Spelling programs?

[BookMamaLade]

What spelling programs do you like and why? The pretest models don't seem like a good fit for us. Is formal curriculum even really a necessity? Does anyone have experience with diy-ing it? 

[sweet2ndchance]

14 minutes ago, BookMamaLade said:

What spelling programs do you like and why?

I like any spelling program based on orton-gillingham and phonics, so All About Spelling, Logic of English, Spell to Write and Read, The Writing Road to Reading and many others.

 

16 minutes ago, BookMamaLade said:

Is formal curriculum even really a necessity?

Not for every learner, no. If your child is a natural speller then a spelling curriculum might not be necessary.

 

17 minutes ago, BookMamaLade said:

Does anyone have experience with diy-ing it? 

I've modified all the above curricula so much to fit my learners that I often feel like I might as well DIY it. Many programs out there suggest just taking words from a student's writing that they often misspell and using those as your spelling words. These approach can work just fine for some learners, particularly those who are already naturally good spellers and just need to brush up on the rules now and then.

[Green Bean]

Honestly, I never found one worth it. Some kids do need one. All About Spelling is great for them. Others just need to check the box so anything you pick is fine.

[Brittany1116]

My first is a natural speller but we liked R&S Spelling when we briefly used it.

[HomeAgain]

DS responded very well to Reading & Spelling Through Literature.  We did not use the reading portion, having already covered the Elson Readers in the 4 levels, but we did the spelling. The lists varied between 10 and 15 words, but we did 10 a day and added back words he struggled with rather than stick exactly to the lists. By the end of the second level he was intuiting spelling rules more easily.  By the third he was back to breaking words up in his head and mentally going through the rules.

I liked that it was a "testing" type of spelling.  It was a "here's the word.  Let's chunk it into syllables.  Let's write it as we go over the applied rules".  It gave him ways to memorize rules, not spell specific words, if that makes sense.

[TJWinMA]

We have so far used All About Spelling levels 1 and 2 and have been very pleased with the curriculum.  It is structure well, easy to implement, does not take much time to cover, and our son enjoys it.  We are fans of the Orton-Gillingham approach, having used All About Reading in addition to the spelling curriculum.  I think you definitely could craft your own curriculum.  As we were just getting started with homeschooling, it was nice to have an already established program.  We plan on continuing with level 3 of AAS next year.

 

[BookMamaLade]

Thanks. I think I'll give diy a whirl to see if it suits him before trying one of these.

[desertflower]

I have not done a formal spelling program with my middle child.  And don't plan too since she will be going in 7th grade in the fall.

Otherwise, my oldest uses Spelling You See.  He has used All About Spelling.  I like both.  SUS is more independent except on dictation days.  I haven't used AAS to it's fullest. 

[LauraClark]

We use Dictation Day by Day and that has been working here. It's free. The standard word-list route did not work for us. For first grade and part of second I diy it using word lists. It's really more of a phonics introduction at that point than actually teaching them spelling. Natural Speller (Kathryn Stout) might be worth a look for diy-ing it.

[ScoutTN]

I used AAS and liked it. It has a learning curve, but was worth the investment. One kid used it til he went to school. I dropped spelling altogether for the other after 2nd because she is a natural speller.

[Dianthus]

We did LOE Foundations, then I tried several and like Spelling Workout the best. I cannot believe how much ds10 spelling has improved since we started it. Maybe he has just begun trying? But huge improvement and I know it makes him happy too. It has a good amount of vocabulary in it also, in understanding the meaning of the list words. It's been good

 

Hated Spelling Power. Much too complicated. Thought Spelling by Sound and Stucture and (even more so) Soaring with Spelling were too easy. DIYing didn't work for me and never got done.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Spirea

[Servant4Christ]

Another vote for R&S. It really is a solid program, yet short and simple. I have no experience diy-ing spelling. 

[Green Bean]

Downside to R&S Spelling is the word lists are all mostly religious words- Bible books, and such. Nothing wrong with that as the focus is more on the patterns/rules, but something to consider.

[Brittany1116]

13 minutes ago, Green Bean said:

Downside to R&S Spelling is the word lists are all mostly religious words- Bible books, and such. Nothing wrong with that as the focus is more on the patterns/rules, but something to consider.

There are some, but those are hardly the focus. I didn't recall any from the year we did it so I looked up the lists. I skimmed levels 2 through 5 and only saw 12-15 Biblical references between the four levels. 

