When do you quit spelling?

[hollyhock]

When do you stop doing spelling with your kids with an actual spelling program? How do you know when they've had enough? I just assumed I would have my kids do R&S spelling through 8th grade but lately I've been re-thinking it.

 

Just wondering what others do or how you know. Thanks.

[Lori D.]

We continued well into high school, as DS#2 had mild LDs with writing/spelling, and DS#1 is an average speller, and tends toward being sloppy about it, so I didn't feel comfortable with either one stopping at 8th. ;) We stopped Spelling somewhere in 11th for DS#1 as he had so many other things going on, and stopped in 12th for DS#2, again, to make time for other things. By that age, I guess I figured either they were going to spell or they weren't...

 

For middle school/high school, we made our own individualized spelling from The ABCs and All Their Tricks (plus DS with the mild LDs also used Megawords), and we used it as an opportunity for Vocabulary simultaneously.

 

If your DC have a good handle on spelling, then consider switching to just Vocabulary: a word roots program; SAT vocabulary practice; or learn/practice spelling of words in the Literature... Or, just practice of words misspelled in the student's own writing… Or, go ahead and drop it… :)

[Saddlemomma]

I've been contemplating dropping spelling next year.  DD will be in 6th.  She's always been pretty good at spelling, acing her tests almost all the time.  What I find is that while she does exceptionally well with her word lists and tests, she carelessly misspells words in her writing.  This is where I think I will concentrate next year. I will drop spelling as a class, however, if she consistently misspells certain words in her writing, she will have to look up that word and copy the appropriate definition.  Then she will have to use the word in a sentence, and write the word at least five times.  Hopefully a few times of doing this will encourage her to take her time and be more diligent in proofreading and editing.

[texasmama]

I stopped after last year with my two boys.  They had Sequential Spelling up through level 4 and are very good spellers.  It seemed unnecessary the last year I did it with them.  My little girl is doing Spelling Workout and will do Sequential Spelling beginning in 4th grade until I think she is solid with spelling. 

[Mommee & Baba]

We will go all the way through middle school with it. Highschool will be when my dc won't have a "spelling curriculum".

[Ali in OR]

We also use R&S and we go through the 8th grade book which we do in 7th grade, then they're done. But for the last three levels (6,7, and 8), I'm letting them write the lesson words one day in their notebook and test on them later in the week without doing any exercises. I did have my older dd read the interesting stuff on the English language in the 7th and 8th grade books. My girls are good enough in spelling that this seems to be sufficient.

[hollyhock]

We also use R&S and we go through the 8th grade book which we do in 7th grade, then they're done. But for the last three levels (6,7, and 8), I'm letting them write the lesson words one day in their notebook and test on them later in the week without doing any exercises. I did have my older dd read the interesting stuff on the English language in the 7th and 8th grade books. My girls are good enough in spelling that this seems to be sufficient.

Hmmm... this is a great idea and one that I think my son would go for. Thanks.

[SebastianCat]

My DS is in 6th grade and this is the last year we'll do spelling.   He's been one of those kids who's always done pretty well on spelling curriculum but misspelled words carelessly in his writing assignments.    This year, however, I've noticed a huge improvement in his "everyday" spelling.   

 

[My3girls]

We dropped in 6th, but that is when we started homeschooling. With the next two a plan to stop in 5th, when they start vocabulary from classical roots.

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

DD13 is almost done with SWO H, and is kinda sick of it, but we only do one day a week, and we're soooooooo close to the end of the whole series. Realistically tho, we could drop it now.

[regentrude]

I pulled mine out of school in 5th/6th grade. They could spell at that point, so we never did a spelling program.

 

 

[...................]

High school. Seriously. Both of my kids struggle with spelling and therefore will need practice through grade 8. My daughter ter will use sequential spelling all the way through.

 

Not sure what I'm going to do with my son next year though. The computer generated Calvert spelling was such a great hands off thing and definitely helped him. Next year he will be doing Word Roots but he will still need more spelling - so I think I'm going to use ACE word building because I can give him the placement test and get gap PACES and then move forward from there. This way it'll be self teaching. I'm not an Ace fan in terms of doctrine and the ridiculous comics but I used word building before and it worked really well and was almost totally hands off.

