Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Spelling Emergency!

My son (who is in 6th grade) has come so far since starting All About Spelling! Just a year ago he was having trouble keeping the word "from" straight in his mind--he would often reverse the o and r, and write "form" by mistake. Now, only 2 days ago he was writing sentences in Sunday school, and he spelled "emergency" correctly! He was as surprised as I was, and so happy when I praised him. We started AAS in May of 2008, and he's now in book 3. We're both so pleased with the progress he's made.


Edited to add:  Not long after this, he won the "most improved speller" award at our homeschool spelling bee!  

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

All About Spelling Review Update

My kids still enjoy All About Spelling, and their writing has improved so much. They can spell more words and if they do make a mistake, usually the mistake makes phonetic sense--no more simply "decorating with vowels" or adding extra letters because the word might need more!

They have a lot more confidence now and both have told me that reading is more fun too. I think AAS has helped with word-attack skills for bigger words, as well as helping with their speed. Zach actually read a huge Indiana Jones novel (with all four books in it). Back in September he told me that the first chapter in one of the books didn't make sense and didn't belong. After discussing how that couldn't be true, he put the book up for awhile and re-read it in November--and told me that now he could read it all and that it DID make sense! Zach is now in Level 3, and Anna is nearing the end of Level 2. Click to see my original review.

Winter, 2012: Hard to believe my kids are in Levels 5 and 6 now! My oldest is in 9th grade and has decided that writing isn't so hard any more. He spells words like "experience" correctly in his rough drafts and doesn't have many words to correct as he revises. He continues to say, "All About Spelling is the only spelling that worked for me." My 7th grader has started taking notes for science and history so that she'll learn more--100% HER idea! And sometimes she writes for fun as well. I feel like AAS has freed them to be able to write by making spelling easier, and through the dictation and Writing Station exercises.