Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Spelling

I have never done well teaching spelling to my children, but this year I was determined to find something to try with them.  I did lots of research into various options, but most were either too complicated or too expensive ... neither of which appealed to me very much. 

Then I found Sequential Spelling.  I like what I read about it and how it teaches spelling based on word families.  I also like that it is very inexpensive and works well for both of my older kids, even though they are in different grades.  It might have worked to start Laura at the 2nd level, but I figured it would be good to start them both at the beginning and build from there.

The lessons are designed to take you through one level per 180 day school year with one 10-minute lesson per day.  So far, we have done 2 lessons per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The beauty of the lessons (besides how quickly they go) is that the student gets immediate feedback on each word.  The teacher reads the word, followed by a sentence using the word in context, and then the student attempts to spell the word.  The teacher then writes the word on the board, beginning with the word family in one color and adding the other sounds in another color.  The student checks his own work and corrects his own mistakes, thus giving him an opportunity to recognize why they were wrong and mentally correct the mistake.  The student is encouraged to learn from his mistake rather than being upset that a mistake was made.

So far, my kids are loving Sequential Spelling.  They keep asking to do more than 2 lessons a day!  The teacher's book does say that it is okay to do multiple lessons a day as long as you space them several hours apart and don't do more than 4 lessons in one day.  I am thinking that 2 is enough!

I hope we have finally found what we will use for spelling for the next several years and more importantly, I hope my kids will finally learn how to spell!

3 comments:

  1. I'm going to have to check that out! Caroline really struggles with her spelling. She can read really well, but can't spell to save her life. I am really working hard with her this year to try to catch her up. Thanks for the post! See you tonight???

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  2. We are taking the kids to the park tonight for a "family bike ride" at the request of my hubby ... he worked too hard getting our bikes fixed for me to bail on him! I hate to miss it, but we don't have enough family time as it is, so I don't want to miss that either.

    The website for Sequential Spelling has lots of good information as well as sample lessons for you to look at before buying ... I bought it from www.childsbooks.com because I was ordering some other stuff from them anyway.

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  3. Sounds like a good book to use. We found Apples to Apples at CBD for middle to high school students who still need help. Amy and Will sit down and do it every day. And I have seen less mistakes. Its a "write in" book, so I did have to get them each one.

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