All About Spelling

Today we started our first day of All About Spelling Level 1. I am really excited to have found this program. Since we started using Webster's Blue-Backed Speller, phonics has started to make sense to me! LOL! I hadn't planned on using a "spelling" curriculum this early but All About Spelling (AAS) won me over. It teaches phonograms and uses the Orton-Gillingham method of phonics, which all coordinates with Webster's beautifully! Webster's helps her decoding skills while AAS teaches her encoding skills.

All About Spelling uses a flashcard method to review sounds. Once sounds are mastered (in Step 1) you put the phonogram card behind the "Mastered" section. It is very user-friendly and I like that there are 24 clear steps. When one step is accomplished, you move on. AAS teaches all the sounds a phonogram makes up front, so when they learn the sound for the letter 'a' they are learning three sounds: short /a/, long /a/, and the sound a makes in the word water, /ah/. Most other phonics books teach maybe just the short vowel sound first, then later will add in the other sounds. I like getting it all done in the beginning. The other aspect I really like is all three styles of learning is included: kinesthetic, auditory, and visual. This is great for Elyse who really needs to hear and do to really get it into her mind.

We had a great first lesson: There were about six phonograms that I did not consider her to have "mastered" mainly because of the numerous sounds some of the vowels make. But we went on and started on step 2 and I could really see her figure out how to listen for the first and last sound of words, and to segment words with three sounds. I am hopeful that this program will really click with her.