[beka87]

Unless you have a natural speller, I find that a spelling program is helpful through about 6th or 7th grade.  The trick is finding the one that fits your child!  None of my kids have benefited from just studying a list.  Some of the programs we have used successfully:

Apples and Pears from Soundfoundations (fabulous for my struggling speller!)

Traditional Spelling from Memoria Press

Spelling You See

Spelling Wisdom (love this one!) from Simply Charlotte Mason

[ealp2009]

I have used Phonetic Zoo from IEW with two kids and it has worked well so far.  I have 4th grader and 7th grader doing it and it is independent.  They listen to the rule with examples, listen to the test, correct their test and write the words again.  They move on the the next test once they have gotten 100% two days in a row.   My younger one is naturally a decent speller and my older is naturally a terrible speller but I have seen improvement in both kids and I was about to give up on spelling with my oldest.  It only takes them 10-15 minutes a day to do it.  

[Ellie]

On 3/31/2022 at 5:31 PM, sweet2ndchance said:

I like any spelling program based on orton-gillingham and phonics, so All About Spelling, Logic of English, Spell to Write and Read, The Writing Road to Reading and many others.

I've modified all the above curricula so much to fit my learners that I often feel like I might as well DIY it. Many programs out there suggest just taking words from a student's writing that they often misspell and using those as your spelling words. These approach can work just fine for some learners, particularly those who are already naturally good spellers and just need to brush up on the rules now and then.

Just to clarify, the Writing Road to Reading is the manual (first published in 1957), not the method; the method is Spalding. 🙂 Mrs. Spalding worked with Dr. Orton personally; he was a noted neurologist and brain surgeon, and she applied his training to her spelling method. I have found no mention of "Gillingham" in her works.

[mathmarm]

On 4/4/2022 at 8:12 PM, Green Bean said:

Downside to R&S Spelling is the word lists are all mostly religious words- Bible books, and such. Nothing wrong with that as the focus is more on the patterns/rules, but something to consider.

This is incorrect. We use R&S Spelling by Sound and Structure but are not Christian. We teach the program from Teacher Books so we're able to easily filter-out/censor the religious vocabulary out of the program. We've taken 2 children through levels 2-6 now.

Edited April 6, 2022 by mathmarm

[Servant4Christ]

7 hours ago, mathmarm said:

This is incorrect. We use R&S Spelling by Sound and Structure but are not Christian. We teach the program from Teacher Books so we're able to easily filter-out/censor the religious vocabulary out of the program. We've taken 2 children through levels 2-6 now.

I'm interested in how you implement this with just the TM. I can see how it would be simple enough for a non Christian to just cross out the religious words on the spelling lists, but not using the workbook at all sounds intriguing.

[nwahomeschoolmom]

Spelling Plus Dictation has been my favorite spelling program so far.  My son was a natural speller for all of the "easy to sound out" words early on, but this book targets the most commonly used words that are harder to spell, like "excited" and "extremely" etc.  I tried to use Rod and Staff Spelling at one point, and even though we did a phonics based approach, we didn't go as in depth as their program requires so we had to stop using it.  Lately, we have used CLE Spelling because it is so easy to use their all-in-one Language Arts program, but his spelling has suffered a tad because it is not very good!  Next year, we are using a Rod & Staff English and a Building Spelling Skills combo.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Spelling-Plus-Words-toward-Success/dp/187947820X

[mathmarm]

On 4/6/2022 at 1:19 PM, Servant4Christ said:

I'm interested in how you implement this with just the TM. I can see how it would be simple enough for a non Christian to just cross out the religious words on the spelling lists, but not using the workbook at all sounds intriguing.

I don't think it's difficult to teach SbSS from just the TM. We do SbSS2-6 in this manner. It's important to realize that the Teachers Manual is the student workbook with extra essays, explanations and notes throughout the lessons and answers to all the exercises. Also, we do not begin spelling with a child until they are very fluent in reading and solid in handwriting. This means that when they're doing spelling, the focus is on learning spelling and other meta-skills. Spelling is an opportunity to exercise and reinforce their handwriting--but we're not wasting time with "how do you write __ again?"

As for teaching SbSS from the Teachers Manual we prefer this as it allows us to adjust the difficulty, save money and space (purchasing 5 workbooks for each child vs using a couple of regular notebooks that we get for $0.25-$1.00) and prevents us needing to reinvent the wheel of spelling instruction. For SbSS 2 and 3, the night before, we write the words out from the lesson on the board in cursive and print, (if we're going to eliminate or change a word, we do it now). We accelerate through the material at the lower-levels. We split the days between book work and block work.

