Homeschoolers who use Spelling Power?

Cory W pointed out that other methods worked better for her children. That parents can select what works best for their home schooled children is just another huge advantage home school children have over children in public schools. In public schools one size must fit all, regardless of how ineffective it is for some children.

Unfortanately, Spelling Power didn’t work for our family. Although the lists are grouped by similar spellings, my son did not learn the rules and logic behind the words. He basically memorized the list but couldn’t apply it outside of the list. We tried to follow the directions to a ‘T” as the author recommends. Finally we tried Spell To Write and Read and wow! When we did a diagnostic test he showed two grades behind in spelling comprehension…in a year he went up 3!

The pure logic and practical explanation of spelling rules were what my “black and white” son needed. My second son tried Sing Spell Read Write. He liked the games and songs and spelled pretty well naturally, however, the one area in this program which gave us trouble was the explanation of exceptions just being “rule breakers.” There seemed to be a lot and no explanation about why. It also made learning the English language seem more complicated. We moved him to Spell to Write and Read and the foundation he had was strengthened. Most of the rule breakers were explained so he could apply it further. He actually tests 2 grades ahead. My youngest is 6 and we just introduced Spell to Write and Read and she has been reading for about 4-6 months! This program has already given her a jump start in reading so we will do it again this year. Spelling Power can be used for multiple years like Spell to Write and Read. It is a bit more affordable than SWR but only by about $25.

Well, just my thoughts. SWR does have a free yahoo group for people wanting to find out more about the program.

I really love it and I love the results! My kids are 2 and 4 years above their grade level in spelling because of it. You can incorporate other words in as well that you come across using the same system that Spelling Power lays out.

Just a tip, use the quick start direction’s and go back and read the in dept ones later. Don’t skip any of the exercises your kids are to do with misspelled words, they really work even if they sound silly.

Good luck!

Melissa

Email if you would like

I have used it for 3 years and I adore it. The initial instructions overwhelmed me with the level of detail, but once I got into it, I found it was not complicated at all. The method is brilliant and makes complete logical sense – why study words you already know how to spell correctly? If you get a word right “by chance” it will come up again later in the series and you’ll be “caught”. My kids are phenomenal spellers, and I can’t say they get it from me 🙂

Highly recommend it!

We use SP. It works great for my youngest son who is a natural speller. For my older boy, there aren’t enough connections between the words to make sense for him. I’m looking for something else for him this year. I think I’ll look into that Spell to Write someone mentioned.