School Planning--All About Spelling

I can't believe it's time for me to switch gears and start thinking about our upcoming school year already! Since I'm still in summer mode, I like to ease into my planning, so I'm starting with the easiest subject for me to plan--spelling. This past year I switched to All About Spelling as the spelling curriculum for my three school-age kids. My oldest was an excellent reader, but her spelling was bad. She would ace her tests but the knowledge never transferred to her writing. My DS hated spelling, and DD#2 was having difficulty with both reading and spelling.

As I researched spelling programs, I was thinking more about the needs of DD#3. I knew she needed a program that focused on more than just memorization. I began reading on the Sonlight board and started seeing a general theme--people were raving about All About Spelling. So since what I was using wasn't working, I jumped in and purchased AAS Level 1. I had my oldest sit in on the lessons while I combined my DS and DD#2 on the same level. I wanted to make sure they all had the same solid foundation before moving on to the other levels.

After a couple lessons, I was impressed.

I particularly liked:

--that the lessons were easy to implement and written down step-by-step for the instructor

--daily reinforcement of concepts learned via review cards

--some tactile spelling planned into the lessons with the magnetic letters

--was not time-consuming to teach

--the kids were getting it! I felt they were actually learning the rules for the first time.

After finishing book 1, I was pleased with the results. My struggling speller was spelling and reading!(thanks to the combination of AAS and the Beehive Reader), and I was pleasantly surprised to see the other two gain confidence with their spelling.

So if you are looking for a new spelling curriculum, I would highly recommend All About Spelling. If you are currently using AAS, don't forget that AAS Level 5 is now out. If you would like to know more, there is a helpful community called the ChatterBee that can answer any questions you might have.