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teachingmom
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Virginia Bluebells
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| Posted: Jan 17 2006 at 11:13pm | IP Logged
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I wanted to share a success story with AVKO Spelling. I learned of this program from Elizabeth and ended up buying the first binder at the Nache conference this past summer. I am using it with my 7 and 9yo dds together. We have only done around two lessons per week on average.
My 9yo, who has been severely spelling-challenged, to say the least, has improved dramatically. She did a freewrite today on "If I Were the President" and I was amazed at how much of it was spelled correctly! There were still many errors, so don't think this has been a miracle cure for poor spelling, but the improvement has been rather dramatic. She spelled things like "would", "president", "United States", "tear down", and "banish" correctly on her own. She still had misspellings like "Amarica" and "honer" and some very inventive spelling for words like memorial ("mimoryul") and illegal ("elegle"), but I guess that's to be expected at her age, especially for a non-natural speller. (At least they were phonetically correct for the most part!)
The program is so simple and does not entail studying a spelling list at all. I second the recommendation for trying this for spelling-challenged students.
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Victoria in AZ
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| Posted: Jan 20 2006 at 9:33am | IP Logged
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Thanks for sharing a success story, Irene. Congrats to your 9 yo!
We have used AVKO's typing program with some success as well.
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Your sister in Christ,
Victoria in AZ
dh Mike 24 yrs; ds Kyle 18; dd Katie 12; and one funny pug
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TracyQ
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| Posted: Jan 25 2006 at 9:40am | IP Logged
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Irene,
We have this too, and I love the approach. Thanks for the reminder. I need implement this so that my spelling challenged child will hopefully get the help he needs. 
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Erin
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| Posted: July 02 2008 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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Two years on, how are you finding the program?
I am really really serious about buying this, it looks like the method dh and I learnt by and we're both good spellers. Word families and related spelling rules, root words with suffixes and prefixes, sounds just what I have been looking for. I just downloaded their free sample lessons (so look out children  )
I need help though making a decision, do I buy the sequential spelling book , I would buy the combo considering the range of ages I have plus shipping costs; or do I buy If it is to be it is up to me? What do you think? Or should I get both? Oh dc are all in need of it and ages are 14, 13, 11, 9, 6 & 4.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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Rachel May
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Can I tack on a question? Did you start at the beginning with your 9 year old? We're going to start it this year too, but I'm not sure if I should take my bad spellers back to the beginning or start at a later book. I have to cost compare, but Rainbow Resources has it too.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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teachingmom
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| Posted: July 03 2008 at 11:40pm | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
| Two years on, how are you finding the program? |
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I still like the AVKO program for my spelling-challenged dd. As for how the program went, I found that I needed to stop having the two girls work together on spelling because it would frustrate the older of the two when her sister got more correct than she did. I switched the younger of the two over to Spelling Power, which worked great with my oldest dd, who is more of a natural speller. (I use Spelling Power more for the lists, however, and not as written.)
Honestly, we do not do spelling every day, so we just now finished the first AVKO book. It took two and a half years. It has definitely improved the spelling of my dd who uses it. Although she is begging to leave spelling behind next year, as her big sister was able to do in 7th grade, I know she needs to continue working on it, so I have the 2nd AVKO book ready.
Erin wrote:
| I need help though making a decision, do I buy the sequential spelling book , I would buy the combo considering the range of ages I have plus shipping costs; or do I buy If it is to be it is up to me? What do you think? Or should I get both? Oh dc are all in need of it and ages are 14, 13, 11, 9, 6 & 4. |
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I'm not clear on what you are asking here. Did you mean to ask whether I recommended buying one book at a time or the Book 1-7 set? If so, I'm not sure. Based on it taking over two years for us to complete a book, it might not be worth buying the entire set. But I had a friend who zoomed through the first book because her kids loved doing spelling and wanted to do more than one lesson per day. (I know, hard for most of us to believe! )
Rachel May wrote:
| Can I tack on a question? Did you start at the beginning with your 9 year old? |
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Yes, I started at the beginning of the first book, even though she was 9 years old. She was not happy about having to do such simple work in the beginning, but she really needed the basics. And, as I said, it helped.
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Rachel May
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| Posted: July 04 2008 at 8:29am | IP Logged
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Thanks, Irene. I was hoping we could start at the beginning because that's how my brain works. We're pretty spelling challenged here too, and I think the boys will actually enjoy having easy spelling to start. Maybe I'll finally learn to spell. 
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Erin
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| Posted: July 04 2008 at 5:26pm | IP Logged
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I have found a supplier in Australia so that's very exciting.
Irene,
What I was asking was whether I would be better to buy the If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me or the Sequential Spelling Program (now I have found a supplier here I would only get one book at a time.)
If it Is To Be recommends to use for an 11yr old up, although I had a look at samples and the Sequential looked easier for me to use. Important 
So although money is an issue I also want to keep my older two/three's interest. Do I start them all on book 1 or do I start the olders on another book or the If It Is To Be? This is what I am struggling with 
An important thing to keep in mind is that although all of my children like spelling. according to the Morrison-McCall Spelling Test they are all two grades behind (except for the 6yr old who is a year ahead).
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
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teachingmom
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| Posted: July 04 2008 at 11:31pm | IP Logged
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Now I understand, Erin! I had never heard of their newer "If it is to be . . ." book, so I thought you had some sort of typographical error in your first question because the sentence didn't make any sense to me.
From what I can tell, the newer book is the same as the first Sequential Spelling book except there are more suggested sentences to go with the words. Based on that, I'd just advise buying Sequential Spelling. I always make up my own sentences and do not find it a problem. Sometimes I'll make up sentences related to one topic for all the words in a day, and try to be humorous. So I don't see how suggested sentences are that helpful.
On the other hand, if an older child would be bothered by using the same book as a much younger sibling, it might be worth it to buy both, for the sake of the older child's self esteem and confidence. I guess that would be your call. I do know that my daughter was bothered by the fact that she was doing the same spelling lessons as a sister who was two years younger, and that's partly why I switched her younger sister over to Spelling Power. The younger sister is a much better speller, but with two different programs at least the two girls are not comparing apples to apples in the area of spelling now. YKWIM?
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Erin
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| Posted: July 05 2008 at 12:09am | IP Logged
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Thanks for your opinion Irene, it really helps to have someone say what you are thinking. I think I'm inclined to go the way of the Sequential Spelling 1 for now, to avoid the competition issue I may break the children up into different age groups, the olders can spell faster anyway and they may well choose to do two lessons a day and progress through the book faster.
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Erin
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amethyst
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| Posted: July 07 2008 at 7:04am | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
| according to the Morrison-McCall Spelling Test they are all two grades behind (except for the 6yr old who is a year ahead). |
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Erin, is this test online?
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Jenny in Australia
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MichelleW
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We have used Sequential Spelling for 4 years now and the way we use it has changed over time. I love the word lists. They make so much sense. In fact they are so logical, that we have switched to almost completely oral spelling. It makes it go faster, the kids retain the information and apply it, and there is a built in competition factor that makes it one of our favorite times of day.
To preserve each one's dignity, often I have each kid on a different list in the same book. (I just choose a word family and cycle everyone through all of them eventually).
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Michelle
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donnalynn
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Funny story - we got to the list that included "Eartha Kitt" - who's that?
Well we all looked it up on google and found out that she was a singer - hmmm - let's see if she is on utube.
 Oh my!
Mama learned her lesson that day!
The AVKO spelling program has been a good fit for us - we did take two years to finish the first book - I started it with my then 4th and 6th grader. It's a great program for older children who have spelling issues.
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donnalynn
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: AVKO Spelling