During the lesson, we have the kids

1) read the list of words aloud clearly pronouncing each word and we take turns using the words in sentences.
2) say each word sound-by-sound as they finger-spell the word
3) say each word sound-by-sound as they mark the words on the board.
---) while learning to read, our kids are taught to mark digraphs, trigraphs, consonant-blends, and vowel teams using differing symbols.
NOTE: Most of the words in SbSS 2 are 1 syllable, but it does include several 2 syllable words
4) say each word syllable-by-syllable as they finger-spell the syllable
5) say each word syllable-by-syllable as they mark the words on the board
6) record the lesson in their 1-subject notebook

For their lesson the student has a 1-subject notebook in which we simply label the page for the lesson (ie Lesson 7: Common Short Vowels  - Part A) and write blanks for the words (later the student takes on this responsibility). For the blanks, we read the clues for the words from the TM-workbook (we do any re-wording or censoring as needed), and the student says the words, spells the words, then writes it sound-by-sound and later on they do this syllable-by-syllable.

If they're right, then they write it in their notebook. If they're wrong, we put a little mark there and move on to the next word. Any words that got marked out, we make a note of in the TM and make sure to practice that word more intentionally. We practice any missed words at the start of most sessions.

Trouble words get written on the bottom of the page. On review lessons, we do the words spelling bee style. We give the word, then the kid says the word, spell the word and say the word. All words are written in cursive on review days.

Next we use a few of the recommended Spelling Drills from the TM (only in SbSS 2 and 3). For their block work, the student has a magnetic whiteboard and magnetic letters, letter tiles, etc. We do board work, block work and book work based on the TM-workbook.

For board work the child works at a whiteboard and we usually do:
Drill 01: Fill in the vowel,
Drill 02: Write the spelling word that sounds like ______
Drill 08: Say and spell the words from the list(s) in turns (orally)
Drill 14b: Kid says the word, uses the word in a sentence, and writes the word

For magnet work the child works at a magnetic surface and we usually do:
Drill 06: put words in alphabetical order
Drill 07: put words together crossword style
Drill 11: student spells a set of words with the magnets, then checks his/her spelling against the list on the board.
Drill 12: give the child a clue and have them spell the word on the whiteboard

For book work the student uses their notebook and we usually do:
Drill HM: Write and color-code the word
Drill 02: Write the spelling word that is written like like _____
Drill 03: Create 2 (or 3) columns and write words based on their syllables
Drill 04: dictate a sentence that has multiple spelling words and the kids write the whole sentence
Drill 06: put words in alphabetical order
Drill 13: Write them a spelling word that rhymes with__________
Drill 14a: The kids compose and write a sentence using multiple spelling words

The work for SbSS 2 and 3 fit in a 1-subject notebook along.  We use SbSS2 and 3 as a gentle introduction and training of attention, teaching them to use a notebook, etc.

The work for SbSS 4-6, along with some additional notes and drill work that we choose to give the kids, fit into a 3 subject notebook. When they have the paragraphs that the kids must fill in the blanks for, we have the kids just number the paper for the task and we read the paragraph to them. It's a listening comprehension exercise. We have the list of words on the board and we read the passage to them 2-3 times.
 

In SbSS4-6:
If the lesson is to transcribe diacritics - > words, then we don't put it on the board in advance. We have the kids write the words on the boards by diacritics so we say "east" and they sound-by-sound say /e/ /s/ /t/ and write it on the board using the diacritics. Then they copy the diacritics and the word into their notebook.

If the lesson is to complete a word, then put the word up with blanks on the board in advance. They complete it on the board, then copy the entire word into their notebook.

We simply omit Bible-specific words--such as the lessons that teach you to spell books of the Bible or characters of the Bible--we simply have a shorter word list and spend a bit more time reviewing rules, patterns or past-words. We simply skip the Bible Thoughts activity all together.

[mathmarm]

On 4/4/2022 at 8:12 PM, Green Bean said:

Downside to R&S Spelling is the word lists are all mostly religious words- Bible books, and such. Nothing wrong with that as the focus is more on the patterns/rules, but something to consider.

 

On 4/4/2022 at 8:28 PM, Brittany1116 said:

There are some, but those are hardly the focus. I didn't recall any from the year we did it so I looked up the lists. I skimmed levels 2 through 5 and only saw 12-15 Biblical references between the four levels. 

