All About Spelling? Need all components?

[craft_media_hero]

We are starting All About Spelling this year, and even though my daughter could probably skip Level 1, we're just going from the beginning as review.

Anyways--the program is a bit pricey, IMO. So to moms who have used AAS previously, do we really need the teacher's guides and the starter kit? Or can I figure it out with just the student materials packet? I'm trying to save some $ but if we need it all, I'll get it all.

TIA!

[Mommy&Will]

You need the teachers manual. But not the tiles and magnets - you could easily make your own.

[elizawill]

i agree. although i did purchase everything (and use the extras with my son), i do not use anything with my daughter except a dry erase board. we do all of our lessons on it. i use colored markers to explain a lesson, and she uses the dry erase board for spelling words, phrases, and sentences from the lesson. hth.

[craft_media_hero]

Hmm. Okay, thanks for the feedback!

The extra materials are just phonogram cards and magnet letters?

I am thinking the dry erase board is a good idea . . . why do we not have one of those yet? Probably coz I'm always spending all our budget on lots of great books . . .

Also--how old are your kids and what level are they doing? It seems like it will take us forever to get to level 6, and is level 6 "terminal" in spelling? As in, will they be able to spell pretty much anything after level 6?

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

Also--how old are your kids and what level are they doing? It seems like it will take us forever to get to level 6, and is level 6 "terminal" in spelling? As in, will they be able to spell pretty much anything after level 6?

my daughter will be 9 in october and is grade 3. she just started book 2, but i imagine we'll get through it in a month or two. we started in book 1 at the end of last school year & she flew through that as well. but i felt starting at the beginnig was important, so i didn't care that level 1 was mostly review. i'm hoping to get through books 2 & 3 this year and perhaps next year we'll do levels 4 & 5 or we may just move onto megawords 1... i'm not sure yet. her spelling is completely night and day from this time last year though & i am SOOOO thankful. i'm not sure if it's solely AAS to thank, or if it's just that she's "ready" now. i don't care. we love AAS and it's painless. using the dry erase board really helps my daughter a lot, so i definitely recommend that. my little boy is 6 and he's only in week 1 of level 1. we'll move very slow for him, and i plan to use book 1 this whole year for him. i also incorporate the bells and whistles with him (i.e. tiles and flashcards). the tiles are quite handy & i just use a baking pan as our magnetic board, which works perfectly. you know there is an AAS website/forum with lots of information and free downloads. you should join (it's called the chatterbee). it's quite helpful hth.

[Marimami]

We got everything but we started when my DD was just 5, and I didn't want there to be any handwriting pressure.

We sorta started in January, and we finished it this month. We are the lamest, most laid back type of schoolers here...meaning I didn't have it on any schedule at all. In fact, DD had 3 separate ER visits, one resulting in a hospital stay that completely threw off all schooling for pretty much 4 months--from March-June.

When we do work on it, though she often wants to do two lessons at a time. She doesn't like repetition so I offer her the choice to do the letter tiles or just write on the white board.

She LOVES AAS and we will probably zip through Level 2. She talks about spelling rules all the time. Sees them everywhere. We had a little chat about open/closed syllables while falling asleep tonight.

She turns 6 in a couple of weeks, and I have Level 3 ready to go too this year if she wants to keep going once we finish with Level 2.

We've also enjoyed their readers which is a Big Deal. DD has not liked most other early readers for a variety of reasons, but she enjoys these. They have lovely pictures and gentle story plots.

Holli

[Dakota's Mom]

I bought the level one packet and the letter tiles. I bought a strip of magnetic tape at Staples and attached that to the letter tiles. That's all I bought. We have a magnetic board that we bought several years ago to go with some word tiles we bought then. We're pretty much just getting started, but it seems to be working for us.

Kathi

[LemonPie]

Thanks for asking this! I was wondering the same thing!

[dotnetdiva]

I suggest getting their Letter Tiles. We've only used the CD once, and you can get your own magnets.

You'd want to get each Teacher's Manual and Student Material packet for each level.

We started AAS at age 4.5, right after we started reading CVC type words. We zoomed through levels 1 & 2. We're now on Step 4 of Level 3, at age 5.75. We spend about 2 days per step, although I am planning to slow it down to 3 days per step/lesson now that we're on level 3. Sometimes we use the letter tiles, sometimes just on paper.

I just love this program! I'm so glad we started spelling early, it just makes sense to solidify the rules at the same time you're learning to read with phonics.