All About Spelling – TOS review

I have always been good at spelling. It just comes naturally to me. I never studied for spelling tests and could still pretty much get all of the words correct every time. . The t-shirt above is one that I had when I was in high school. I thought it was hilarious. I bet if I had trouble spelling, I wouldn't have thought it was quite as funny. (Okay, I probably still would have).

Unfortunately, my children did not inherit this gift. They have to go over and over words before they can spell them correctly. We did not start spelling with my 10 year old son until his 3rd grade year in school. I really wanted him to be able to read well before we threw spelling into the mix. Because of this, he is having a hard time with spelling. He can usually figure out the words because he can tell if a word is correct by looking at it. It just takes him a few tries to get it. When we received All About Spelling to review for the TOS crew, I was excited. Could this be just what we were looking for in our curriculum?

All About Spelling is a multi-sensory, logical spelling program that leaves no gaps in your child’s learning. It is based on mastery, not grade level which is great for us. It also has constant review in the lessons. Even though I had ever intention of using this with my son, he has been working on writing a novel and spelling kind of took a back seat these last couple of months. So, we started this with my daughter who is 6. She is coming along quickly with reading. She actually amazes me with the words she can sound out and also the ones she recognizes instantly. She is really enjoying using this program.

We started at the beginning with level 1. When I asked her what her favorite part of spelling was she answered “sounding out the words with the magnet things”. She advanced quickly though this level and we are getting ready to start Level 2. Here is what Level 1 covers:

How to say and write the first 32 phonograms

How to segment words into their individual sounds

Short and long vowel sounds

How to identify and count syllables in a word

How to choose between c and k at the beginning of a word

When to double f, l, and s

How to spell /k/ at the end of a word

How to form plural words by adding s or es

Compound words

Open and closed syllable types

You can see what all of the levels cover here. They offer five levels at this time with level 6 coming out soon. In order to use this program you will need to purchase the Starter Kit which includes letter tiles, magnets and a phonogram CD. Honestly, we didn’t use the letter tiles that came with the program. We had purchased a reading program that has magnetic tiles and this is what we used. With the ones that come with All About Spelling, you have to cut all the letters out and attach the magnets on the back of them. This was too time consuming for me when I already had the other letters available. The only difference was that the ones we have do not have all of the colors (which stand for different things). I personally think the ones that come with this are cheaply made. The starter Kit is $26.95.

Bella loved playing with the tiles and learning to spell using these. It seems like more of a game than learning which helps a lot. This is great for hands-on learners.

Each level of All About Spelling is affordable with level 1 costing $29.95 and the remaining levels $39.95. You can also purchase extra student material packets for $14.95.

All in all, this is a good spelling curriculum. We will continue to use this with my daughter and may incorporate it into my son’s curriculum as well.

You can read more about this by checking out what the other crew members have to say at homeschoolblogger.com/Homeschoolcrew.

Please note, I received this curriculum at not cost in exchange for my honest opinion in this review. No other compensation was provided.