Keeping It Simple

I decided to take a second to explain after all. :) We're leaving All About Spelling behind (for now). You can read under the label "All About Spelling" in my side bar how much I love this program. My earliest posts about it explain our experiences more that the later ones. (I won't even mention all the other programs that we used over the years, consistently and diligently with great optimism each time, in hopes of helping my son to read.) AAS has been a miracle. To explain why we are moving on- We have used AAS since March of 2010. My youngest two boys (6 and 9 at the time) probably represent the typical students' success using this program. They were not reading or spelling very well when we began the program. Both subjects were slightly painful to them. Almost immediately after beginning the program (within 10 lessons), they did a total turn around. They were reading notes left on the counter (something that I never had to be concerned about before!), gr...

Wahoo!! We finished level 1! I have figured out that it took us about 27 weeks to finish level 1. I would knock 4 weeks off of that--- we stalled a few times during the summer and during my father-in-law's illness. We always reviewed what we had learned to date, but we did not always progress with the "steps" (the lessons or chapters are called steps in the manual). That is very close to about 1 step per week . (there are 24 steps) I know some weeks we completed more than one step and some steps took more than a week. Just to review one more time, I will give you my top ten list on this program: 1. It is teacher friendly. The teacher is walked through each step. A scripted format is even offered when teaching new concepts. 2. It progresses is a systematic, logical way. All "rules" are taught and applied. Exceptions are taught (going to be) after the rule is mastered. 3. Repetition is the key. The format of the book dictates repetition of key concep...

My sister asked me if there was anything on my blog about the new spelling curriculum that we have been using. I had to tell her that I had not posted or linked anything yet. So (for you Jen ;)) I will, hesitantly, mention it. I am not ready to say that All About Spelling is the best thing that we have ever used or give it an unabashed thumbs up. We are still in the first few "steps" of level one, so it too soon to know how it will pan out in a long run. But... if I am reading the situation correctly, I think it is going to be a permanent add to our homeschool day. So, what I know so far: *It is not too expensive. It cost about $60 for level 1 (starter kit + level 1 material). I can use this with all three of my boys. It is not consumable, so it can be used with the whole family. I did purchase separate student packets, but found them unnecessary. *The plans are written to hold the teacher's hand through the whole lesson. Step by step instructions are given that ...

In the box for James (K) is this idea from Ruth Beechick's book A Home Start in Reading . I have had this book for years (like over 15 yrs!) and never realized what a treasure trove of learning ideas it holds. Tomorrow we are going try this activity-- take three dice, one has all vowels with "a" on it twice, the other two each have the same 6 consonants on them. The student rolls the dice to see what words he can make-- a set time can be chosen and the student can roll the dice to make as many words as possible in that amount of time. A few notes on this activity-- things I discovered after a trial run. 1. Make the vowel dice a different color than the consonant dice. 2. You may want to make all the dice capitals. We ran in to much confusion when our dice had lower case letters-- even with lines under the letters so that James could tell which way the letter went, there was still confusion. Now that we have tweaked things, this is one of our favorite word activities.