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 
My biggest challenge is making the time for spelling.
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I love AAS as it has really helped in our house. Sanna
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It is very difficult to teach them all the sounds that sound the same but spelled differently. Thanks for the giveaway.
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I have started my struggling learner with Level 1 and now I need to add the All About Reading and get Level 2. I guess because I have always been an avid reader, spelling just comes naturally to me; my biggest struggle is being able to simplify it to teach my kids. I can tell if it \”looks\” right, they need to know the why's.
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Thanks for stopping by! This is a poor speller's answer to prayer!
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We started AAS half-way through our PAL curriculum. I've been really happy with it! I agree – I never learned the rules as a kid, but I think being an avid reader helped me pick some up along the way! 🙂
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3 Cheers for AAS!
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I know how hard finances can be. When you're called to teach your kids there are so many sacrifices you make along the way. I just prayed that God would provide the finances for your family to get what you need for this year!
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I'm so glad I found this early so it's just \”normal\” for my kids! Spelling intimidated me so very much, but AAS took that away!
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SOOOO much fun to learn with your kids!
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You should! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
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I know! My girls were reading early and both have just taken off! My 7-year-old is reading on about a 5th grade level and my 5-year-old about a 2nd grade level. But, like you said, they have learned SO much from AAS!
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Ha! I tried to convince my husband how great it had been for me and would for him too. He rolled his eyes and said, \”That's what the squiggly red line is for!\”
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I love those days when you look at your child and tell them something as simple and they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language 🙂
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My daughter remembers the rules so well now! She was reading from her history book today and was having trouble with a reading a word that had both the hard c and soft c sound. Then she said, \”Oh yeah! I forgot there is a rule for that!\” It's great to see her crossing her knowledge over into another area!
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Thanks for coming by! It's always hard bringing your child home and trying to fill in the gaps. I'm glad we were blessed to do it while she was in 1st grade!
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I have heard SUCH good things about using this with kids who have learning difficulties!
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Humbling isn't it? At the same time I fault whatever powers in charge decided NOT to tell us kids in gradeschool that there were rules to follow besides the \”i before e\” bit!
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I looked at several other programs that had been around longer and NOTHING I found compared to the easily laid out style and constant practice of using the previous rules as AAS!
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Phonetic spelling can be frustrating to a child. My daughter has picked up on some of the southern accent she hears and she's forever saying \”fer\” instead of \”for\” and things like that. It took some time to teach her she was pronouncing it incorrectly and that was why she was having trouble spelling it!
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She will love it! My little girl BEGS to do the spelling lessons. I never thought I'd have a child beg to do spelling!
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Oh boy have we been there! I couldn't believe it when I found out my daughter's first list of spelling words in 1st grade had come from a 2nd/3rd grade list!
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I told my daughters that I wasn't taught these rules. My oldest said, \”How can you spell anything?\” It's a wonder, isn't it?
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Once he is learning the basic phonemes for reading I'm sure you can start this, just go slowly. It is SUCH great reinforcement for phonics!
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The cookie sheets are wonderful! Even though she is older I wouldn't skip anything. I didn't realize until level 2 how much is built upon those \”easy\” lessons. I didn't skip anything, but I was tempted to for that reason. The only time I skipped was if she really got the concept and there were a TON of words left. I just did 1 lesson a day until we hit the point where she was learning something new. It kept us at a quick pace so she didn't get bored!
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I'm glad you stopped by! English is such a crazy language!
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Thanks for stopping by! I'm so thankful I don't have to study at all to teach AAS and that I'm learning alongside my daughter!
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I'm SOOOO bad about that too! Good to know I'm not the only one! What level is your 3rd grader on? My daughter is moving at a much faster pace than I expected for a 2nd grader. I'm just wondering if we start young how long it will take to go through the entire program.
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Oh my! What a blessing! I'm sure it will be challenging, but what a blessing to have you already thinking about their education even before they arrive in your home. 🙂
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My let-it-go-if-we-have-to subjects are science and art. I'm REALLY trying hard not to neglect those things, but some days you have to let something go!
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I think we all have those subjects it's harder to make time for. We only do AAS twice a week and study dictation on the other two days. It helps to only schedule it a couple times a week!
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That's so great to hear! Thanks for stopping by!
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You are so right! We've just gotten to that point with r-controlled vowel sounds that are alike. I so appreciate the rules that help my daughter see how to know!
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I've heard avid readers are great spellers, but I was, and am, an avid reader as is my oldest and we both struggled. Knowing the why has helped us both! It's great you recognize that so you can help your kiddo out!
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My biggest struggle with teaching spelling is that I am a natural speller, and have trouble when my kids don't get it. That and the time it takes to teach spelling at each individual kid's level. With 6 kids I am schooling right now, it's overwhelming!
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My biggest challange teaching spelling is surely my lack of knowledge when it comes to spelling! I have always been a horrible speller, and I frequently use google to type in the word I am trying to spell to get the correct spelling! If there was a crash course in spelling for parents, I'd be the first one to sign up!
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I have long forgotten the rules that make learning spelling so much easier. It would be great to have my 5 year old understand why we spell the way we spell!
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We haven't started spelling yet, but teaching my child to read is going to be a challenge, so I'm sure that spelling will be too! I have't learned the rules myself, so it will be a learning curve for all of us!
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Thanks for stopping by! I've never heard of PAL before. I'm always interested in knowing about other curriculum!
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WOW! My days feel crazy with only 3 🙂 I'm sure that it must be overwhelming with so many levels in just this one subject!
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Consider AAS your crash course 🙂 I actually find myself thinking about the rules now! I'm also an avid user of the Google spell check method! Especially for necessary…is that one c and two s's? or two c's and 1 s? or two c's and 2 s's?
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I was basically taught there was no why. You just have to memorize every word in the English language. I was also taught to look words up in a dictionary if I didn't know how to spell them. Now does that make any sense at all? How in the world am I supposed to know where to look if I don't know how to spell it? I got REALLY good at using synonyms!
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My biggest challenge is remembering the rules for teaching spelling. It comes easy for me, but I forget why certain words are spelled certain ways. The rules in AAS have been a super help! Look forward to both my child and I to continue learning with the program!
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I felt that way about teaching my daughter's to read too, but I used a scripted curriculum and didn't have any problems! You'll do fine 🙂
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I'm glad to hear it has gone so well for you so far!
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I think my biggest challenge right now is the rules also.. I was not taught the rules. So ow that I am teaching spelling it is still hard for me to think about them and remember not to have my daughter just memorize. I really want to start this program, so praying I can win it. Thank you for such a great post. Kristi
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My challenge right now is trying to get my 6 year old to distinguish between the short e and short i sounds. 😦
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I have a hard time not feeling inadequate since I didn't know the rules either! AAS really helped me get over feeling like I wasn't going to be able to teach my girls spelling!
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That is really hard! I have a hard time because of my southern accent and the fact that my daughter have started picking it up as well!
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I just liked your new fb page 🙂
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