To this point, I checked our notes and the rough word count and category is as follows:

SbSS 2: 333 secular words and   2 religious
SbSS 3: 353 secular words and 13 religious
SbSS 4: 552 secular words and 22 religious
SbSS 5: 534 secular words and 20 religious
SbSS 6: 500 secular words and 27 religious
SbSS 2,273 secular words and  84 religious

Now, the word exercises--sentences, content paragraphs can be very religious. It can be a little heavy-handed. But we just rephrase or change those sentences. However, the words are not mostly religious. I will guesstimate that the around 30-45% of the lesson material has a religious bent depending on the level.

 

[Brittany1116]

1 hour ago, mathmarm said:

 

To this point, I checked our notes and the rough word count and category is as follows:

SbSS 2: 333 secular words and   2 religious
SbSS 3: 353 secular words and 13 religious
SbSS 4: 552 secular words and 22 religious
SbSS 5: 534 secular words and 20 religious
SbSS 6: 500 secular words and 27 religious
SbSS 2,273 secular words and  84 religious

Now, the word exercises--sentences, content paragraphs can be very religious. It can be a little heavy-handed. But we just rephrase or change those sentences. However, the words are not mostly religious. I will guesstimate that the around 30-45% of the lesson material has a religious bent depending on the level.

 

Thank you. As I said, I skimmed and very few popped out at me as overtly religious words.

[Servant4Christ]

7 hours ago, mathmarm said:

I don't think it's difficult to teach SbSS from just the TM. We do SbSS2-6 in this manner. It's important to realize that the Teachers Manual is the student workbook with extra essays, explanations and notes throughout the lessons and answers to all the exercises. Also, we do not begin spelling with a child until they are very fluent in reading and solid in handwriting. This means that when they're doing spelling, the focus is on learning spelling and other meta-skills. Spelling is an opportunity to exercise and reinforce their handwriting--but we're not wasting time with "how do you write __ again?"

As for teaching SbSS from the Teachers Manual we prefer this as it allows us to adjust the difficulty, save money and space (purchasing 5 workbooks for each child vs using a couple of regular notebooks that we get for $0.25-$1.00) and prevents us needing to reinvent the wheel of spelling instruction. For SbSS 2 and 3, the night before, we write the words out from the lesson on the board in cursive and print, (if we're going to eliminate or change a word, we do it now). We accelerate through the material at the lower-levels. We split the days between book work and block work.

During the lesson, we have the kids

1) read the list of words aloud clearly pronouncing each word and we take turns using the words in sentences.
2) say each word sound-by-sound as they finger-spell the word
3) say each word sound-by-sound as they mark the words on the board.
---) while learning to read, our kids are taught to mark digraphs, trigraphs, consonant-blends, and vowel teams using differing symbols.
NOTE: Most of the words in SbSS 2 are 1 syllable, but it does include several 2 syllable words
4) say each word syllable-by-syllable as they finger-spell the syllable
5) say each word syllable-by-syllable as they mark the words on the board
6) record the lesson in their 1-subject notebook

For their lesson the student has a 1-subject notebook in which we simply label the page for the lesson (ie Lesson 7: Common Short Vowels  - Part A) and write blanks for the words (later the student takes on this responsibility). For the blanks, we read the clues for the words from the TM-workbook (we do any re-wording or censoring as needed), and the student says the words, spells the words, then writes it sound-by-sound and later on they do this syllable-by-syllable.

If they're right, then they write it in their notebook. If they're wrong, we put a little mark there and move on to the next word. Any words that got marked out, we make a note of in the TM and make sure to practice that word more intentionally. We practice any missed words at the start of most sessions.

Trouble words get written on the bottom of the page. On review lessons, we do the words spelling bee style. We give the word, then the kid says the word, spell the word and say the word. All words are written in cursive on review days.

Next we use a few of the recommended Spelling Drills from the TM (only in SbSS 2 and 3). For their block work, the student has a magnetic whiteboard and magnetic letters, letter tiles, etc. We do board work, block work and book work based on the TM-workbook.

