Well today we decided to change Max’s spelling curriculum. We have been waffling on his spelling for a few months now, but today we decided it was just too much. He seems to have stalled with what we were using. We have really given it our all but it was time to try something else. It was affecting his writing as he didn’t want to write as he knew he can not spell. 🙁
So what are we going to? We are going to try something completely crazy at first look. I will be the first to admit that I looked at this and thought “That can’t possibly work” however today I went looking for reviews and time and time again moms (typically) said how they got it on a lark and they noticed an immediate improvement in their child’s spelling to the point that it is now their only spelling program! One woman even said that her children take standardized tests and that her children had a very noticeable improvement in the first year of the program.
The program is Spelling You See. It basically uses passages that children read, analyze, and repeatedly write in the coarse of a week. The whole lesson should not be any longer then 10 minutes and they actually say that if they are not done after 10 minutes stop them and go on to the next part the next day. The lessons are numbered by week and then lettered by day. So every week there is A-E tasks.
What is even more surprising is that they have a level for Nathaniel and his pre-reading. With him, it is also teaching manuscript. All the levels they say that children should use manuscript because that is what children primarily read in. VERY rarely do you read in cursive on a daily basis. Because of the way the levels are, Nathaniel and Max are only 2 levels apart (Nathaniel at level A, Max at level C). However I am hopeful that Max will take off while Nathaniel might not because of his age and maturity. When I get the program I can talk more about it, but there are videos online talking about it too.
Here is a video of a mom that saw a noticeable difference in standardized test scores in her children after starting the program.