Why We Went Back to All About Spelling

A few years ago I found out about All About Spelling from the All About Learning Press. Since Chelsea, my oldest, does better with multisensory learning, I thought All About Spelling would be great for her. We ordered level one and started going through it.

Before we started with the program Chelsea was very discouraged with spelling. Due to her speech delay she had a very hard time with traditional spelling list style programs. She couldn't figure out how to sound out and spell the words and that caused nothing but frustration and tears. .

All About Spelling was great because in level one they teach the sounds of every letter including the extras that you don't usually teach so instead of A being taught like apple and angle, they also added the other sound a makes like in water. Once we made it through all of the letter sounds she was taught how to segment words into individual sounds and then spell the word from there.

What happened with all of this amazed me! Chelsea regained her confidence with spelling and was willing to try instead of instantly thinking she couldn't do it. We finished level one that spring but because of money issues we decided to try something a little less expensive.

What we used at first was a program I really enjoyed but to her it was frustrating. So we tried a traditional spelling program which was a complete disaster. Although she could sound things out better, a traditional workbook style spelling lesson just didn't cut it. This kiddo thrives on hands on, multisensory learning!

This year I made a few changes with our language arts and math. One of them included going back to All About Spelling. We started with level two since it includes a review of level one. We are working our way through using the tiles and then writing the words and phrases while practicing the different rules of spelling.

We use a cookie sheet at the moment to store our letter tiles but we'll soon need to get something bigger. It helps to keep them organized and saves a lot of time when we go to do our spelling lesson each day.

How a lesson works: 

The books are organized into levels and then steps. We are using level two and are on step three. So tomorrow we'll grab the board of letters, my book and the box of cards. 

1.We will go over the cards that need reviewed and practice some of the ones she already knows.

2.After those are finished we'll start working on new skills. Today we worked on two syllable words and tomorrow we'll continue that with more practice. 

3. To finish the lesson she will get out her notebook and I will give her a few phrases and sentences to write down from dictation. 

4. Put the cards, board and book away and there we go! 

How much time we spend depends on her and how things are going. If she's not in a good mood about it and struggling we'll stop early and pick back up the next day. This program is mastery based which means we move on when she understands and is ready to move on. Until then we can review and practice the new skills and move on when she feels confident with them. 

Have you used All About Spelling? What did you think? 

Note: This post includes affiliate links, This does not effect the cost to you in any way, only blesses my family with a small portion.