When do you start spelling?

[bttrflyvld]

I've been just looking over at the different options. the WTM suggests using Spelling workout A for 1st grade. I've looked at R&S spelling and it looks very simple and easy to teach and has good reviews (with more than one child easy and thorough sound good). R&S spelling starts in 2nd grade though.

 

If I want to go with R&S should I

A) wait to start spelling till 2nd grade or move their second grade book to 1st grade?

B) Start with SWO A for 1st grad and switch to R&S for second grade?

 

Or any other options for spelling that is open and go and requires little prep work? also simple and easy to teach?

[justLisa]

I like AAS for early spellers. It has helped with reading as well.

[Mélie]

I have SWO A and B, AAS 1 and R&S 2 here (this board has turned me into a curriculum hoarder), but we haven't actually used all of them.

 

In your case, I would either hold off on spelling until 2nd, or use AAS for a year or two and then switch to R&S. I wouldn't use R&S 2 in first grade, and I think AAS and R&S are both stronger than SWO.

[Haiku]

Or any other options for spelling that is open and go and requires little prep work? also simple and easy to teach?

 

I'm using Wheeler's Elementary Speller with my dd10. It's a free download from Google books. We spend about 15 minutes a day on it, and it's totally open-and-go. We are not making astonishingly fast progress, but we are making steady progress, and I am finding that it makes the most sense (for my kids) to wait on spelling until they are reading well. Not until they have a well-developed reading vocabulary does much in the way of spelling lessons stick with them.

 

Tara

[boscopup]

I think I'd wait and see what kind of speller your child is (and you won't be able to predict that now, since your oldest is 4.5?). You have a while before 1st grade or 2nd grade, so keep up the reading instruction for now, and when you feel like spelling is needed, THEN look at programs to add in. :)

 

My oldest did AAS 1-3 and then switched over to R&S Spelling 3. We had also tried R&S Spelling 2 when I pulled him from school halfway through first grade. At that time, it was a bit too easy for him, though in hindsight, I think it still would have been good for him. Oh well. Doesn't matter now. :)

 

My middle son is still learning to read. I don't yet know what I'll do with him. He's about to turn 6 in a few weeks. Ideally, I'd like him to use R&S Spelling, and I may start him in R&S Spelling 2 in 1st grade or partway through 1st (since he'd be 7). He is a better speller than reader at the moment, so I think spelling will probably come fairly easily to him, but we'll see. We're not a strong reader yet, so spelling is not really on the radar at the moment. He's in K. We'll cross the spelling bridge when we get to it. :D

 

Having looked at SWO at a conference, I can't see myself ever using it. It didn't seem to have much "why" to it. I really like R&S Spelling and think it's a great program for those who want an independent workbook style, yet still want the "why" of the spelling like AAS provides.

 

I don't think that 1st graders absolutely have to have a spelling program. My oldest was ready for one in 1st grade, but he was also reading at a 4th grade level, so it was time to work spelling. So again, I'd just wait and see with your kid, see where you are when the time is a bit closer, and THEN choose something. Maybe pick up a copy of WRTR for yourself as teacher training (you could use that any time also - it teaches reading through spelling). I'm not using AAS now, but I do feel like it provided me with some teacher training. My son just didn't need an O-G spelling program.

[kristin0713]

K. We did a spell-to-read approach (SWR) and this year switched to LOE for first grade. I think spelling is extremely important for beginning readers.

[Walking-Iris]

K. We did a spell-to-read approach (SWR) and this year switched to LOE for first grade. I think spelling is extremely important for beginning readers.

 

:iagree: I don't use the books you mentioned, but we start spelling in K. We work on spelling and writing the words as we learn to read them. So if we are working on the "at" pattern, I will give my ds words like hat, cat, bat, pat to spell. Always keeping patterns in mind. In 1st grade was when I started my oldest on SequentialSpelling. I'll likely follow that pattern with my youngest as well.

 

I don't like to separate lang arts into separate chunks. I think it was the Writing Road To Reading that inspired me to keep it integrated.

[kdownie]

We did simple spelling, as she learned to read, in kindergarten. Like cvc words, some long vowels with silent e. As her reading progressed faster than her spelling (late kinder and over the summer), I let her move faster through phonics (just focusing on reading and not spelling at the same time) and started her on AAS 1 for first grade. It means we are learning different spelling rules than we are phonics rules, but it works well for her so far.

[Hunter]

I like to teach spelling--which is what I call intensive phonics--when the student is ready to learn cursive. I don't believe in an entirely one size fits all approach as people are ready for handwriting and phonics and read alouds at such very different ages. But in general spelling and cursive can usually be handled at the same time. Reading through memorization and manuscript and reading comprehension can sometimes happen at very different ages.

[SilverMoon]

I didn't start mine in a spelling book until they were reading well enough for the spelling book to be their primary source of phonics. :001_smile: It replaced their daily phonics time. Out of four kids, two were ready in first grade, one not until mid-second grade, and one in kindergarten. Those grades are by age, not academic level.

[Alison in KY]

We usually start in 2nd grade. I've always waited until mine were reading okay before starting spelling. Now that I've found All About Spelling, I would probably start level 1 earlier than 2nd grade, because I can see how it will help with reading.