All about spelling basic or deluxe kit?

[Shred Betty]

I'm stumped on how to use the forum search engine, so please pardon my posting things you've gone over for now until I get a handle on searching older threads!

 

I have SWO A. We're on lesson 8 and already something has to change. DD7 and I are new to homeschoolinG. I hear ya'll raving about AAS. Now I see why! I also see why you call it expensive. Haha.

 

1) Any reason why I couldn't just skip the deluxe up charge, go basic, and put those review cards on a jump ring? Is using the box more convenient?

 

2) they are pretty firm about beginning with level 1 for AAS. Dd7 is an amazing reader, though I know reading and spelling are different. With how well she can read I'm pretty surprised how naturally she writes omitting almost every vowel possible. Does anyone have thoughts on starting with lvl 1 or 2? They say review the s & s for gaps but being new to homeschool the learning curve for me as teacher is too steep for me to know how to do that :(

 

I could do it for sure with some research, but it'd probably be a colossal waste of time!

 

Thanks!

-GG

Edited July 13, 2016 by Shred Betty

[Kiara.I]

1) using the box is WAY more convenient. We're talking 4 inches thick of review cards. You can use any box you like, though, it doesn't need to be theirs. Have a nice, narrow shoe box from your daughter's shoes that you could repurpose?

 

2) level 1. Everybody starts at level 1. Especially if she's leaving sounds out of words when writing them. Level 1 includes learning all the phonograms, too. It's fine that she can read them all, but she needs to know all four sounds for "o", and all three for "i", the etc.

 

She might well move through one very quickly, but I wouldn't think skipping it would be easy.

 

If money is a major object, there are other great programs with fewer shiny pieces involved that are substantially cheaper.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[3 ladybugs]

If you don't have AAR then I would think you would need the deluxe kit. The tiles are important and the box really keeps things organized. I have developed my own system for review and that would be IMPOSSIBLE to do without the box. 

 

I think when I purchased it I got the tiles and then the boxes and didn't get any of the other things in the deluxe kit. My kid did well with just that. But the tiles are really essential. It would be sort of like doing math without anything remotely close to a base 10 or cusinaire rods or an abacus. Yes you can still learn but it is much easier if you have the right tools.

[Vintage81]

1) I just ordered AAR and AAS a couple of months ago. I went with the basic kit, but I also purchased the box for the review cards. The letter tiles, magnets, and divider cards come in both the basic and deluxe kits. The deluxe kit also includes the box, a tote bag, and stickers. Here's a comparison...

 

http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/spelling-interactive-kits/

 

By purchasing the basic kit + the box, I saved about $12. I didn't need the tote bag. If you don't want to purchase the box, you can use a recipe card box, but the box from them is nice and fits all of the cards perfectly.

 

2) My daughter is going into 3rd grade and she's an excellent reader and a decent speller, but reading and spelling are completely different. Starting in level 1 seems silly (especially since the words are car, dad, cut, red, etc.). HOWEVER, learning the phonograms correctly is really important. We had been saying several incorrectly. We're breezing through Level 1, but it's a good review. My goal is to finish Level 1 over the summer and work through Levels 2 and 3 this upcoming school year.

[Shred Betty]

If you don't have AAR then I would think you would need the deluxe kit. The tiles are important and the box really keeps things organized. I have developed my own system for review and that would be IMPOSSIBLE to do without the box.

 

I think when I purchased it I got the tiles and then the boxes and didn't get any of the other things in the deluxe kit. My kid did well with just that. But the tiles are really essential. It would be sort of like doing math without anything remotely close to a base 10 or cusinaire rods or an abacus. Yes you can still learn but it is much easier if you have the right tools.

At the moment, Basic $ 22 and deluxe package $44 both have tiles, cards, and something else. Deluxe for $22 more includes a nice branded tote bag, box for cards, and reward stickers.

[3 ladybugs]

At the moment, Basic $ 22 and deluxe package $44 both have tiles, cards, and something else. Deluxe for $22 more includes a nice branded tote bag, box for cards, and reward stickers.

I would get the basic then and the box. The stickers are nice but are only a $1 on RR. 

[Eagle]

I bought the basic and ended up getting the box with my next order. It is nice to have a box that fits the cards perfectly. My improvised solution wasted a lot of time because the cards would shift around and get mixed up. The box was worth it.

 

My Ds was also an excellent reader when we started. Level 1 was definitely useful though and I can't imagine skipping it.

[MerryAtHope]

I'd go for Basic. The box is optional, but it does fit the cards nicely. If you want to save money, you could use a box that you already have. I wouldn't use a ring because you want to be able to easily move the cards from daily review to mastered (or, occasionally, you may need to move a mastered card back to daily review if your child seems to forget a word or concept...) Having the cards in a box makes it easy to move them around depending on your child's review needs--one of the hallmarks of the program is that you can customize the review.

 

The stickers can be purchased separately as well--so unless you need a tote bag, go basic and add on the other items you want. 

 

I would definitely start in level 1 for a student who leaves vowels out of words. Level 1 teaches segmenting that really helps with this, and also rules like "every word has at least one vowel," etc... Here's an article about which level to start in.

 

You can "fast-track" if some of the level 1 words are easy.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2016 by MerryAtHope

[LEK]

Go basic and just find a box that the cards fit into nicely, I use a small plastic lunch box and they fit perfectly.

