Spelling Suggestions AAS, SS?

[Kharisma]

So I started my son who is 7, on a spelling program this fall. I went with EM Building Spelling Skills 2. He can spell the words for the test, but the next week forget it. I am about to scrap it. 

 

I am leaning towards a program which focuses on fewer rules at once. I am thinking about All About Spelling or Sequential Spelling. That said we do our spelling words with scrabble tiles once a week and he hates it. He is a very hands on learner so I thought that the tiles would be a win. ...

 

So is AAS going to be a bust? Is there another program out there that might be a better fit?

 

Thanks for your help. :)

[Tenaj]

I've struggled with AAS, starting and quitting several times, but I'm finally doing it consistently with my two youngest and it's working.  Neither of the kids are very fond of the tiles so I tend to use them myself when teaching a lesson then I give them the choice when it's their turn.  Sometimes they choose the tiles and sometimes they just use paper and pencil.  The program is really very flexible. Another thing we do sometimes if we need to spice up a lesson, is that I let them use colored markers to write with.  That sometimes gets messy but I've found that when they know they can't erase, they tend to think a bit harder before writing the words and the color gives them a little variety in their lives.

 

What I've finally figured out is that we just keep plugging along at it.  Some days we work for only 5 minutes, some days we work for 15 or 20 but if I keep at it, they consistently making progress, even if it's very slow!

 

 

[Ellie]

So I started my son who is 7, on a spelling program this fall. I went with EM Building Spelling Skills 2. He can spell the words for the test, but the next week forget it. I am about to scrap it. 

 

I am leaning towards a program which focuses on fewer rules at once. I am thinking about All About Spelling or Sequential Spelling. That said we do our spelling words with scrabble tiles once a week and he hates it. He is a very hands on learner so I thought that the tiles would be a win. ...

 

So is AAS going to be a bust? Is there another program out there that might be a better fit?

 

Thanks for your help. :)

 

Spalding. It covers reading, spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. For little persons who are just seven (or eight, or nine...) it's the whole English course in one fell swoop. :-) And you only need to make a one-time purchase of the manual (Writing Road to Reading) and a set of phonogram cards (children eight and over will need a new spelling notebook each year).

[MerryAtHope]

So I started my son who is 7, on a spelling program this fall. I went with EM Building Spelling Skills 2. He can spell the words for the test, but the next week forget it. I am about to scrap it. 

 

I am leaning towards a program which focuses on fewer rules at once. I am thinking about All About Spelling or Sequential Spelling. That said we do our spelling words with scrabble tiles once a week and he hates it. He is a very hands on learner so I thought that the tiles would be a win. ...

 

So is AAS going to be a bust? Is there another program out there that might be a better fit?

 

Thanks for your help. :)

 

Not necessarily. You can use tiles just for demonstration purposes and let him choose whether to work on words in tiles or in writing. (Writing is the ultimate goal anyway. One of mine liked to write in a notebook, and one used a hand-held white-board for awhile). You can also use other kinesthetic ideas that might interest him. He might like the AAS tiles even if he didn't like the scrabble tiles though--they are color-coded to the type of phonogram, they have multi-letter phonograms on one tile, they are alphabetized (easy to find the letter or phonogram you need), and they are magnetized. But if not, you can still use the methods.

 

AAS would definitely be more incremental and mastery-based with the rules.

 

Sequential Spelling doesn't teach rules.

 

HTH as you decide what's going to work best for him!

[Peaceseeker]

AAS was a bust here with my highly kinesthetic learners. Spelling felt long and tedious and there were just too many rules to memorize. Two years in and we had very little retention. Sequential spelling has been a great fit, although both my kids would have balked at writing 25 words a day at age 7. Both started around age 9 or 3rd-4th grade with SS. I tried SS in first grade with my oldest and it resulted in lots of tears!

 

I am glad I circled back to it though, as it takes 5 minutes a day each and has worked with two very different learners. We usually do it on a dry erase board, although my oldest eventually shifted to paper. Spelling became much less frustrating. I do point out a few spelling rules to them as we go through it, but the program doesn't really teach any rules. The pattern recognition seems to really work better for my family overall.

 

We also did the copy work approach with Spelling Wisdom for a while and that actually went fairly well. Better than AAS for us, but I had one who really needed more direct instruction. I am a fan of SW also though, and for many kids I think that approach would work very well.

[Jackie]

AAS was painful here. The tiles made it take far too long and didn't really add any feeling of "hands on". There are so many relatively arbitrary rules - when homophones can all follow the "rules" yet all be spelled differently, then they're not following the "rules", KWIM?

 

Sequential Spelling isn't loved, but is painless. Because DD typically needs little repetition, were using the program for adults, which compresses the 7 year program into 2 years.

[Kharisma]

Thanks everyone for posting.  I always appreciate the hives willingness to help.

 

What I've finally figured out is that we just keep plugging along at it.  Some days we work for only 5 minutes, some days we work for 15 or 20 but if I keep at it, they consistently making progress, even if it's very slow!

 

 

Thank you Jan. That is very true.

 

Spalding. It covers reading, spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, and simple composition, all in one fell swoop. For little persons who are just seven (or eight, or nine...) it's the whole English course in one fell swoop. :-) And you only need to make a one-time purchase of the manual (Writing Road to Reading) and a set of phonogram cards (children eight and over will need a new spelling notebook each year).

Thanks Ellie. I will look into Spalding.

 

Sequential spelling has been a great fit, although both my kids would have balked at writing 25 words a day at age 7. Both started around age 9 or 3rd-4th grade with SS. I tried SS in first grade with my oldest and it resulted in lots of tears!


We also did the copy work approach with Spelling Wisdom for a while and that actually went fairly well.

 Thanks CA Dreaming. I do fear SS would cause tears here too. Better keep this in mind for the future.  Spelling Wisdom sounds interesting, I'll look into that too.

[beka87]

Apples and Pears from Sound Foundations uses copy work, dictation, morpheme analysis, and spelling patterns.  It's a workbook format, one book for the student and one for you.  It's very easy to work for five minutes or twenty, whatever you feel like doing for the day.  It's been working very well for my 8 year old daughter, who tended to memorize rules but never apply them, memorize words for a test and then forget them,....there are very generous samples and also placement tests on their website. 

 

If you like the idea of dictation (the way Spelling Wisdom is set up) I would recommend looking into Simply Spelling from shoelacebooks as well, which uses copy work, dictation, and gentle rules.  I love the look of it and may use it for my next daughter if Apples and Pears isn't a good fit.

 

Good luck!