When we brought my daughter home mid-year from 1stgrade to begin homeschooling one of the areas she seemed to be struggling with was spelling. We realized later that the words she was being taught were high 2ndand 3rd grade level words which explained her struggle, but I didn’t know that at first. So I sought to figure out how to teach spelling. I was a horrible speller because I do not memorize well and that was the strategy I was taught in school. I was given a list of 10 words, tried to memorize them by Friday, only miss two or three, but struggled with retention. 
I had seen All About Spelling mentioned on several blogs and websites, so I discussed the situation with a veteran homeschooling mom and asked about the curriculum. She told me a lot of parents she knew used it and that it was very rule oriented. Bingo! I knew it would be perfect from my rule-oriented daughter!
I received the box after just a couple of days and was thrilled to get started! The brightly colored tiles intrigued my daughter and she eagerly asked when we could start. It is suggested that you start at the very beginning in level 1 to make sure their foundation is laid strongly. Because she was already devouring books on a 3rd grade level the beginning seemed too easy, but after having been through half of the second level I am extremely glad I followed the advice to start in Level 1. There are somany things which are built on from that level which seem insignificant at the time but are truly stepping stones to upcoming levels.
We have a beautiful white board hanging on the wall. We also have a young preschooler! Add in brightly colored letter tiles and you have an enormous mess and the possibility of some missing letters! I opted to purchase 2 cookie sheets and 2 small platters from the Dollar Tree. One cookie sheet holds the basic phonemes which I use with both girls. The second sheet holds the letter combinations I use with Rose. we use the small platters for the girls to do their tile work. This has worked really well for us so far. One day we may switch to the white board, but for now this is a better solution!**Confession**
I didn’t buy the box that you can purchase from the website. In hindsight I wished I had! I have one that is working, but it definitely won’t continue to hold all the cards!
Because the beginning lessons were basically review I did about 1 lesson a day until we reached something new to her, about lesson 14. To be honest, my daughter was done with the tiles after about a week. So I tweaked. We use the tiles to learn a new concept, but everything else is done on paper. This has worked well for her. Once we reached the “new concept” point we now take about 1 lesson a week.
Although spelling is not her favorite part of the day, it is certainly more enjoyable now that she is learning rules and succeeding. I have once again started with level 1 with my next daughter. She just started kindergarten, but has completed her phonics program and is reading on a 2nd grade level. I would highly recommend waiting to begin spelling until after finishing a year of phonics. From my experience it seems to work best if done in this order.
Since she was younger at the start I took the whole program slower. She took about 2 weeks to memorize the initial yellow phonograms. She didn’t have any trouble with the consonants and already memorized the basic long and shorts sounds of each vowel, but remembering the new sounds for those was harder for her to remember. She mastered them this past week and was able to quickly review all the sounds. I accidentally included sounds taught later in the book like /th/ and /sh/, but she breezed through those without a second thought! Beth has currently been working on segmenting the words and she really likes sliding the colorful circles!
The only portion of the program I have not used as much are the green index cards with words on them. It is a good way to keep track of which rules and words she has mastered, but I think I would prefer a checklist that I could look at easier.
I didn’t quite get the need for so many colored letters, but now that I’m well into the second book I appreciate the various colored tiles for different phonograms. This is a huge bonus for visual learners and my daughter quickly recognizes letter patterns because of them.
**Secret Bonus**
I finally figured out why I wasn’t a good speller…I never learned the rules. Why oh why wasn’t I taught these very clear and helpful rules when I was in school? I had no idea there was actually a rule for when c says /s/ and when it says /k/ or how to know whether to use c, k, or ck to make the /k/ sound. Now that we are learning the rules we are all spelling better!
I finally figured out why I wasn’t a good speller…I never learned the rules. Why oh why wasn’t I taught these very clear and helpful rules when I was in school? I had no idea there was actually a rule for when c says /s/ and when it says /k/ or how to know whether to use c, k, or ck to make the /k/ sound. Now that we are learning the rules we are all spelling better!
To find out more about All About Spelling click on this link!
And NOW for the giveaway! There are a few ways to enter, but nothing too painful! Our giveaway will run until September 24th. Good luck!
*I received Level 4 for this review
gracefilledwriter.com 
I definitely have to refresh even from lesson to lesson!
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I have found this to be an excellent follow up for phonics!
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No kidding! I've learned to plan ahead on how to break up the lessons in AAS so I can do about one a week, but I don't sweat it if we get behind. We just pick up where we left off!
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I'm so glad it has worked well for you!
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I am SO impressed by this curriculum! I am buying this for my 13 year old who still cannot spell to save his life. He just returned back to public school, but we will be still homeschooling with All About Spelling in the evenings!
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I felt the same way and thankfully that helpless feeling went away almost immediately! The scripted lessons REALLY make a difference! (By the way I think your name is just lovely!)
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That must be hard having an older student. Even my daughter felt like it was \”too young\” when we first started and she was 6! Sounds like your household is one filled with lots of laughter and love!
