I have a reluctant speller and reader in our home and we’ve struggled and struggled to find something that would work for him. We were getting rather discouraged with what we found and what was NOT working. I pretty much gave up until I got All About Spelling in the mail! I was overjoyed!
Our Experience with All About Spelling
WOW! I fell in love with All About Spelling! It was exactly what we needed for my oldest son who just didn’t have the need to learn to spell. We received Levels 1-4.
Since I have a child that isn’t a great speller we started at the beginning of Level 1 and have been working on this slowly. I love that there is no set time limit on this curriculum or a specific grade level. No pressured daily schedule to show how far behind you are. That is one thing that I have a tough time with is someone else’s schedules. It never works out for us.
They recommend you start with Level 1 and move quickly until you find where they are. It’s a huge benefit to start from the beginning. Not only to allow your child a chance to get used to this way of teaching, but to also give them a great review and it’s so much fun that they probably won’t even care.. Mine didn’t.
From their website:
“The All About Spelling series brings together the three pathways to learning—auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), and kinesthetic (touching). This multi sensory approach, combined with a built-in review system and reinforcement activities, ensures that students retain what they learn and understand how to apply it in practical situations.”
What we loved the most about this program is the hands on approach using their color coded letter tiles. They also have magnets you can purchase separately to stick on the back of each tile and use on a magnetic erase board. This was the option we chose to help keep the tiles in place each day and help with the ease of the lessons. The consonants and vowels are different colors to help the child learn the difference between the two.
Key Components of the All About Spelling Program
- Letter Tiles
- Letter Tile Magnets
- Each Levels Books, cards, tokens, certificate, chart, and dividers
Phonogram Audio CD: An easy way to learn the sounds of the basic phonograms, which features clear enunciation of the sounds of the letters and letter combinations. This helps as an addition to the daily lessons.
Phonogram Cards: These are used to help teach the sounds of letters and letter combinations. The cards are two-sided: The front side of the card is what the student sees, and contains the letter or letter combination. The back side, is what we see, and has the sound of the phonogram, along with key words to refresh your memory.
Divider Cards: It also includes the divider cards so you can organize the cards into three groups—cards that need to be reviewed, cards that your student has mastered, and cards that have not yet been presented. All you need is a small file box to store all of them in and your ready to go! Printed on sturdy cardstock, the flashcards and divider cards are ready for you to pull apart on the perforated lines and put to use.
Letter Tiles: Each set contains 105 tiles—two each of letters a to z, one each of the remaining letter combinations, and five blank tiles. These are a necessary item for the curriculum.
Magnets for Letter Tiles: Attach these magnets to the back of the color-coded letter tiles to enhance letter tile storage and use. This was such a time saver for us. Instead of having to store the tiles in a zip lock baggie which we started out with, as we needed more tiles daily it just made sense to use the magnets with our magnetic dry erase board. Now they are always available, set up and ready to go!
Spelling That Is So Easy to Use! Just Grab & Go!
The books are laid out to where all you need to do is open it, quickly read what you need to do, grab the cards you need, pull out your magnetic board or tiles and you are ready to go!
No more stress over weekly spelling tests that my son usually forgets minutes after the final test is given. This has proven to me a great success in my son’s spelling retention and we’ve seen a huge improvement in the time we’ve used it so far. I do know for sure that this curriculum is here to stay for us. No more fumbling to find a spelling curriculum anymore. We are very pleased with how All About Spellig is working for my son and have finally started my youngest son on it as well.
Another All About Spelling Review
Cindy West shares her experience with All About Spelling:
“Spelling is one subject I’ve never enjoyed teaching. (And my son has never enjoyed learning.) This is probably because I’ve never found a program that’s the right fit for my son – multisensory, phonetical and builds upon precepts. As a result, he still struggles a bit with spelling in the 5th grade. During my summer planning, I came across the All About Spelling website and quickly became intrigued.“
Some things she loves about All About Spelling:
- Each lesson builds on previous lessons – and reviews past skills.
- Phonics rules are taught directly with flashcards.
- The lessons are built so that you can move as quickly or as slowly as you need to.
More Spelling Resources
The Best Spelling and Vocabulary Resources for Your Homeschool When we think of English or Language Arts, there is more to that than simply reading and writing. We also have to consider spelling and vocabulary.
When my kids were in the elementary years we focused a lot (and I mean a lot) on building block skills (basic math facts, reading, writing), including spelling and vocabulary.
This is a collection of spelling and vocabulary resources to help you build these skills with your children!
~ Originally published July 2009,written by Lynn Pitts, mom of 3, from Big Sky Country Montana.
I like this hands-on approach to spelling. Very interesting!