My Daughter is All About Spelling!

Posted by Lorren on November 30, 2009

About a month ago, I was sent a copy of levels 1 and 2 of All About Spelling to review. Now, my daughter was the type of person that hated spelling. I think that it was due to how she learned to read. She is something of a perfectionist, and she doesn’t want people to see her in the process of learning. When she was learning to add, for example, she would rather put a blanket over her head than let me see her count on her fingers. When she learned to read, she never let me see her go through the process of phonics. At age 4, one day she was sounding out her letters, and the next day she was reading simple words. She never really figured out the phonics thing.

When I started her out with a regular spelling program, she had a lot of difficulty. She just wasn’t getting it. I didn’t know what to do. D’s and F’s were her regular grades. It wasn’t because she was dumb; she is a grade level ahead in math and consistently scores above 90% on all her tests, and she succeeds in a reading program that is a grade level ahead of her age as well. She just couldn’t get spelling.

So when I was sent a copy of All About Spelling, I was hoping that this would help. I was about ready to give up. All About Spelling is divided into levels, not grades. We started off in lesson 1 of level 1. It was very simple for her, because it focused on the letter sounds, and didn’t even introduce any spelling words. We did one lesson a day until we ran into the word lists. When the word lists started, I slowed down to two days per lesson. As things get more difficult, I will slow the lessons down accordingly.

All About Spelling has allowed my daughter to go from scoring 20% to 50% on her spelling lists, to 90% and 100% on her spelling lists. The spelling progresses logically, tackling one topic at a time. First, it focuses on one short vowel at a time. Then it teaches sounds like the /z/ sound of s. Then it deals with /sh/,/th/, and /ch/. It goes on to harder concepts, but one at a time. So far, my daughter has been able to tackle each challenge admirably.

Not only can she spell the words on her spelling list, but she can also spell similar words. So she can spell words like chat, even though she has not gone over the word. My daughter has progressed far enough into the program that she practices writing phrases every day, on top of practicing her word list. Not only does this reinforce words and concepts that she’s already learned, but it improves her writing skills, which have been hindered by her fear of spelling (even though I’ve always told her that spelling doesn’t matter when we’re dealing with writing).

All About Spelling is a clear winner when it comes to spelling programs. I will probably keep her moving up in the AAS levels all the way through, and when my son is old enough for spelling, I will probably start him off in this program. It is by far the best spelling program that I have ever seen.