Definitely start at level 1. It is recommended that everyone starts there and as your dd is leaving vowels out of her words then level 1 is clearly the level she needs to be at right now.

You may find you go through level 1 fairly quickly, do not push to get through it too fast but just expect that it may happen. In the early years my spelling "plan" was to get through 1-3 levels a year depending on how fast my kids worked through them, we averaged about 2 levels a year for the first few levels.

[luuknam]

I got the basic one, used an index card box I already had and put the cards that didn't fit into a ziploc bag, and then at some point put those cards in the index card box and put the mastered ones in the ziploc bag. Aside from moving cards from review to mastered, you also want to be able to shuffle the cards as needed so you're not always practicing, say, the phonograms in the same order. A ring *really* wouldn't work.

 

I started my almost 9yo, entering 4th grader in level 1 at the start of this summer. For him, I think I might have been able to get by skipping level 1, but he'd completed a phonics program from basic phonograms all the way through words like chiropodist and psychiatric and the like (not AAR, but still), and half a year ago he was spelling at a grade 4.2 level (certainly not leaving out most vowels). He whizzed through level one in just under 3 weeks. So, for him, I think going through the phonograms app and starting in level 2 would have been fine (but not higher - he's encountering some words in level 2 that he didn't know how to spell, mostly words with a schwa sound, like the e in magnet).

 

My younger son hasn't been through a formal phonics program and was spelling at a grade 2.2 level half a year ago and reading words at a grade 5 level half a year ago. He doesn't leave vowels out of words, and can so far spell all the words in level 1 just fine (we're on step 9 - I started him on level 1 after his big brother finished level 1), but level 1 has been good for him - he needed more practice segmenting words (I knew that already, and I suspect your daughter needs that too if she's leaving vowels out of words), and a more gentle introduction to all the phonograms and rules has been good.

 

Skipping level 1 will save you a relatively small amount of money (considering the cost of the other 6 levels + kit, and you can always sell the book when you're through with it), and if your daughter is regularly leaving vowels out of words, skipping level 1 would mean skipping some essentials such as segmenting words (level 2 does a tiny bit of review of a few level 1 rules, but not of segmenting words).

 

The good news is that AAS goes by levels, not grades, so it's not like giving a 2nd grader a 1st grade book - you can say that the levels aren't directly correlated to grades (they aren't, not exactly).

[Shred Betty]

I'd go for Basic. The box is optional, but it does fit the cards nicely. If you want to save money, you could use a box that you already have. I wouldn't use a ring because you want to be able to easily move the cards from daily review to mastered (or, occasionally, you may need to move a mastered card back to daily review if your child seems to forget a word or concept...) Having the cards in a box makes it easy to move them around depending on your child's review needs--one of the hallmarks of the program is that you can customize the review.

 

The stickers can be purchased separately as well--so unless you need a tote bag, go basic and add on the other items you want. 

 

I would definitely start in level 1 for a student who leaves vowels out of words. Level 1 teaches segmenting that really helps with this, and also rules like "every word has at least one vowel," etc... Here's an article about which level to start in.

 

You can "fast-track" if some of the level 1 words are easy.

 

Cool links & info, thank you!

 

Everyone else who chimed in, thanks as well!

 

 

..... and half a year ago he was spelling at a grade 4.2 level.

.....

. Just out of curiosity, how do you judge what grade level spelling and reading your DC are? Our PS we are leaving uses lots of reading ( not spelling thou, at least at gr 1 level) measurements like letters, colors, numbers in the hundreds lol but not "grade level." I didn't even know they had a spelling "grade level" measure (hah).

[luuknam]

Just out of curiosity, how do you judge what grade level spelling and reading your DC are? Our PS we are leaving uses lots of reading ( not spelling thou, at least at gr 1 level) measurements like letters, colors, numbers in the hundreds lol but not "grade level." I didn't even know they had a spelling "grade level" measure (hah).

 

Turns out I have waaaaaay too many tabs open, but I found the spelling test I used:

 

http://www.bhibooks.net/f/Spelling_Diagnostic_Test_1.pdf

 

Now, it's probably not perfectly accurate or whatever, but it gives a rough idea.

 

For reading I used the San Diego Quick Assessment:

 

http://facstaff.bloomu.edu/dwalker/Documents/San%20Diego%20Quick%20Assessment.pdf

 

This obviously only tests their ability to read the words, not their comprehension. My younger son almost certainly does not have a 5th grade level reading comprehension, but for spelling purposes, I figured decoding ability was more relevant to mention than comprehension.

[Shred Betty]

Turns out I have waaaaaay too many tabs open, but I found the spelling test I used:

 

http://www.bhibooks.net/f/Spelling_Diagnostic_Test_1.pdf

 

Now, it's probably not perfectly accurate or whatever, but it gives a rough idea.

 

For reading I used the San Diego Quick Assessment:

 

http://facstaff.bloomu.edu/dwalker/Documents/San%20Diego%20Quick%20Assessment.pdf

 

This obviously only tests their ability to read the words, not their comprehension. My younger son almost certainly does not have a 5th grade level reading comprehension, but for spelling purposes, I figured decoding ability was more relevant to mention than comprehension.

Thanks for sharing!