Phonetic Zoo vs. All About Spelling

[bry's-gal]

Which would you go with and why?

 

 

I have All About Spelling that I bought last year. I honeslty didn't get to it much because it took so much of my time and energy. Now, with a new baby, I'm not sure if we should keep plugging away at AAS or try something that is a little less teacher intensive!

[EmilyGF]

Are you talking about the higher levels?

 

Some kids (mine) really really hate the AAS tiles. I'm changing to PZ, but haven't used it yet.

 

Emily

[MamaSprout]

Logic of English? We use it without any cards/ tiles. I like it because it takes care of spelling, grammar, writing and handwriting at the same time. The program is deceptively simple for how effective it it.

 

https://www.logicofenglish.com/products/essentials-curriculum

 

Bean

[amyrobynne]

I used PZ level B with my oldest and AAS levels 1, 2, and 3 with my middle son this year. I decided to switch my middle son to PZ level A next year rather than continue to AAS 4. I liked AAS and will return to it when my 3rd son is ready for it, but my middle son and I butt heads a lot over AAS and I'd prefer to let him argue with the CD next year.

 

I won't be continuing PZ level C with my oldest. He was able to get through lessons 1-39 as a 3rd grader and I'll switch to studying vocab through MCT and spelling bee prep next year. I think it would get fairly repetitive to repeat the same jingles every year. My middle son will probably take 2 years to get through level A and then it would spread out how quickly the same jingles would return.

[Goldilocks]

I bought PZ for my oldest several years ago because I was trying to get away from the teacher intensiveness of AAS, but it didn't work for us. He needed a live person discussing strategies for each word. My daughter is a good speller so I let her use it (she was about 7 or 8 at the time) but she wasn't ready to do independent work - she got lonely.

 

We are sticking with AAS. I have found some tricks to make it quicker - we spend about 15- 20 minutes a day and complete a lesson in 3 days for my 12 yo and 4 days for the 7 yo.

[ChicoryChick]

Phonetic Zoo is great if your child is an auditory learner although frankly I do not care for PZ's jingles and I do not feel is it as thorough covering the spelling rules as AAS. PZ jas been working great fpr my one son and I will probably try it this year with another. AAS is usually great for most learners especially visual and kinesthetic, however I feel it moves a bit slowly and like you I found myself not getting to spelling as much because it is so teacher intensive. I have only used the first 2 levels though. If you want something similar to AAS that is more independent you might want to consider How to Teach Spelling/How to Spell series. While looking at the TM (How to Teach Spelling) might seem to be confusing at first it is thorough with the rules and has dictatoonlike AAsS but the workbooks (How to Spell) make the program more independent.

just something to consider.

[IrishMum]

My eldest did PZ. He is a really, really bad speller and it has helped him a lot. He was 10ish when he started. He did it totally independently, which I loved. My younger 2 are doing AAS. It is VERY teacher intensive, but luckily my DS11 is teaching it ;)

[Mom in High Heels]

We did PZ this year and it helped Indy so much. I thought AAS would be too young for him (he's 10/5th grade). He's an auditory learner, so it worked out really well. It didn't like the jingles, because he said they were annoying.