Spelling Recommendations!

[Masers]

My two oldest boys are very poor spellers. My oldest (6th grade) is kind of a “typical” bad speller (reminds me a lot of my dad and brother, who are both strong math people (engineers), and atrocious spellers—but you can always figure out what they’re *trying* to spell.). My third-grader is a real mystery to me. He is a very strong reader, a great writer….and cannot spell to save his life. He has to spell out everything, and tries really hard…and half the time I’m thinking, “why in the world would he think it’s that letter?” He told me he cannot visualize the words in his head. I feel bad for him, because he LOVES writing stories, but it’s so tedious…he has to ask me how to spell every other word. We walk through it phonetically, and he often makes mistakes even then. My kindergartner appears that he is going to be a pretty good speller…and he is starting to correct his older brother’s spelling. Gah. 

However—I can tell he IS making progress. We’ve been using The Good and the Beautiful, and he does pretty well with it. Spelling things out with the letter tiles app seems to work for him. And having the repetition is also helpful. I also have him doing Explode the Code books, which is good for him, and then I’m doing All About Spelling for all three boys—the same level, level 1, just to work on super basic foundational stuff. It’s obviously geared towards my kindergartner, but I figured they could all benefit. Ha.

However, I’m looking for something a little different next year. I’m going to stick with TGATB and Explode the Code, but I just want something supplemental for a little extra practice for my older boys. 

Any recommendations for independent supplemental workbooks? I’ve used Spelling Workout in the past, which is just okay IMO. I’ve also used cheap workbooks, like DK. I’m thinking maybe Spelling You See (although I started with that with my oldest when he was in K, and I think I remember that needing parent involvement? Also he hated it.), or Sequential Spelling, but I’m very interested in other ideas!!

Thanks so much!

[chiguirre]

I really like using copywork and dictation to practice spelling. I've used Dictation Day by Day by Kate Van Wagenen. There are volumes for grades 3 through 8. It's available on Google Books.

[SilverMoon]

Megawords. Starting with level 1. It hits syllabication right off the bat, and then the rules within syllables. Learning how to spell a syllable at a time was so much less intimidating for my spelling struggler.

They're working directly with the rules on every page and they don't memorize lists of words. And it was written with older learners in mind. It won't feel babyish at all. 

[LauraClark]

Seconding Dictation Day by day. I took a year off last year and did sequential spelling with my 4th grader who just kept guessing weird letter combinations-that seemed to fix it for him and we're back to dictation day by day this year.

[countrymum]

I learned to read early, liked to write, liked school in general.... spelling however was a great big mystery. My Orton Gillingham class in college really improved my spelling. I'm using All about spelling with my dyslexic son and it is finally helping. He started to get it about age 11 and is slowly doing level 4 as a 12 yr old and spelling is slowly improving. He also does a lot of oral letter by letter spelling to practice words he struggles with.

If you have reason to suspect dyslexia for any child pick some Orton Gillingham based spelling program. Dictation will not likely work for those children... otherwise I really like alot of CM style teaching.

[Masers]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:04 PM, chiguirre said:

I really like using copywork and dictation to practice spelling. I've used Dictation Day by Day by Kate Van Wagenen. There are volumes for grades 3 through 8. It's available on Google Books.

Thank you! TGATB uses dictation, which they hate, but I can see how much that has helped. That sounds interesting!

[Masers]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:27 PM, SilverMoon said:

Megawords. Starting with level 1. It hits syllabication right off the bat, and then the rules within syllables. Learning how to spell a syllable at a time was so much less intimidating for my spelling struggler.

They're working directly with the rules on every page and they don't memorize lists of words. And it was written with older learners in mind. It won't feel babyish at all. 

Ooh that sounds good! Thank you! Looking into it!

[Masers]

On 3/21/2024 at 1:16 PM, LauraClark said:

Seconding Dictation Day by day. I took a year off last year and did sequential spelling with my 4th grader who just kept guessing weird letter combinations-that seemed to fix it for him and we're back to dictation day by day this year.

That is great to hear about sequential spelling! Thank you!

[Masers]

On 3/21/2024 at 5:45 PM, countrymum said:

I learned to read early, liked to write, liked school in general.... spelling however was a great big mystery. My Orton Gillingham class in college really improved my spelling. I'm using All about spelling with my dyslexic son and it is finally helping. He started to get it about age 11 and is slowly doing level 4 as a 12 yr old and spelling is slowly improving. He also does a lot of oral letter by letter spelling to practice words he struggles with.

If you have reason to suspect dyslexia for any child pick some Orton Gillingham based spelling program. Dictation will not likely work for those children... otherwise I really like alot of CM style teaching.

Thanks! I don’t suspect dyslexia, but I do think there is *something*. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I’m wondering! I do think all about spelling is very good. Maybe I should just stick with it. 

[Masers]

On 3/20/2024 at 9:27 PM, SilverMoon said:

Megawords. Starting with level 1. It hits syllabication right off the bat, and then the rules within syllables. Learning how to spell a syllable at a time was so much less intimidating for my spelling struggler.

They're working directly with the rules on every page and they don't memorize lists of words. And it was written with older learners in mind. It won't feel babyish at all. 

I just looked at this and it looks pretty perfect for my older son—but level one is for 4th-5th grade, so I think it will be too hard for my second son. I appreciate the suggestion!! I am going to order it for ODS. 

