Review: All About Spelling, Levels 1 & 2

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I have to confess up front that I never bought the Student Materials for this book. I only have the Teachers Manual and a set of letter magnets. The program recommends you buy the Spelling Interactive Kit, which is a one-time purchase that includes the letter tiles, magnets, phonogram sounds app (which somehow I actually got for free anyway), and a Review Box with divider cards. The Student Packet, which has one per level, includes Phonogram Cards, Sound Cards, Key Cards, Word Cards, and a Progress Chart. I'll be honest, at this level, I didn't really miss much without the Student Packet. There have been times in Level 2 that I did wish I had the Student Materials (there are a few things mentioned in the Teacher's Guide I'm not really able to reproduce myself), but as just a simple spelling program, the Teacher's Manual has been enough. I actually printed my own Key Cards based on the information in the Teacher's Manual, and I didn't find any of the other cards absolutely necessary.

I think this book is a great approach to teaching spelling. I am a very rules-oriented person, so understanding the "why" behind how certain words are spelled has helped me greatly. I'm not so sure my daughter cares as much as I do about the rules, but nevertheless, it has been working and I am seeing her spelling really improve. I like how the Steps are laid out in such a way that you can spend as much or as little time on each step as necessary before moving on. 15 minutes a day is all you need.

My daughter tired quickly of all the little magnets and we rarely use them, except maybe to introduce a new rule. She's really not a great writer, either, but she still prefers to use our magnetic dry erase board to just write out the new words in each Step. And it works fine that way. I think the magnets are great if you have a child who likes to manipulate things or really hates to write.

This being said, after 2 levels of the program we are probably going to move on to something else. At this point, I need something a little less teacher intensive. The format is not working as well for us anymore. My daughter loves to do puzzles and other activities so I am going to move to something that includes a little more of that for her spelling. I will probably still continue to use Level 1 with my soon-to-be 1st grader, but I may use it in my own style, just using the word lists and creating my own activities to go along.