All About Spelling

We are currently in level 6. It has made all the difference for my struggling speller. He does not seem to care about the letter tiles, but we use them during the introduction of each lesson/step. He chooses to write the words from then on; however, when he is stumped on a word, he goes back to the tiles, and we talk out the rules that apply.

It is hard to complete a full step in 20 minutes. I keep a bookmark on the page I left off on. Some steps take over a week to complete as my student struggles with a new rule; other weeks, we get through 3 lessons/steps. It's hard to predict.

The program is pricey if you have only one student, but it is a solid program. It is worth every cent if you have a struggling student.

We are trying this to help my son who struggles with phonetic spelling. It is difficult for me to keep the little magnetic letter tiles in an organized fashion for him, yet out of reach of younger siblings. I believe the board recommended is a magnetic white board 2' by 3'. There are also a bunch of colored flashcards to keep in a file box and use each day. It is a very thorough program as far as content goes. We found it a bit hard to get through in only 15-20 min. per day. I think it will help, but it takes commitment and you do seem to need to go through all the levels. I think it's a bit pricey to go all the way through.

My girls love this spelling program, so much better than the lists I remember as a kid. My oldest often asks to do more than one lesson at a time. I love how easy it is to adapt to each of my girls and the 20 minute recommended timeframe helps take the stress off of them and me if we are having a bad day or they just don't want to do it it that day. Highly recommend this!

My 6 year old daughter gets extremely frustrated when she cannot spell a word. Using all about spelling is helping her understand the rules of spelling, and she is beginning to understand how a word is put together. We are only on level 1, but will be continuing through all the levels of this amazing proram

My boys' spelling has improved drastically through three levels of AAS and we will be using Level 4 this year. Along with the improvement in spelling comes a greater command of the English language as well as greater confidence in writing. Great, effective program. I have learned a lot teaching the program, too! There are far fewer exceptions in spelling than I was taught in school!

I love this program. It teaches the rules behind spelling...and isn't just a list of words to memorize.

I have used 3 levels of AAS and part of level 4, and although it is teacher intensive, I haven't found anything else that compares as far as explicitly and thoroughly teaching the spelling rules. It's very adaptable, although figuring out exactly how to use it so that it works for your child may take some trial and error. After 3 levels of AAS, I switched my natural speller to something more independent, but when I tried to switch my younger son to something else, we were back to AAS in a couple of months because he wasn't retaining anything from the other program. Even though it's very teacher intensive, I strongly recommend it.

This product was fabulous last year for my 5th grader. He is very behind in spelling. We used level 4, and started on level 5 this summer. His spelling has improved by leaps and bounds! We will stay with AAS til the end!!!

We love All About Spelling and how daily review is built into each day's lesson for the student. We find that so valuable. We also like the hands on, multi-sensory approach and the easy to follow lessons for the teacher, with script already included. Memorizing the rules with the system AAS uses makes it easy to recall when needing to spell or proofread in daily writing.

This is the first curriculum that I have found that works for my special needs kids. They are finally getting it! They even ask to do AAS every day!!

I am using AAS with 4 children. The older 3 were a little behind in spelling and reading. They like doing it and it is helping them improve in reading as well. The younger one was so excited when she got to start "doing spelling too", and is picking it up very quickly.

Having tried several different spelling programs over 14 years of home schooling, I was very impressed with AAS. The multi sensory approach works well with all kinds of learners. My then 6-7 year old daughter enjoyed the tiles which she could rearrange to spell her own words. This can be especially helpful for a child that struggles with the physical act of writing.
The program is well laid out and easy to follow. The lessons are short, but offer plenty of review for mastery. The rules, the whys of spelling, are memorized and emphasized. AAS is a wonderful program overall. The biggest downfall is the cost. I have since found another program which I prefer for a much better price.

This is, by far, the best spelling curriculum I have ever used. I started out trying to teach spelling like they do in schools. Have a list of words at the beginning of the week, with some nemonic theme, or from a book they're reading , spend the week "studying" them with various exercises, and then testing them. My kids were able to learn the words for the test on Friday but ask them to spell the word two or three weeks later and it was evident they learned nothing. AND they couldn't figure out how to spell similar words to ones they had already "learned". This program teaches the actual rules for how to spell words so instead of just rote memorization, they are able to figure out how to spell. Highly recommend! One word of warning though, this is totally interactive with the parent. The kids can't even really "review" without the parent.

Although I have a preteen I started with level 1 like AAS suggested. It teaches the rules of spelling and is Orton-Gillingham based. We have tried all kinds of spelling programs that did not work for us. My child is above grade level in everything but spelling, he spells what he hears. (Speech issue that affects the way he hears sounds) He had done a program similar to the Orton-Gillingham method when he was younger and excelled at it. And when I found AAS and realized it was OG based I knew he would excell with it and has. Thank you so much for creating such a great curriculum.

We have use AAS 1 and 2 with my son who is behind with LA. Great program but he did not utalize the tiles as intended. He liked using a white board but just did not care for moving tiles around. Still on the fence about using AAS 3 in the fall.

I started using All About Spelling for my daughter this year who is in 4th grade. They recommend you start at level 1 and work your way through. I do NOT recommend doing that, I bought ever level only to realize that level 1 was so far behind her that it was unusable for us. Level 2 the same. We are working in level 3 now which feels like a waste of time, she has learned a couple of things, but I think we could've went right to level 4 and then worked into level 5. She's an excellent speller already, I just liked the approach of All About Spelling. The other spelling programs I had looked at she needed grade 5 in because grade 4 was too easy for her. SO, maybe if you have a struggling speller you SHOULD go back to the beginning, but even so, I would start at level 2 if your child is older. In comparison, I'd say level 1 is grade 1 and so on. I hate spelling lists, (and despite never using them my daughter is a grade ahead in spelling!) so All About Spelling is definitely more our speed!

I haven't yet gotten the curriculum, but already the All About Spelling articles on the blog have been helpful in teaching the first few steps of reading and spelling.

We just started using this curriculum with my son who was struggling. All the concepts were so concrete and helpful that his spelling challenges turned around this year. He loved doing the lessons and creating sentences with his word list.

It should be a great lesson for any child even those who struggle with spelling. Great product.
Marilyn

Amazing program. My son loves to do spelling and asks to do it all the time.