 

I really think spelling is genetic. I have reports card after report card with 100% on spelling tests from different schools too. My husband can barely spell and sometimes even gets caught embarrassed at work because he cannot spell. My kids seem to have taken after him.

[Deee]

When he got better than me, about grade 3. I'm not kidding. DS is a natural speller. I am shocking! My spelling is a running joke. We pulled out a book with lists of spelling words given to high schoolers in the 1950's. DS blitzed them, right up to fifth form. I failed year 6. It would be beyond hypercritical of me to teach him spelling. We do vocab instead.

D

[sagira]

My idea so far is to continue spelling until grade 8, then switch to vocabulary through Vocabulary Workshop.

[Pronghorn]

I use dictation to teach spelling and punctuation and cursive once a week. That way my twelve-year-old learns to spell in context while also thinking about other aspects of writing. When I tried quitting spelling a while back, I noticed a decline in her writing skills. The program I use is Spelling Wisdom.

[foxbridgeacademy]

We've dabbled in actual curriculum a couple times but they never stuck, I usually do a DIY using the rules and "often misspelled" words. DS (LD) will probably do spelling until he graduates.  DD (5th grade) will  be done with "spelling" soon, she's just naturally good at it.  

[EndOfOrdinary]

I told my son we could stop with formal spelling and grammar when he could apply it in his everyday writing and essays. The reason we were doing it is so he could apply it, so once he is applying, we can stop. At this point he is in Sequential Spelling 6. We own seven (the last book) and might use it half the year next year, we will have to see what he wants to do.

[Jenn121]

I dropped spelling in the middle of 4th. DD12 had been in Abeka (at school) through 3rd and I realized about 1/2 way through Sequential Spelling that she have never gotten any of the words wrong. She is and still is a natural speller. She does love Vocabulary so we do Wordly Wise. She uses WWS for writing and if I notice any repeated misspellings then we address it.

 

 

[abrightmom]

My oldest uses Rod & Staff spelling (which I love) but for HIM it's busywork. He is a fine speller and I don't think "doing" the spelling program is beneficial. I am interested in taking him through a roots program of sorts instead. Just yesterday I decided that dropping spelling "for good" to make way for more time to write is the right course for this kiddo. 

 

If my son struggles with something in spelling I think it's easy enough to trouble shoot as we go. I have enough handbooks lying around that I can pull out a short lesson on a rule or spelling pattern to help him along. 

[KeriJ]

I have been thinking about this same issue.  We use R&S also.  I've been wondering, how does R&S 7 and 8 compare to a roots program?  I thought I'd heard it was more about roots in those levels, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.

[hollyhock]

^^ I have R&S 7 and the reason I wanted to continue was because it had a focus on roots in level 7 and 8. In each lesson, the first section deals with learning roots, the second section deals with affixes that are somewhat related to the roots, the third section is more like the spelling exercises in other levels and the fourth section is interesting info about the English language (semantics, Old English, where our alphabet comes from, etc.). At least, this is what I gather from glancing through the book.

 

I think what I will do next year is have my son do spelling 3x a week. The first day he will copy the list. The second day he will do the roots section and the third day I will test him. I might also have him read the language section for the fun of it. That will be my hybrid spelling/word roots course. 

 

He's finding the 6 book drudgery right now but he's on lesson 28 so he's done most of it. Maybe for the last 6 weeks I'll just have him copy the list and do the test.

 

Thanks for the input everyone! It is interesting to discover how many people quit spelling at the 5th and 6th grade levels.

[mom31257]

I've stopped using a formal spelling curriculum over the last few weeks. Ds does misspell a few words from time to time, but he never tries to apply spelling rules before writing words down. He learns lists fine for a test, I've used R&S spelling for a while, so he's been taught correctly. I'm using CLE LA, which includes some spelling, but I wasn't using it.

 

My plan from here on out is to do the following:

 

Assign any spelling assignments from CLE which practice good skills or build his vocabulary (skills such as alphabetical order)

 

Talk about words he misspells, correct them, figure which rule would apply, build a notebook of spelling words he's misspelled

 

Take lists of commonly misspelled words and work on a few at a time