with jumping games, via enrichments, via dictation, etc.). Now she's a reasonable speller. Not amazing, but reasonable, lol. She spells correctly in her emails and appreciates that she can turn it on and off as an issue, that she can turn it on when it's important. And yes she did turn out to have some vision and learning issues. Like I said, sometimes it's not the program. Sometimes you're seeing signs of things going on in your kid. It's good to just go with that and adapt. It's ok to go back and forth and alternate methods to create reinforcement and overlearning. It's ok to use AAS as a *framework* but bring in other methodologies. The games book for LOE is fabulous. Calvert spelling can be a nice change of pace (or anything else now they have on the computer). Dictation is fabulous. Mix things up and roll with it.

 

I get what you're saying btw about the kid not being like you. My dd's strengths are totally opposite mine, so when she has a weakness, even just in the moderately normal range, it is SO far different from mine that it seems like this HUGE issue. Her weaknesses are issues, but they're not the end of the world. It may have come from the other parent's genes, lol. I find it helpful to talk with my dh and ask him about his school experiences, what stuck, what didn't, what worked, what didn't.

 

If you want some totally different ideas from what you may have thought of, the book "Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World" might help you. :)

[Kuovonne]

The mistakes she makes sound developmentally appropriate.

 

Yet, like today, she was supposed to spell the phrase, "hates kisses." She spells it "hates kisis." Now, if you ask her what the rule is with short vowel words ending in f, l, or s, she can tell you. If you ask how to make a word plural, she can tell you "s, or es." If you ask her what the base word of kisses is, she can tell you. I really don't know where the connection is missing.

 

The missing piece is to recognize that "kisses" is a plural word and then write the complete base word before adding the suffix. So, remind her that "kisses" is a plural word and to write "kiss" and check it before going on to add "es".

 

The particular lesson she is on, is the one about adding an e to make the long vowel sound. Well, she's caught on to when you're going over the spelling words that she needs to add an e, but in the sentence that was dictated, she didn't add the e. Asked her to read the sentence to me and she caught the mistake.

 

Spelling words in dictation is harder than spelling words in isolation. It is natural to make more mistakes when taking dictation versus spelling words in a list. Plus, she did catch the mistake when she read the sentence. Spelling words in orginal writing is even harder. Keep up the dictation; it is a great bridge between spelling words in a list and spelling in original writing.

 

She was tested in May and scored great on reading comprehension, sentence reading, and word reading. Did VERY poorly on word study skills.

 

As long as my kids can read and spell decently I don't put much stock in word study skills. My older DD always had lousy word study skills but was great at reading and spelling. Who cares that she can't figure out the word study skills for a test. It's the actual reading and spelling that matter in real life.

 

With those testing results and that info, does anyone have any advice?

 

Hang in there. It sounds like what you are doing is working.

[lillehei]

Thanks for the responses. She does read quite a bit. She's not an avid reader, as I was, but she likes to do it before bed (mainly, I think, because she thinks she's delaying bedtime). She's a good reader though, even though she doesn't like it.

 

That's what I need to know, if it's developmentally appropriate, then I will try my hardest to be patient with it! But then do I move on and just do reminders and work on it? Do we go back and then reteach that lesson in Level 1 that she's missing the word for? How would you proceed in this situation?

 

I think it's also hard for me to understand completely because spelling is very natural to me. So I find it hard to even see where the disconnect could be. Now math, on the other hand...;)

 

Whenever I have talked to AAS or Merry, it is recommended that I go back and just review the lessons they are having trouble with. I would just go back and review the cards, do some tiles and just remind her of the rule. Like I said earlier, she is young and she has time to make mistakes and excel in the end.

 

I am a natural speller, as well, so at times spelling with my dc has been annoying and tested my patience. I pulled my kids out of public school in 2nd and 4th and we have been struggling since I started homeschooling. We had done a year of Sequential Spelling, which is supposed to be great for dyslexics, but didn't work for my dc. Now with AAS, I see small gains but still have times when I have to go back and review.

[Dana]

My son today spelled "pearl" correctly on the sentence dictation and misspelled it on the words.

 

In the words, he misspelled the "graph" portion of "photograph" but spelled "graph" correctly on its own.

 

Sigh.

 

I have him rewrite the words he misspells, saying the letters aloud and then the word once it's done.

We aren't "done" with a step even when we move on. Any words he struggled with, I write in the margin of the next lesson or a couple lessons further out to be sure I review.

 

For something like your "kisses", I'd have him then go to the spelling board with the magnets and spell it using the rules. Then I'd have him rewrite it on paper. Then I'd toss it at him again the next day or the following day to see if it was retained.

 

I'll do some review every day ( one of: key cards, phonograms, sound), then teaching or writing words. We generally do at least a couple of sentences every day. I may be doing teaching from one step and still having a few words or sentences I want to review from a prior step before letting him check it off on the progress sheet (like today).

 

I do see significant progress with my son since switching to AAS from SWO, but he still makes boneheaded errors. I'm working on getting him to LOOK at what he writes before handing it in, but we're also dealing with some focus issues. :glare:

[dixiebuckeye]

Thank you!!!!! I really, really appreciate the responses! You guys have made me feel so much more encouraged to start again tomorrow with it all over again, with some new ideas as well. :grouphug:

[sarahv]

I'm finding the same thing, and it's beginning to bug me, too. I've been reading more CM lately, and so have incorporated "studied dictation" into our spelling routine, and that's been helping tremendously. I also experimented with copying one poem all week, then having them pick our their favorite part and writing it from memory. Their spelling was almost perfect, spelling much harder words than the AAS lessons we're working on.

 

So, I'm ok with AAS as a program, but think that I'll go with a more CM approach to spelling from here on out. I think my kids do better seeing the word in their head, than JUST relying on the rule. I want to teach the rule, but the studied visual was what I was missing.

 

Just another idea...HTH

 

Sarah

[MerryAtHope]

One thing you could do--take the blue key card that has the student tell you the root (ie, you say kisses and she says kiss), and have her practice one or two of those words each day with the tiles for awhile. It sounds to me like she knows the rule for doubling and the rule for making words plural, but she just struggles with remembering to put all of those steps together when she spells. It's kind of like how some kids will struggle when they hit long division. They know how to add, subract and multiply, but having to think through multiple steps just throws some kids. Adding just a bit of review work in with the tiles each day can help her get more comfortable with the steps in the process--remembering to think of the root, apply any rules to the root, then think about how to make it plural. I agree that at age 7, it's VERY common to be making mistakes like this, but she will improve with time and practice.

 

Hang in there! Merry :-)

[besroma]

Thanks for starting this thread!