Curriculum reviews: Spelling & Writing.

Finally. ;) As promised, this week I'm going to do a run down of our curriculums...what we've been using this year, how it worked for us and what we plan to use next year. I'll cover a couple subjects each day, in no particular order.

Insert small note here for those not familiar with our homeschooling situation. I have three boys...

• Micah, who's 5 (just completed kindergarten at our one-day-a-week-school, though he took first grade classes there and still found them too easy...he's a very young kinder (as in, with public school, we may not have sent him to kinder this past year given his late July birthday) but likes to think he's about 10)...
• Asher, who's 8 (just completed second grade technically but was in third grade at our one-day-a-week-school for the increased class options) and
• Noah, who's 10 (just finished fourth grade technically).

SPELLING: We started using All About Spelling in February 2010. (It's the only spelling program I've used with the younger two boys. We tried a couple others with Noah but they didn't last longer than a month or so.) We started with Level 1 and are currently almost finished with Level 4. For various reasons, we've treated this as a group activity and have just worked with all three boys altogether...working through about 2-3 steps a week, with a review/test over the covered material at the end of each week. I LOVE this program.

• It's quick. We can work through a step in about 15-30 minutes. Each step has a quick review and then a straight-forward lesson, usually with a list of 10 new words. The program also deliberately does *not* specify grade levels or indicate how many steps "should" be covered in a set time...emphasizing that you should simply go as fast or as slow as you're comfortable with.
• It's easy for the instructor. Everything's written out for you and all the materials are well organized. I don't always use the "script" but very much appreciate that it's there. Really, this program is just so nicely organized.
• It's easy for the student. The program makes it easy to cater to all different learning styles...using magnetic tiles to spell out the words (visual and kinesthetic), asking kids to spell the words out loud, providing sentences for context and practice, providing flash cards for recall, etc. I have boys with each of the different learning styles, so this is fantastic.
• It's cool. This may be my personal bias coming through, but I find this program to be cool in that I keep learning things right alongside my boys. Rather than just spew random lists of words to be memorized (like the other programs I've tried), All About Spelling builds spelling skills through actual rules (many of which I had no idea existed, and I'm a decent speller!). The boys responded particularly well to this...they much prefer to have a reason behind the list of words rather than just a random set that they're told to memorize for the sake of memorization. Having these reasons, too, means that they're able to tackle a greater variety of words sooner.

Overall, I don't see us switching to anything else any time soon. :) I do plan to slow things down a bit (at least for the younger two). We're running into retention issues when we go through the steps too quickly. I don't think this is a flaw with the program at all...we've just started getting into things that are more difficult, which requires some creative supplementation to cater to the learning of the child. I mix in dry erase "tests" and make them use the words in sentences and the like right now. (Actually, though, I also have some issues with boys who absolutely hate to get anything wrong, so our weekly reviews turn into repeated lectures about how learning is based on mistakes and how I don't care if they get it right on the first try so long as they're trying and paying attention. Sigh. Still working on this obviously. Would LOVE any suggestions!)

So, for next year, I'll focus on taking just one step each week and drilling it better. The boys "get" the spelling rules just fine. We're just having issues (understandably given the English language, lol) remembering when to use which rule. ;) I think I may also need to separate this out and move Noah through quicker than the younger two. Still sorting that out. :)

WRITING: Until this past year, we've not used a specific writing curriculum. Let's just say that getting the boys to write anything by hand was a challenge. ;) Last fall, we started using Writing With Ease. I started out with levels 1, 2 and 3 and we worked through the lessons each week as outlined (each week has four lessons...each lesson takes about 5-15 minutes). 

• It makes sense. What drew me to this curriculum in the first place is the logic behind it. Each week has a combination of copy work (though this is mainly for the younger levels), dictation, and narration. It takes baby steps to help students feel comfortable with copying sentences, writing sentences they hear and summarizing passages they read...emphasizing that it's not something that comes more naturally like learning to speak or read. I really like this aspect of the program and it's spelled out nicely in the primary instructor text. 
• It's quick. Each week follows a single passage, with a day for copywork, a day for dictation, a day for summarizing what you've read and another day of one of these skills (depends on the level). The day's lesson takes about 5-15 minutes. 
• It's easy. The way this program is set up, you can either buy the workbooks (which lay everything out for you) or create your own program using literature and passages that you select. This past year, we bought the workbooks. I liked that it was already set up and that it would expose the boys to literature that I might otherwise not get to. (Note, there's the primary instructor text that I mentioned before (which spells out the hows and whys of the program) and then also a teacher guide and workbook for each level. If you're going to use the workbooks, you don't really also need the primary instructor text. If you're going to create your own program, just the primary instructor text will be enough.)

Given all of that, I do think this is a valuable program. I'm not sure, though, whether we'll continue to use it next year in the way we've used it this year. I think it worked fine for the boys...I think they did learn more about writing and am glad for it. I don't think, though, that it held their interest enough. I'm leaning toward following this same system but using our own passages next year. I may also just take these ideas and apply them during, say, history lessons or some other subject with plenty of reading. I'd like, too, to branch out a bit and start covering more extensive writing assignments with the boys but will probably work those into other subjects. I know that this isn't our strongest subject and would like to work on that.

Note, neither of these programs today are the type where you can hand the book to the student and leave it to him to do the work on his own. Both definitely require parent involvement, though the lessons are short and instructions are well explained for both teacher and student.

So. That's what we've done and will do for spelling and writing. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions about these programs and how they've worked for us. I'd also love to hear about any other programs that you've used and liked... :)

More tomorrow...

Comments

[Kristin]

I'm so glad you are writing your reviews!! I think I might look into the All About Spelling...I'm not the greatest speller (mostly memorization : ) and feel that the program would help me as well as help the kids read and spell. : )