How do you implement Phonetic Zoo in your school?

[amyc78]

We have recently switched from AAS to Phonetic Zoo. I am so glad to be rid of AAS (even though it works great, it was always a chore to get done). I love that my son can do it independently but I have discovered if I just 'let him go', he will do lesson after lesson without much retention. This week I slowed him down and added a dictation exercise led by me. Just wondering how others use Phonetic Zoo, what does a normal week of it look like in your school?

[ByGrace3]

I am curious as well...we just started last week. We switched after AAS 3. I needed something he could do independently. However, while lesson one went ok, lesson 2 is not going as well...I'm really not sure if it's going to work long term. Though I want it to! I plan to give it the rest of this year to work it out and if not maybe go back to AAS next year. I want this to work though! So much easier to implement!

[EmilyGF]

I use Phonetic Zoo with my oldest. He'll turn 11 in February but has had an incredible attention span since at least two. He started PZ-A maybe 1.5 years ago (?), then we took a break, and restarted with PZ-B this year. He rarely takes more than 3 days per level. He's actually even more independent than Andrew Pudewa encourages, but that is his personality. He's self-driven and self-motivated.

 

He does the lesson then "studies" the words he gets wrong. He may rewrite them or he may just look at them. If a lesson takes him more than 5 days, I'll have him start spelling the problem words aloud to me. We may talk about etymology ("corps" was a toughie for him) or about what rule is applied. But this really only happens maybe once a month.

 

I do think big parts are personality and maturity. There are other programs that aren't as time consuming as AAS that work well but involve a parent. My 9-year-old daughter would not be doing well on PZ, I think, but is doing great with Sequential Spelling. Maybe she'll age into it, but SS takes 10-12 minutes per day and isn't that hard for me to implement. 

 

Emily