Home School Product Reviews

This is a MUST for every homeschooler!

I have already recommended this curriculum to many of my friends! The teaching approach makes complete sense. I never thought how difficult it would be to learn and hold information with a spelling test done with many different words that have absolutely nothing in common. This approach is based in word families and going over different variations of the words through out the week. My daughter is 7 and loves that even if she doesn’t know a particular word, she can make an educated guess based on the other words in the list. This system has really given her the courage to make those guesses, with a high chance of her being correct.

Loving this book!

I purchased this workbook (Apples Spelling) for my two sixth graders. They needed some extra help with spelling rules. We have been using it for two weeks and I am so impressed. The kids like it because the lessons are easy to read, short and to the point. I like it because they can work independently and there is a good amount of practice but not too much. I am already seeing an improvement in some areas of weakness.

Word Roots B1

Wow! Spelling and Vocabulary review that is actually INTERESTING without drudgery! My children have LOVED Word Roots. I LOVE the fact that they have maximize learning value with a minimal amount of busywork. Even if you do not use them for the school year they are a PERFECT little workbook to take along on a vacation or in the car to keep the brain stimulated!

We often play this game according to the directions, which is fun and exciting. But as a homeschooling mom, I have found many other ways to use these great little tiles…everything from spelling words to playing phonics games with my beginner reader. I also love that I can throw this in the car when we are traveling and take it inside a restaurant to play with while we are waiting for our food to arrive. I have had many people stop by our table to see what we are doing or to comment on what a great idea that is. We love Bananagrams!!

Homeschooler from Nebraska

Sequential Spelling

We have used Sequential Spelling now for 18 months and I cannot say enough things about how much improvement I have seen in my son’s spelling.  He is dyslexic and spelling has always been so difficult for him.  Not anymore!  His writing used to be full of errors, now there are very few.

But the best part is that he now enjoys spelling and considers himself to be a “pretty good speller” since starting this program.  Definitely 5 stars from this family!

Two reviews of the Apples Spelling

I was disappointed

I purchased Apples and Apples 2 as a spelling review. I was disappointed that I was not informed that at times they misspell words for the kids to correct (ex-”shun” instead of “tion”). I feel strongly that I desire my kids to only see the correct spelling of a word in print, therefore I did not use the program. It looked like a decent enough program if you don’t mind the correcting of misspelled words.

For students that are not natural spellers

We loved Apples and Apples 2.   We used them for remedial spelling work for middle school students but I think they would be fine for most 4th-6th grade students.  The books are set up so that you don’t have to be involved or do any prep work. The student learns the rule, and fills in the blanks to use the rule-based words in sentences. These books work well, for students that are not natural spellers by forcing them to pay attention to details. These books would be unnecessary for advanced spellers.

I found Wordigo Game to be exactly as advertised – an educational game that’s not so educational that it’s no fun but also not so fun that it’s not educational. Even my poorest speller begs to play. As a parent, I have to be willing to miss the completion points because I’m constantly bombarded with, ‘Mom, is this a word?’ And that’s okay because they’re spelling…and liking it!

Spelling can be one of the most difficult subjects to master. Timberdoodle offers great spelling games, activities, and curriculum.

The SpellQuizzer has been a great way to review, test and re-test as necessary. My 4th and 6th- graders really enjoy hearing Mom’s voice quiz their spelling list, even when I am momentarily unavailable to help them study. They are tickled with the “cheering crowd” they hear when they achieve a perfect score!  The only thing I would change is being able to see the grade on tests for which they do not score 100%. A help for busy parents.

Elizabeth

Heath, OH

Sequential Spelling

There was once a time that I wholeheartedly recommended this spelling program. However, that is no more. I used this program with three different students for about a year. They were three very different students- one ace speller, one in need of serious remedial spelling help, and one who was right on track in spelling. I recommended this program before because it was fun, easy, the boys enjoyed it, is relatively inexpensive, requires no teacher prep, gives immediate feedback, can be used for multiple students easily, is not consumable, and was pretty easy to complete each day. Turns out, it was too good to be true. My ace speller was terribly bored. My remedial speller made very little to no progress. My on track speller began slipping behind. I believe this is because this spelling program is completely lacking- spelling rule training phonics training segmenting/syllable training My students learned little other than how to change a few letters to make a new word in a word family. This training didn’t stick. In their daily writing I often saw misspelled words that we had already covered in their spelling tests. I wouldn’t even recommend using this program along with a supplemental program that covers all it’s missing. In my opinion it’s simply missing exactly what it claims to teach- spelling training.

13 other homeschoolers gave Sequential Spelling an average 4 stars. Read their reviews and see if this is the spelling program for you!