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Thanks for stopping by!
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I find it so hard when my girls struggle in areas I found easy! I'm glad that they find math easy because I sure did struggle there!
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I had NO idea how many different sounds the letters made until this! I guess I knew, but I just didn't think about it 🙂
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We love AAS at our house!
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We started using this program last year and I need to order the next level but don't have the money. Would love to win this giveaway. We love it and it is working well for us.
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Thanks for stopping by!
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Oh my yes!
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Ha! That is a FABULOUS idea! My husband is a pastor and makes his own power point slides for his messages. His creative spelling has caused quite a few chuckles!
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Haven't attempted teaching spelling yet as my oldest is just starting K4, but I would like to try All About Spelling.
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This is such a fabulous follow up for reading instruction!
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I've never tried AAR but I have heard SUCH good things about it!
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Thank you for sharing. I am really anxious to try both AAS and AAR. It looks like a fantastic program. It will be fun to learn things myself along the way.
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We have trouble with that. I didn't realize how much my southern accent affected my vowel sounds! The short e and i have been harder for my girls too…probably because of me!
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I try to have a balance between the focused learning and exploration learning. It's hard, but I think it's a good model to set for the future because both are necessary ways of learning!
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My middle girl taught herself math and I'm going through a K-5 math book with her for kindergarten even though she has figured out how to add double digits already! Like you I want to make sure nothing was missed. So far she pretty much knows it all except for place value. I had to teach that to her, so I'm glad I did the book!
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You are so right!
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Thanks for stopping by!
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This would be perfect and you will find yourself saying, \”Why didn't anyone tell me these things before?!?!?!\”
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I really want to try this program!
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It is a wonderful way to work on phonics as well!
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Spelling tests…oh the dread that conjures up!
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Some kids are just \”natural\”. Others need more instruction. I'm glad my kids are young enough that I can just jump in with this so I don't have to try and figure out how to fix something that they missed!
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My five-year-old is a great reader, but he has learned a ton from the second half of All About Spelling Level 1. I am looking forward to starting level 2 with him soon!
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Blending are really tough for some kids. My oldest had a hard time with that although my second doesn't. My oldest is doing much better though!
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So true!
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The biggest challenge I face is that my daughter tends to go to her daddy for spelling help when writing… Sadly, my dear hubby is not the best speller in the world. Maybe I could get him to sit in on spelling if it were All About Spelling… Hmmm… =)
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Spelling always came easy to me, so it turns out that teaching it is challenging! I guess it's because I don't understand what's so difficult! LOL! I'm learning patience in any case. 🙂
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Remembering the rules. My daughter has a lot of trouble spelling words with y as well. She's very hands on, so this looks great! Thanks for the chance!jkddemeyere@yahoo.com
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I brought home my 3rd grader home to school mid-year and realized that something just wasn't clicking in the spelling area. Now in 4th grade we are going through the levels of AAS trying to find whatever it is that she missed and we love it! I really want to get All About Reading for my 5 year old. Their programs are amazing! Thanks for your review!
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I'm using AAS level 1 and so want AAR for my dyslexic son.
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The hardest thing about teaching spelling is that *I* don't know all the rules. I need a program that lays it all out sequentially.
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We have a spelling program, but the rules aren't taught as clearly as in AAS. I would love to get this and try it out instead.
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My biggest challenge in teaching spelling is that it comes naturally to me so it is difficult to remember how to teach the rules to my purely phonetic speller.
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We just started kindergarten this fall, but i am wanting to start AAS with my daughter this spring. I would love to get this!
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Working with the teacher to work on words that are appropriate for the child.
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I find my biggest challenge like you is that I am a poor speller and I want my girls to learn better. I too was never taught the rules just the list to memorize each week that really taught very little about spelling except how to rush through the practice lessons by writing letters as quick as possible.
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I keep putting off buying AAS because I'm waiting for my son to get a bit further with his reading, but I am definitely looking forward to using it and learning the rules myself! I, too, am a horrible speller.
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we've been having a problem with the huge white board and I really like the idea of smaller cookie sheets! i started level 1 with my 3rd grade daughter, but it seems way too easy. I've been skipping parts a bit, but maybe I should do the entire lesson! She is a struggling reader, but I'm hoping that understanding some spelling rules will help with her reading.
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The English rules that do not make sense to a young child (much less even an adult). So excited to have found your blog and to follow now.
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I don't know the rules myself
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We LOVE AAS and have been using it for years with our 3rd and 1st graders. They love the methods and I love the way the program is organized- perfect! My biggest struggle is remembering and being disciplined to take the time to review at the beginning of every lesson.
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My biggest challenge is/will be teaching 2 children we hope to adopt from Latvia. They will likely be 9 and 10 by the time their adoption is finalized and won't know much English
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Spelling is always the subject that gets out aside if we're short on time. We're working on fixing that this year.
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