For board work the child works at a whiteboard and we usually do:
Drill 01: Fill in the vowel,
Drill 02: Write the spelling word that sounds like ______
Drill 08: Say and spell the words from the list(s) in turns (orally)
Drill 14b: Kid says the word, uses the word in a sentence, and writes the word

For magnet work the child works at a magnetic surface and we usually do:
Drill 06: put words in alphabetical order
Drill 07: put words together crossword style
Drill 11: student spells a set of words with the magnets, then checks his/her spelling against the list on the board.
Drill 12: give the child a clue and have them spell the word on the whiteboard

For book work the student uses their notebook and we usually do:
Drill HM: Write and color-code the word
Drill 02: Write the spelling word that is written like like _____
Drill 03: Create 2 (or 3) columns and write words based on their syllables
Drill 04: dictate a sentence that has multiple spelling words and the kids write the whole sentence
Drill 06: put words in alphabetical order
Drill 13: Write them a spelling word that rhymes with__________
Drill 14a: The kids compose and write a sentence using multiple spelling words

The work for SbSS 2 and 3 fit in a 1-subject notebook along.  We use SbSS2 and 3 as a gentle introduction and training of attention, teaching them to use a notebook, etc.

The work for SbSS 4-6, along with some additional notes and drill work that we choose to give the kids, fit into a 3 subject notebook. When they have the paragraphs that the kids must fill in the blanks for, we have the kids just number the paper for the task and we read the paragraph to them. It's a listening comprehension exercise. We have the list of words on the board and we read the passage to them 2-3 times.
 

In SbSS4-6:
If the lesson is to transcribe diacritics - > words, then we don't put it on the board in advance. We have the kids write the words on the boards by diacritics so we say "east" and they sound-by-sound say /e/ /s/ /t/ and write it on the board using the diacritics. Then they copy the diacritics and the word into their notebook.

If the lesson is to complete a word, then put the word up with blanks on the board in advance. They complete it on the board, then copy the entire word into their notebook.

We simply omit Bible-specific words--such as the lessons that teach you to spell books of the Bible or characters of the Bible--we simply have a shorter word list and spend a bit more time reviewing rules, patterns or past-words. We simply skip the Bible Thoughts activity all together.

Wow, that's amazing and sounds very similar to the method I've been reading about that is used in SWR. Very streamlined, which I like. I am curious, if you don't mind, what do you use for teaching how to read?

Edited April 10, 2022 by Servant4Christ

[Clemsondana]

With my kid who is a natural speller, I would sometimes have them spell words covered in our root words-based vocab program.  After working with the words for a week, they were usually good at spelling them.  We also used SpellingWorks! by Halvorson as a review of rules.  It's just 16 lessons, so it only took a semester.  With my other student, we used a couple of different programs.  I ended up liking some old-school textbooks - I had one that a teacher had given me to play school when I was in elementary school, and I found used copies of a couple of other grades.  

[mathmarm]

36 minutes ago, Servant4Christ said:

Wow, that's amazing and sounds very similar to the method I've been reading about that is used in SWR. Very streamlined, which I like. I'm curious, if you don't mind, what do you use for teaching how to read?

We couldn't find a program that we really liked so wound up putting together the best features of the best programs we could find to teach reading.

 

[Foofaraw]

I want to put in a plug for Apples and Pears spelling by Sound Foundations. You trace and dictate individual words in a spiral way, building up to dictating whole sentences. There are puzzley activities included, which my 6 year old daughter looks forward to. We do one page a day(not a whole lesson), which takes 10-20 minutes depending on the day’s distraction level.

No, this is not an orton gillingham based spelling program, but it gives you open and go practice that builds fluency at sounding out and spelling. We did an OG phonics program before this, which I find more helpful for decoding vs encoding.

[Aloha2U]

Spell to Write and Read (SWR) along with the WISE guide for spelling are the best diy for beginning reading (with McCall Crabs readers), beginning handwriting (with Cursive First), and spelling (PreK-6th grade) that I would recommend.

https://www.bhibooks.net/swr.html (SWR Author, curricula and extra materials)

https://swrtraining.com (Trainer, SWR & Cursive First)

https://swrtraining.com/swr/ (Trainer, Explanation and Samples)

[Servant4Christ]

14 hours ago, Aloha2U said:

Spell to Write and Read (SWR) along with the WISE guide for spelling are the best diy for beginning reading (with McCall Crabs readers), beginning handwriting (with Cursive First), and spelling (PreK-6th grade) that I would recommend.

https://www.bhibooks.net/swr.html (SWR Author, curricula and extra materials)

https://swrtraining.com (Trainer, SWR & Cursive First)

https://swrtraining.com/swr/ (Trainer, Explanation and Samples)

I have done so much research on these individually and then was so excited that they actually are all tied together this way. I now have a used copy of SWR and Wise Guide that I am trying to find time to start reading before deciding whether or not to jump in. I know it's not for everyone and I've watched the videos (lots of them) and can't wait til I have a bit of free time to start reading though them.