Spelling rules bored me to pieces!!

[Leftyplayer]

My middle schooler got a bit of spelling rules (and phonetic spelling) in school before I pulled her out, but neither her nor her brother have had much mostly because we all find it sooooo boring. I can't help but feel that I'm the main culprit and I've handed it down. I did AAS Level with I with DS (we didn't finish it because I just couldn't get through it). I've looked at Logic of English. I have a huge resistance to this type of spelling approach. Luckily, my oldest is a natural speller. She's just good at it. My youngest has dysgraphia and dyslexia, so he'd likely have trouble no matter what. But I know that AAS is an OG approach and could help. I really hated it thought. Logic of English maybe I could do, but there seem to be sooooo many levels.

 

Is there an "express" version of this stuff, or a book that will spoon feed me (the teacher) the information (with as little geeking out as possible, just the basics) so that maybe once I understand the basics, I can pass them on without having to use these endless levels of spelling rules curriculum. My goal would be to learn the basics of rules and then go the CM way with Spelling Wisdom, but use what we know to observe the rules as we go. But ... I know nothing. Seriously, I didn't go to elementary school in the US and learned English later, so I'm a great spelling but it's all intuitive, all learned by just doing it. I don't know the logic/ rules behind the language.

[BatmansWife]

I have tried, and failed, many many spelling programs over the years.  I don't know why it has to be so hard!  I like AAS, but it was too time consuming for us.  LOE...oh, my...personally I think it was overkill (no offense to LOE lovers!).  Recently we started Spelling You See, and I really like it (I ordered from CBD).  This year I'm trowing in a little Spelling Made Easy.  I also have Delightful Dictation with Spelling that I really like too.  I think I'll work a little through that this coming year also.  Sounds like spelling for us is going to me a mix of a few things.  

 

Sorry that I'm not much of a help, but maybe this gives you a few more ideas to kick around (which probably just made you decision harder).   :tongue_smilie:

[Jackie]

How to Teach Spelling sounds like what you are looking for. It is the same rules-based spelling as AAS, includes words and sentences for dictation if you want to do them, is organized by the rules. It is also all in one book, contains no pieces, and is very straightforward.

 

If you want to skip the rules altogether, Sequential Spelling is a pattern-based program. My daughter infinitely preferred it over AAS. And, at least for your older kid, you could easily use the version for adults and teens, which distills the 7 volume series into only 2 volumes by killing the repetition.

[Ellie]

My middle schooler got a bit of spelling rules (and phonetic spelling) in school before I pulled her out, but neither her nor her brother have had much mostly because we all find it sooooo boring. I can't help but feel that I'm the main culprit and I've handed it down. I did AAS Level with I with DS (we didn't finish it because I just couldn't get through it). I've looked at Logic of English. I have a huge resistance to this type of spelling approach. Luckily, my oldest is a natural speller. She's just good at it. My youngest has dysgraphia and dyslexia, so he'd likely have trouble no matter what. But I know that AAS is an OG approach and could help. I really hated it thought. Logic of English maybe I could do, but there seem to be sooooo many levels.

 

Is there an "express" version of this stuff, or a book that will spoon feed me (the teacher) the information (with as little geeking out as possible, just the basics) so that maybe once I understand the basics, I can pass them on without having to use these endless levels of spelling rules curriculum. My goal would be to learn the basics of rules and then go the CM way with Spelling Wisdom, but use what we know to observe the rules as we go. But ... I know nothing. Seriously, I didn't go to elementary school in the US and learned English later, so I'm a great spelling but it's all intuitive, all learned by just doing it. I don't know the logic/ rules behind the language.

 

Spalding. One manual to buy, one set of phonogram cards, one sewn composition book for each child each year, bam! you've got it.

 

When I taught Spalding in a little one-room, multi-grade classroom (kindergarten through high school), all of the children's spelling levels increased *at least* one grade level by Christmas. By the end of the year, they were awesome. :-)

[daijobu]

Sequential Spelling skips the explicit rules altogether.  You learn groups of words that show the same spelling pattern instead.