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European spellings in Apples and Pears...


Neesy
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Help me out here, Ladies (and gents). Trying to pick a spelling program. Spelling seems to be confusing enough without throwing in "colour" instead of color and a host of others just in the first sample. How bout "serf" instead of surf? PractiSing, prograMME. And what does "to earn a tick" mean anyway :)!? We live in the country....woods and meadows all around. A "tick" to our children, definitely isn't something they would want to earn! Lol. Also, what on earth is a dux...a quoit.....an erne....and a kerf?? How bout the word twerp? Haven't heard THAT one since I was about 8 yrs.old! Lol. I just can't wrap my brain around this. Really NOT trying to nitpick, guys! I just don't get it. I love the what's it called?....oh yes...."cursor" idea. THAT however, could be made in about a minute and used with any program or any reader...right? Please help me understand. There are lots of recommendations for this. WHAT am I missing?

Thanks so much!

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I haven't used Apples and Pears in several yrs, but I don't remember the number of words with different spellings being that high in number. There were a few words we had to discuss like quid. I just went in and marked the correct US spelling for words like harbor and theater.

 

IIRC, it seemed that some prepositions were used differently. It has been so long I don't remember what anymore.

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Are you using Apples and Pears (spelling) or Dancing Bears (reading)? The cursor is only used in Dancing Bears. We're in Level C of Apples and Pears and haven't come across any words like that. The closest to odd that we've seen is pong (smelly) and using torch instead of flashlight.

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I absolutely love the word "pong." I think "nappy" is cute. And "ice lolly." Oh, ice lolly! And biscuits. My kids understand torch and lorry, and so on. I also like courgette; I've tried telling my anti-zucchini kid that it's courgette. Didn't work, but it was fun!

 

I have read a lot of British kids' books to my kids, and we use MEP, so I know what a tick is.

 

But I wouldn't use a spelling program(me) that doesn't match how I spell!

 

I'm using How to Teach Spelling, with workbooks called How to Spell.

 

No talking about serfdom in those books, but there has been a lot of chop the fish and scrub the dish. ;)

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Are you using Apples and Pears (spelling) or Dancing Bears (reading)? The cursor is only used in Dancing Bears. We're in Level C of Apples and Pears and haven't come across any words like that. The closest to odd that we've seen is pong (smelly) and using torch instead of flashlight.

+1

 

We haven't found much in A&P that differs from American English.

Dancing Bears, on the other hand... lots of unfamiliar words.  Frankly, if it's something I don't want to bother with (like kerb), I just mark it out and we move on without reading that word...or I treat them as nonsense words.  And some I just explain (like torch or pong).

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Serf is different to surf here. One is the farm slave, the other is wave riding. I'd change programmes if it causes a problem.

Yup. 

 

Also, my kids watch a lot of BBC and read a lot of British literature.  The spellings are not a problem for me at all.  I tell them that UK and US spellings are both acceptable by me.  

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Unless they have changed the books, this is not an accurate statement. We definitely had British spellings in our books. There were not many, but they were definitely in there.

 

I used Apples and Pears Books C & D with my older kids during the last 2 school years and am currently using Bearing Away, Dancing Bears A, and Apples and Pears Book A.  I just looked in Apples and Pears Book A (purchased a month or two ago) and there are words like "pong," "torch," and "pram."  Book D has spellings like "colour" and "flavour," but my Books C and D are around 2 years old.  There really aren't that many different spellings, and it was a non-issue for us.  I just corrected them as we came upon them.  Dancing Bears Book A (purchased a month or two ago) has far more unusual words and different spellings, and it hasn't been an issue either.  I'll either look up the word (my dd gets a kick out of finding out what they mean) and/or correct the spelling. 

 

Edited because when I looked through them there weren't any different spellings in Book C, just Book D.

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British spellings or British words?

 

I just compared the word lists in my copies (A & B purchased less than 2 months ago, and C & D purchased about 2 1/2 years ago) to the books posted on their website, and the word lists in my books are exactly the same as in the British ones. There were a few British words in each book.  Interestingly enough, I couldn't find any British spellings until Book D, and there were very few in it (favour, favourable, etc).  So, if there have been any changes, they would have to be in Book D and done more recently than 2 1/2 years.

 

Where did you hear that the US books have had the British spellings changed?  I couldn't find anything on the website.  I will email the author and post her reply.

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I just emailed her about this a few weeks ago...Book D is where the favour/colour/etc. words come in, and she is coming out with a U.S. edition for Book D soon.  She said the other 3 books should be acceptable as they are...she tried to avoid words that would cause problems.  I did notice several odd words (odd to me at least!) in Dancing Bears, but I actually like that - keeps my dyslexic student from guessing and forces him to sound out from left to right. 

 

Hope this helps!
Jana

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I just emailed her about this a few weeks ago...Book D is where the favour/colour/etc. words come in, and she is coming out with a U.S. edition for Book D soon.  She said the other 3 books should be acceptable as they are...she tried to avoid words that would cause problems.  I did notice several odd words (odd to me at least!) in Dancing Bears, but I actually like that - keeps my dyslexic student from guessing and forces him to sound out from left to right. 

 

Hope this helps!

Jana

 

Thanks :-)  Perhaps the absence of words with different British spellings in Books A through C is what gave people the notion that they were printing US versions of them.  We did Book D last year, and I think it only came up a handful of times. 

 

Yes, there are many more odd words and spellings in Dancing Bears!  I either find out what the word means (if it's a new word) or change the spelling (if it's a different spelling), so it's been a non-issue too.

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I haven't used A&P, but I feel your pain with strange spellings. I have to tell my guys to spell colour, theatre, neighbour, centre, cheque etc. even though that's not how they're spelled in most books. :001_huh:I love having a British book for that reason. :001_smile:

It appeals to me too. I had to cover up "pass" in OPGTR this morning because it doesn't have a short "a" sound in NZ. And the number of zs in US stuff is crazy.

:-)

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Hilary emailed me back this morning.  She said, "There is no difference between the books sold in the UK and the US but, with the exception of the -our endings in Book D, I have avoided words that are spelled differently (although you will find woollen in Book B ).  There are actually not that many that are spelled differently but I am planning a US edition of Book D which will address these differences (another thing on the to-do list)." 

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Hilary emailed me back this morning. She said, "There is no difference between the books sold in the UK and the US but, with the exception of the -our endings in Book D, I have avoided words that are spelled differently (although you will find woollen in Book B ). There are actually not that many that are spelled differently but I am planning a US edition of Book D which will address these differences (another thing on the to-do list)."

Which brings up the obvious question: How do you spell woollen?

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