All About Spelling - time (daily & long-term)

[MeganW]

My kids are reading well - 3rd or 4th grade level both for phonics & comprehension. We are about ready to start picking up some of the next language arts stuff - AAS, FLL, & WWE.

 

Given that, can you give me some idea about how long I should expect it to take to get through AAS Level 1? Level 2? Level 3? (Assume 4 days a week.)

 

Do we need to do all the way through Level 7? Or will we have hit the high points after some certain level?

 

Do the levels roughly correspond to grades? Would you expect to be doing this through 7th grade?

 

And lastly, assuming 4 days a week, about how many minutes per day do you spend on this with each child?

 

THANKS!

[ByGrace3]

We do about 20 minutes a day 4 days a week. For first grade we went through levels one and two, we started three but did not get far. We restarted level three this school year and are almost finished with it. We will start four but not finish it until next year.

 

I can't answer your other questions, sorry! I do remember reading AAS would take you through 7th grade spelling, but I know it won't take us that long to get through the program. I know many move on after level three, but I am unsure what we will do. It is working, so not sure if I want to fix what is not broken.

[blondeviolin]

My oldest has been through levels 1 and 2, taking about a semester each (with me scheduling it so we didn't zoom through super quickly). She does 10-20 minutes 4 times a week, but probably on the low side of that. I figure she will slow way down in level 3 (which she's just started).

[dancingmama]

We do 20 minutes a day or so. I personally can get through an entire "step" in one of those sessions and I think there are less than 30 steps in one book through book 3. We don't do it daily though. Usually twice a week, so about two months. We are working on 4 right now and it is taking me a bit longer. About two days for one "step" but I'm incorporating a lot more review because we took a really long winter break (nearly two months). I expect to finish it this semester though and do step 5 and 6 next year, one each semester. and take a full year for step 7 with lots of review incorporated. We shall see how it goes though. My kids are a bit older than yours but my son is a weak reader and we're using this as remediation for him. D just comes along.

[nukeswife]

If you do all 7 levels that will take you through high school level spelling not just 7th grade. The levels do not correspond to grade level at all. How long will depend solely on the student. You work at their pace. We do 20 minutes 4 days a week. My oldest has done half of level 3 so far and should get through 4 maybe start 5 before the year is up. Most your her kids that are really good readers can probably get through level 1 in a month and level two in a few months. I say most because even though some kids are awesome readers, spelling is done In a different part of the brain so some still struggle with spelling despite their excellent reading ability. One thing to keep in mind is AALPs awesome return guarantee.

[hollyh]

I have been very laxed here with how often I have done it with my 5yo who is at the same reading level. I thought we would fly through the first book b/c she is also a pretty good speller.... but she doesn't enjoy it and I haven't been as consistent b/c of it. Most people have said (and I would agree) that they go through 1 lesson/week. There are 24 lessons in the first book and I believe similar in the 2nd. I thought we would go through book 1 much quicker though b/c she was such a good reader/speller... but we didn't. - however she is pretty young. Many go through book 1 quicker and then book 2 slow down. Good luck.

[MrsH]

We started the series last year, with our dd who was starting 4th grade at the time (first year homeschooling). She was a weak speller and very average reader, for her age/grade. We completed the first 3 books that year, but then had a hard time remembering it all at the start of this year. We spent a bunch of time reviewing. Over the course of 4-6 weeks we started every lesson with a review of cards from the previous books. If she knew them cold they were truly mastered, but many of them ended up back in the review tab.

 

We do spelling 3 days a week for about 20 minutes each time. We're almost done with book 4 and do (on average) 3 lessons every 2 weeks. I've begun to assign "study your spelling words" on the two off days and that has made a tremendous difference in her level of mastery. It takes her about 5-10 minutes but her retention has improved exponentially.

 

At our current rate, we'll finish most of book 5 this year. I do intend to keep going with it for next. I do wish it included some rootwords or the meanings of the pre- and suffixes, but I'm just adding that stuff in myself at this point.

[amyrobynne]

My first grader (who was reading well before we started) has gone through levels 1 and 2 since Labor Day and I suspect we'll just about finish level 3 by the time we finish in June. We go 20 min a day and for levels 1 and 2, usually took 2 days per step. I split both the lesson part and the dictation in half to do each day.

 

I'm leaning towards switching to Phonetic Zoo for him next year. PZ level A is supposed to follow AAS level 3.

[Farrar]

Another 20 mins a day 4-5 days a week family. We only just started it with my poor speller just before Christmas and he's about halfway through Level 2 now. I would say start with level one because even though we obviously flew through it, there were a few unexpected snags in there. All quickly passed, but I was surprised by a couple of things it turned out he didn't know. So I would say better safe than sorry and go ahead and do Level 1.

[MeganW]

THANKS!!!

[daffodil]

We started level 1 over the summer when my daughter was 6.5 and reading well. She just started level 3. We spend about 10-15 minutes five days a week.

[matrips]

We started AAS 1 somewhere in Kindergarten. We just started level 4 this month (second half of 2nd grade). I went slow enough through level one to make sure they really got it. They were very advanced readers and spellers, so it was tough to slow them down to sound out 'cat' and all the other words with the sounds only instead of just spelling it and saying the letters. But I'm glad I enforced it. It has paid off as we've gotten to bigger words. They really do need to hear the sounds and know the phonograms.

 

I do the review cards once a week, individually. But at the beginning, I think I reviewed them every day, as a group. I typically do one lesson over 4days (once we got past the beginning). We do the lesson as a group, anywhere from 10-15 minutes a day. One thing that has been nice is buying a composition book for each, color coded of course! This is our spelling book, and they write their new words and sentences in there. Nice to have the continuity over the years. In the beginning, we just used those little dry erase boards, but this was their idea and it works well.

[MeganW]

Thanks esp for comments about how to work with a group. I keep going back and forth about how to implemnent it, as I have 4 kiddos who are basically the same age / grade / reading level.

[matrips]

Thanks esp for comments about how to work with a group. I keep going back and forth about how to implemnent it, as I have 4 kiddos who are basically the same age / grade / reading level.

 

 

You're welcome. My triplets are a year older than yours. :)

[MeganW]

You're welcome. My triplets are a year older than yours. :)

 

Do I know you from TC or FB? (Megan Welfare --> James, Camille, & Meredith)

[suzielou]

It tooks us about 25 weeks to get through Level 1. It really depends on the child. My DD7 needed it more than my DS6. He could have progressed faster. We are half-way through level, two, but haven't been doing it consistently 4 days a week. It is usually more like 3.

[matrips]

 

 

Do I know you from TC or FB? (Megan Welfare --> James, Camille, & Meredith)

 

 

Yes, both, but I'm not very active on either anymore. I used to be on TC all the time when the kids were much younger (weren't we all?!), and I'll check FB periodically, post infrequently. I think i was ceewee3 on TC, not sure.