Need a spelling program that will work

[miracleone]

Help!  My dd8 (almost 9) is using Spelling Workout B but her spelling is horrible.  Last year, we tried Sequential Spelling and she didn't like it.  I don't expect perfection but she doesn't seem to retain what she is doing with Spelling workout book.   Is there a non-parent intensive spelling program that will work for her?  Thank you so much!

[2_girls_mommy]

We did phonics based spelling for years. My dd can say all of the phonics rules, but never applies them. When I help her and start a rule, she can finish the rule, and then apply it to her word that she already misspelled when we edit. But when you misspell everything, imagine trying to think of every phonics rule there is for every word you are trying to put down. It wasn't working.

 

So this year we are trying some new things. I researched dyslexia techniques, and am adding those techniques. I read books, watched videos online, and made an appointment with a developmental optometrist to get her eyes checked out differently and to see what they recommend specifically for her. The things in the books I read lead me to think this is more her issue than true dyslexia, but I am still using the techniques I have learned to work on spelling with her. I am seeing a lot of improvement after only a month. Along with that, we dropped our phonics based spelling for now, and I am using some workbooks from Dyslexia Games and Thinking Tree this year.  I just read an article, and another homeschool curriculum was mentioned.  The way they described her materials was similar to what I have been reading, so I am going to start looking at her stuff next. But I can't say the name off the top of my head.

 

I don't know that your child will struggle as mine did, but my child has tried her best, and is just not making improvements doing WTM suggestions for spelling. So I had to try some new things. I kind of wish I had started earlier, but I do think that all of the drill in phonics from her Rod and Staff spelling over the years was useful information too. It certainly comes in handy as we work through these other books. I just wish I had had the info I have now to incorporate into those books as we were going through them when she was younger. 

[ItoLina]

My son has a really hard time with spelling as well. Mid year last year we switched to Apples and Pears Spelling. We are finishing up book A this week and I have seen a dramatic improvement that actually does translate to his writing. It isn't independent (you have to sit and read the words and sentences to your child) but we just do a page a day and it doesn't take a lot of time at all (maybe 10 minutes on average).

 

 

 

 

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[Ellie]

Help!  My dd8 (almost 9) is using Spelling Workout B but her spelling is horrible.  Last year, we tried Sequential Spelling and she didn't like it.  I don't expect perfection but she doesn't seem to retain what she is doing with Spelling workout book.   Is there a non-parent intensive spelling program that will work for her?  Thank you so much!

 

For a child that young, no, there really isn't a non-parent-intensive spelling program. When she's nine, you might try Spelling by Sound and Structure (Rod and Staff). The first two levels are really reinforcing phonics, not so much spelling, but it changes in fourth to spelling.

[Susan in TX]

I like Soaring with Spelling. It is designed for the student to use pretty much independently. There is a pre-test at the beginning of each week and then another test at the end of the week.  Words that are misspelled on the final test are carried over to the pre-test of the next week. My kids almost always get them right then, but if not they are on the list for that week. There are workbook activities assigned each day that help the kids learn the words. It doesn't take long and the activities are sometimes fun, like crossword puzzles or a word search. This is also a vocabulary program so the meanings of the words are taught as well.

 

We used to use Rod and Staff Spelling, which was also good, but I find Soaring with Spelling to be easier to implement and not so tedious.

 

Susan in TX

[Aurelia]

You might look at Spelling You See. Some parental involvement is required, but it doesn't take very long. Honestly, if you have a poor speller, you're going to need to be more involved. Just handing her a workbook won't help her improve much.

[Clemsondana]

One of my children uses Soaring with Spelling - even in 2nd grade it can be used independently other than the pre/post tests and grading.  My other child spells pretty well, but we pull out Jim Halverson's Spelling Works! as a refresher every year or 2.  It has some standard exercises, some editing-type work where they learn to recognize the correct spelling, and some mazes where they try to find the correct words.  It teaches a lot of common rules and also the 'rules' about exceptions to the rules (some of which I hadn't realized existed - much better than thinking that rules just applied 'most of the time'!). 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I have a few rambling thoughts on this subject.  They might be worth reading, or not. :blushing:  Just thought I'd put them out there in case it might help.

This is my 13th year homeschooling.  I graduated my oldest last May, and I have sons in 11th and 8th grades this year.

 

I tried Apples and Pears which was wonderful while it lasted, but I didn't see long-lasting results.

I tried How to Teach Spelling which looks very thorough.  There are workbooks that go along with the teachers manual HTTS.  This program is very rules/phonics based, but we got bogged down with this curriculum.

I also used Spelling Power.  I liked this to a degree, but I wanted to to group its word lists according to  real spelling rules.  

I tried but disliked Megawords.  This surprised me because it was so popular around here for a while.

 

I never found a spelling program that really worked with my kids.  

Looking back, I wish I had simply used the words that they misspelled in their writing as their "spelling" words.

Taking just a few words at a time like this focuses on the words they use most often and also keeps spelling class manageable.

 

I totally realize the need to teach phonics.  Yet, I'm not convinced that formal curriculum is always the way to go-at least in the beginning or for a struggling student.

I think for a struggling student, small successes with just a word or two or three slowly over time might be more effective.

This is very parent intensive- at least to begin with.

Decoding is hard for some kids.

 

Oh!  I remember the very first spelling that I used with kids when they were in K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, grades.... Explode the Code.  Now that was wonderful.  

It is for the very youngest grades, but the simplicity made learning easy. 

 

I think a previous poster has the right idea about using games.  I really don't know about dyslexic games, but when she wrote about this it reminded me of music.

I grew up with my mom teaching piano lessons.  Some of her students could "hear" the difference between notes and hum a certain pitch.  They could recognize if notes were trending higher or lower or louder/softer on the keyboard, etc...  Other students could not distinguish differences like these. My mom would just consistantly play listening games with her students, and overtime, some of the ones who had trouble in the beginning would eventually make progress.    I just wonder if similar decoding issues are true with spelling because some kids have trouble with spelling and others do not.

 

Sometimes, time, practice, and maturity help with these and many other kinds of issues.

 

I learned a highly valuable lesson about homeschooling when my kids and I began this adventure.  I learned it the hard way, too.  The lesson was "readiness".  The lesson is simply this:  If a student is READY (has the skills needed) to learn a certain thing, then learning will happen.  If a student is not ready to learn a certain skill, if he does not have the necessary skill set in hand, he can't/won't learn.  The parent can teach, teach, teach, followed by beating her head against a wall, followed by tears of frustration, but that student will not learn the lesson until he/she is "ready".  

 

Once I realized this, my homeschooling was a more effective and happy experience both for my children and for myself.

 

Patience, time, love, and small successes along the way will help a beginning struggling speller.

After this kind of TLC, you may be able to use a more formal curriculum.

 

I realize that this is not at all the kind of answer the op asked for.  I hope, however, this stream of thought from my experience in homeschooling will spark some encouragement.

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Sweet Home Alabama

[calihil]

We are really liking Dictation Day by Day. It's an old book that you can download and print but all I do is write each day's sentence(s) on a whiteboard and she copies them. We go over the underlined (spelling words) and that's it. On Fridays, I have her spell the new words we learned. I like it because it's incremental so the words learned are frequently reinforced. I think it goes up to 6th grade? Not sure. Anyways, check it out.