[Ellie]

If you aren't going to stay with AAS, then my recommendation would be Spalding, as well as dropping ETC and any language-related stuff from TGATB. Spsalding covers it all: reading, spelling, penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, simple writing, all in one fell swoop. You only need the manual (Writing Road to Reading, preferably the fourth editon or earlier) and a set of phonogram cards, a one-time purchase of less than $40.

When I did Spalding in a little one-room school (children first grade through high school), all of the children improved their spelling grade levels by *at least* one level by Christmas, including my little 2nd grade guy, whose first grade teacher tried to tell me he had a learning disability. No, m'am, he did not; the schooll had a *teaching* disability. Hmph. 🙂

[BusyMom5]

I had a little better of luck with an older kid using Apples and Pears Spelling by Sound Foundations. That would be my first choice for the 6th grader. Unfortunately some people just really struggle with Spelling.  At around 8th grade I switched to Word Roots,  I think it helped a bit.  I also suggest looking at MegaWords.  Our focus switched from focusing on Spelling to focusing on when to Google how to spell a word, picking the correct autocorrect, and homphones.  

I'm hoping that AAS works with the 3rd grader, but Apples and Pears might fit him, too.  

I would also do daily copywork. 

[forty-two]

On 3/20/2024 at 8:43 PM, Masers said:

My third-grader is a real mystery to me. He is a very strong reader, a great writer….and cannot spell to save his life. He has to spell out everything, and tries really hard…and half the time I’m thinking, “why in the world would he think it’s that letter?” He told me he cannot visualize the words in his head. I feel bad for him, because he LOVES writing stories, but it’s so tedious…he has to ask me how to spell every other word. We walk through it phonetically, and he often makes mistakes even then. <snip>

I’m thinking maybe Spelling You See (although I started with that with my oldest when he was in K, and I think I remember that needing parent involvement? Also he hated it.)

Spelling You See was the first thing that came to mind.  My oldest was a truly atrocious speller; turned out she couldn't perceive the insides of words, not visually or aurally - no wonder she couldn't spell.  SYS's visual marking system worked wonders for helping her learn to pay visual attention to the inside bits of words.  We actually used the SYS system with any and all dictation we did. 

Level A (and B, to an extent) of SYS are different from the other levels - they're working on basic phonetic spelling - so him disliking that level doesn't mean much wrt to the rest of the levels.  (Although disliking it could be related to finding it very hard; my dd hated R&S spelling for that reason.)  I did Level C with my dd, and it was fairly independent.  The first day I had her read the passage, and mark it with me watching and correcting, and then I had her do the copywork on her own; subsequent copywork days I let her do on her own.  The only day that really required my sustained attention was the dictation day, once a week, and that's about 15min. 

[Masers]

3 hours ago, forty-two said:

Spelling You See was the first thing that came to mind.  My oldest was a truly atrocious speller; turned out she couldn't perceive the insides of words, not visually or aurally - no wonder she couldn't spell.  SYS's visual marking system worked wonders for helping her learn to pay visual attention to the inside bits of words.  We actually used the SYS system with any and all dictation we did. 

Level A (and B, to an extent) of SYS are different from the other levels - they're working on basic phonetic spelling - so him disliking that level doesn't mean much wrt to the rest of the levels.  (Although disliking it could be related to finding it very hard; my dd hated R&S spelling for that reason.)  I did Level C with my dd, and it was fairly independent.  The first day I had her read the passage, and mark it with me watching and correcting, and then I had her do the copywork on her own; subsequent copywork days I let her do on her own.  The only day that really required my sustained attention was the dictation day, once a week, and that's about 15min. 

Interesting!! I had pretty much ruled out spelling you see due to thinking it would need heavy involvement from me. I do wonder if that’s what he has going on, I don’t know. A good example would be spelling “much” “mcuh”. Like the right letters but the wrong order. Although he can make all kinds of slip-ups…mixing up “off” and “of”, or spelling “any” with an i or e instead of an a. And then sometimes he correctly spells harder words that really surprise me. So I have no idea.

I’ll give it another look! Thank you!

[Masers]

12 hours ago, BusyMom5 said:

I had a little better of luck with an older kid using Apples and Pears Spelling by Sound Foundations. That would be my first choice for the 6th grader. Unfortunately some people just really struggle with Spelling.  At around 8th grade I switched to Word Roots,  I think it helped a bit.  I also suggest looking at MegaWords.  Our focus switched from focusing on Spelling to focusing on when to Google how to spell a word, picking the correct autocorrect, and homphones.  

I'm hoping that AAS works with the 3rd grader, but Apples and Pears might fit him, too.  

I would also do daily copywork. 

Thanks! I appreciate the help. Lots of good options out there, at least! 😉

[Classically Minded]

I don't think anything compares to All About Spelling for those who struggle with spelling.  My DD20 who struggled with spelling used it and it was excellent, we did 6 levels.  My DS11 is a natural speller and didn't struggle, so we used Spelling Workout workbooks for him and utilized Spelling City for the tests.

[Masers]

On 4/4/2024 at 8:12 PM, Classically Minded said:

I don't think anything compares to All About Spelling for those who struggle with spelling.  My DD20 who struggled with spelling used it and it was excellent, we did 6 levels.  My DS11 is a natural speller and didn't struggle, so we used Spelling Workout workbooks for him and utilized Spelling City for the tests.

I think you’re probably right! Thank you. 🙂

[TreeLoft]

Another vote for Megawords here! It has been a good switch from AAS for my struggling speller.