Thoughts/Reviews for A Reason for Spelling

[Bensmom]

We have been using Bob Jones spelling. My son (4th grade) does fairly well for the tests, but his retention is terrible. In his writing assignments, he has the craziest spellings for words he tested over back in second and third grade....not even close to the correct spelling. I'm considering A Reason for Spelling. He likes hands-on activity and I am hoping this will capture his attention.

 

 

Any reviews or suggestions?

[Bensmom]

bump

[poiema]

I only had the 1 grade version so this might not help much, but since no one else has chimed in yet...

I found the activities to be very repetitive. The worksheets were things like word shapes puzzles and word searches. The activities were always spelling with play dough, chalk, shaving cream, or things like clapping while spelling. All that stuff you could do without the book. I really loved the idea of this, especially along with the Teacher's Guidebook and A Reason for Handwriting, but it just didn't work out for us. In our case, the words were too easy so there was no point in having him do all the worksheets. So we gave up after 8 weeks.

[ChicoryChick]

I have been just listening to some of SWB's lectures. She says not to expect your child to apply what he has learned in spelling to his writing until the logic stage, since he is still in what is considered the grammar stage I would not expect application just yet regardless of what spelling program you use. Just my two cents. :)

[Bensmom]

I have been just listening to some of SWB's lectures. She says not to expect your child to apply what he has learned in spelling to his writing until the logic stage, since he is still in what is considered the grammar stage I would not expect application just yet regardless of what spelling program you use. Just my two cents. :)

 

 

You mean there is still hope? My son may actually be able to spell.....someday? Woohoo!!!

So should I stick with BJU?

[ChicoryChick]

Yes, I think there is still hope as I have actually found this to be true with my own children. As long as BJU is teaching spelling rules and not just "patterns" then I see no reason to change. I have never used BJU, but I know she says they do need to be learning the spelling rules in the Grammar stage.