Anybody here just make up their own spelling curriculum?

[Karie]

I'm thinking of just making up my own lists and doing dictations with the spelling words. I've done Spelling Plus, but the words got pretty hard, pretty fast for my son, so I'm thinking of using some lists from other resources and doing my own thing. BUT...what resources should I use? Anything on the internet that would help me with this?

[SquirrellyMama]

I would use www.spellingcity.com. You can use your own lists or use theirs. They have games and you can print out handwriting lists in cursive or print.

 

Kelly

[Karie]

Oh!! That's awesome!!

[Jane]

I think phonics programs make excellent spelling lists. Personally, I used Phonics Pathways for two years w/one of my children.

 

HTH!

[katilac]

We do a very simple home-grown spelling program, which mainly consists of having dds write their spelling words once a day, lol!

 

We do ten words a week; words are pulled from fifty-cent spelling books from the thrift store or from the internet (just google "x-grade spelling lists" and you'll find plenty). I also pull misspelled words from their daily writing, or words they ask about when reading.

 

On Monday, they read their spelling list, spell each word out loud, and copy the word. Tuesdays and Wednesdays they copy the words again. We do things like ABC order, script or print, all capitals, etc; sometimes they like to write them on the white board or spell them with letter tiles. On Thursdays, they look at the word until they are confident they can cover it and spell it on their own.

 

Friday is spelling test and dictation.

 

This has worked MUCH better for us than any spelling program we tried. My youngest is a natural speller who'd probably do okay with any program, but my 5th grader? Not so much. Great reader, horrible speller. Neither of us have much patience for the busy work so prevalent in spelling programs, and the 'find the mistakes!' method just ensured that she remembered the mistakes, lol.

 

Ten words a week is working out fine. We never use words I am confident she can already spell, and I'd rather she cement ten words a week than be iffy on twenty.

[Jenn Robinson]

We pull words from our McGuffey readers each week and use similar words found in the book, "ABC's and all their Tricks" to teach spelling! This book makes a great reference to any spelling program b/c it has all the words, rules, origins, etc... included!:)

[mims]

I found some basic phonics rules. I know some I got off of All About Spelling and I think I did a search and found some others. We go over the rule and practice the words. I group all of the long 'a's etc. and she has to tell me which rule it is following such as silent 'e' or followed by a 'y'. We than move on but review the old rules and some of the more troubling words every few days. So far this is working better than anything else we tried.

[San Marcos Classical]

My 4th grader is not a "natural speller". This has been wonderful. We don't always choose from the list of words provided. We've used words from her Latin program, books read, history etc. It provides many different types of activities to do with the spelling words that really make them stick!!! It was recommended to me by someone on this site. Amazon has it where you can look at the first few pages.

 

Good Luck to you!

Norine

[Vanna]

I would use www.spellingcity.com. You can use your own lists or use theirs. They have games and you can print out handwriting lists in cursive or print.

 

Kelly

 

My "computer savvy" child likes to use the games on the website. I like the "Teach Me" feature that pronounces the words and gives a sentence for each word.

[Lori D.]

[raising hand] We do. We use "Natural Speller", "The ABCs and All Their Tricks", lists of common sight words, misspelled words from the children's writing, and the big "5000 most common word list" from the back of Spelling Power to create lists based on vowel patterns/sounds from "The ABCs...".

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I do my own thing. We have the Catholic National Readers which is a series of (beautiful, and very, very, Catholic) readers that might be something like the McGuffy readers (that I've never seen). A spelling book comes with it but it's mostly just a series of word lists.

 

So, I just go to the next list and any words in it that she doesnt' know I write on the board. I choose some of her vocabulary words (now we're working our way through a list of homonyms) and some of her derivatives from latin. I also keep a list on the board for when she misses a word in a paper or something.

 

On Monday, I write all the words on the board. My daughter copies them into a notebook. Tuesday - Thursday she practices them. We've tried spelling city and while it has fun games, I thought it was too distracting. I generally let her write the words twice each on Tuesday and then she can choose some other way to do them again (magnet leters, et c.). On Wednesday she can choose however she wants to spell them and I give her an oral quiz. Whatever she misses must be written several times. On Thursday she can choose a game if we have time. Her all time favorite is to draw flowers on the sidewalk (same # of flowers as spelling words) and a bee hive at the end. I stand in the bee hive with a dish of honey and her word list. I call out the word and if she spells it correctly, she buzzes to the next flower. If not, she goes back a flower. I make a note of what she misses and she has to write them a few times each. This game could have infinite permutations -- well, a bunch anyway. We've played it with dinosaur feet and at the end she jumps into the nest (all the pillows and couch cushions) to be cuddled/tickled by the mom dinosaur (ME!). We've made it a river and at the end she gets to jump in (get sprayed with the hose). We've played it at the park and she gets to take steps to whatever thing she wants to play on. You get the idea. Anyway, by Thursday she doesn't usually miss any. Friday is the test. For the test she has to write a sentence using the word, demonstrating that she can spell it, of course, and use it correctly.

 

Since we've been doing homonyms she's needed a little more practice usage practice. I've been writing fill-in-the-blank sentences on the board.

 

For what it's worth, my daughter isn't a very strong speller. I've often wondered if it's b/c I do my own thing or if that's just her. She did well on her standardized tests, though.

[Blessedfamily]

I thought everyone else did a spelling program so I just ordered one Friday. If I had known about spelling city I might have waited. OTOH the computer can be distracting for dd, so maybe it will work out.:001_smile:

[dymphna57]

After Sound Beginnings, a program that uses WRTR method, we review phonograms, and make our own spelling book.

Rules are rewritten on the first few pages at the beginning of each year and we use the list provided and any miss spelled words during the week.

I am not a great speller and I appreciate working with the words I actually use and not that I might someday need.

The better spellers and older children use ten words from their vocab book currently Vocabu-Lit which is strong on synonyms and antonyms.

[Hannah]

I couldn't find what I was looking for for dd at a price I could afford, so made up this one. It has spelling rules as copywork, word lists and dictation sentences. I'm working on level 2, but it's going a lot slower than planned. You can view the full program.

[Gwenny]

We are planning on doing our own thing next year too. I have Phonics Pathways and plan to focus on a few of the spelling rules in there and using their lists of words.

Gwen