warneral Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I'm in level 5 and really feeling like moving onto something more independent. I love the dictation but am feeling like it is just too much dictation. I've ordered R&S5 spelling (a good combo of new and review words) but am on the fence. Doing AAS and WWE individually with each kid is getting old :tongue_smilie: Would love to hear encouragement either way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I stopped during level 3, switching to R&S3. Great move here. My son's spelling is coming along great, and I don't have to spend so much time teaching it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 My kids really need the 1 on 1 wrt spelling, so we are doing the whole series (dd is in Level 6, ds in Level 7). However, I am not doing outside dictation with them, and can see how that would get old. If you want to try to keep going, you could try cutting some of it out from one or both books and see how that works. Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perogi Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I've been wondering the same thing. We're on level 5 and I am feeling done. Then I wonder if I should just stick out 2 more levels. But I seriously dread spelling - especially x3! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 :bigear: wondering about this myself. We like it, it works, but next year I have considered moving to something a little more independent. However, I am considering dropping some of the WWE dictation in favor of the AAS dictation which seems so much more appropriate. Interested to hear what others have to say! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We used AAS through level 6. We are now using Spelling Wisdom which is studied dictation. It provides study for spelling, punctuation, and more. My daughter has been so fond of some of the passages that she has memorized them. If you are looking for a program with less dictation and less teacher involvement Spelling Wisdom isn't a good plan. ;) For us, it's been perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ofus Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We are finishing level 3 here today with my 8 year old. I have Phonetic Zoo & Megawords in hand, plus the online Spelling Connections lists. I think we're just going to use go to one of these for the remainder of the year. I'm feeling done with AAS. My guy has loved it so much but he is good with trying something else. He doesn't have spelling issues so AAS feels like overkill to me. If I start to see problems, I wouldn't hesitate to get the next level & get right back to AAS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Well, we JUST do the AAS dictation (we don't do WWE or any other), and it works really well for us :). Still doing it here, but we're taking it slow and easy :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I stopped AAS with my older two last year. The younger two were doing SWO and I just put everyone in it to get one subject off my "work with mom" list. Well, after selling books 1-5 last year, I re-bought the entire series 2-7 this year! My kids HATED the spelling workbooks. They started fussing and crying again about spelling and I noticed they weren't retaining things as well. It was worth it for me to re-buy everything this year. The kids are happy again and love spelling. Yes, it's another hour in my day, but I've found it's worth it. I have fairly good spellers and an average speller. It works well for all of them. We don't do everything as the book says, but adapt it to the kids. I won't stop now until everyone is done with level 7! (My oldest will be finishing it this year!) :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 We're going all the way through! My oldest is working through level 7 now. I have another dd finishing level 6, a ds on level 4, and another dd about to start level 1. I do some things to make it more independent: I record myself saying the dictation sentences, I put their words in the A+ Spelling app on my iPad for word practice, I make worksheets to teach the lesson and to give them a chance to see the words and write them while looking at them, I only use the tiles for level 1 and maybe early in level 2 while they are really young and don't write easily, I typed up the rules and phonograms into power point slides for them to practice instead of using the cards. Make the program work for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 He doesn't have spelling issues so AAS feels like overkill to me. If I start to see problems, I wouldn't hesitate to get the next level & get right back to AAS. This was what I observed for my son. If he were a struggling speller, I would have kept AAS, but he's not. He just needed some consistent phonics-based spelling instruction (since he taught himself to read and didn't get full "phonics" instruction early on). With R&S, it gets done every day, and I'm seeing results in his writing. The words he misspells are words he hasn't hit in spelling yet (and wouldn't have hit for a while in AAS either). I give him the correct spelling, and he's good to go. He knows the different sounds the phonograms make, how to divide by syllables and what the syllable types are, all that. R&S is pretty good about reinforcing those things. And spelling just takes so much less time now. I don't have to go get the board and the boxes of cards and TM (I kept everything together as best I could) and dry erase markers. I don't have to fight off the little ones for the white board. :D I don't have to sit there and teach the entire lesson. All I have to do now is give a test on Friday, and he is LEARNING. Awesome. I do advise NOT selling your AAS until you are sure you're sticking with whatever the new program is. We switched away for a while before I sold my AAS levels. Once I listed them for sale, they sold very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Classically Minded Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 We are on AAS 3 and plan on going through till level 6 because we both love it! My dd8 finds the dictation easy but I think it is great to help her in writing and holding sentences in her mind. We do one step each school day and I've found it only takes less than 15 minutes for her to do the 12 dictation sentences. I got tired of dictating them a LONG time ago, so I simply record them on a digital recorder and she plays them and writes them after one dictation, sometimes two. If I still had to sit there and dictate them one by one, I would go crazy possibly lol. :tongue_smilie: I'm not sure how the future levels are but we are seeing no reason to quit now when she is learning so much and we are seeing so much progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milknhoney Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I have wondered the same thing myself. I ALMOST switched to R&S this year. In the end I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just love how thorough AAS is with all the phonics rules. I am learning a lot myself. However, the words are all so easy, he rarely has any problems, and while I've streamlined things so it doesn't take a lot of time, it still seems like we spend more time than necessary for words that are this easy. We're 2/3 through AAS3, and I already bought AAS4. Still can't decide if I'll buy AAS5 next year or if we'll switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennay Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 :bigear: wondering about this myself. We like it, it works, but next year I have considered moving to something a little more independent. However, I am considering dropping some of the WWE dictation in favor of the AAS dictation which seems so much more appropriate. Interested to hear what others have to say! I've done the opposite. I go through the rule cards, sound cards, word cards, and lessons in AAS and skip the dictation. We also skip the tiles. I much prefer to use an actual sentence from a good piece of literature for dictation. I use either the dictation from WWE (DS#2, age 8, is currently using Level 3) or really interesting sentence or two from our read aloud. If we get to a word he hasn't covered I just tell him how to spell it and we move on. If we have covered something in AAS and he still mispells the word (which is not often) I remind him of the rule and he corrects it. I'm thinking of adding in the Tricks of the Trade Spelling Notebooks for those spelling errors. I may eventually drop AAS and just use Natural Speller and Tricks of the Trade. My oldest son has completed 5 levels of AAS and I feel it has taught me how to teach spelling. I'm now incorporating some of AAS's explanations and "tricks" into my Kindergarten daughter's phonics lessons (she's using Reading Made Easy and Explode the Code) - I may not need to go through the whole AAS program with her and my youngest daughter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 (edited) I haven't decided what to do yet. I went ahead and reduced the dictation sentences last week and that made it better. The resource is so rich, I may just lessen the number of dictation sentences. I feel that it is a great skill to grow (dictation) and WWE is especially important to me because of the complexity (occasional unknown words, punctuation variation, etc.) I might give it a few more weeks, lessening how many dictation sentences I give them and evaluating the effectiveness of it :) We also did one day at the table with the notebook and that was refreshing :) Edited October 9, 2012 by warneral Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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