AAS Level 7 is actually the final level. It takes students up to high school level spelling. AAS teaches all of the words on the Ayres list (except a few which aren’t in common use anymore), which ranks words up to 12th grade, as well as words from other lists that are ranked between 9th and 12th grade. After level 7 students can focus on vocabulary, additional Greek and Latin Roots (some are taught in level 7), and work on spelling in the context of their writing. HTH some!
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Wow, I had no idea it is high school level spelling. Does that mean I shouldn’t have to supplement with anything else? We are already doing vocabulary with Latin and Greek root words. They have been using English from the roots up for several years and I love it. I’m just worried that if I don’t do any spelling with them, they might forget some words or rules. We will be finished with level 7 by the end of next year and my daughter will be 4th grade and my son will be 7th grade.
Wow, your kids are doing great! I can’t believe your 4th grader will be finished! I don’t know if you’ve seen the last step in Level 7 yet, but that shows you how to set up a plan for life-long spelling. Most people don’t do another program if they finish in earlier years, they just work on words as they come up in their writing. You could certainly do periodic reviews of the cards if needed. Have you done All About Homophones? That’s something else you can do, especially if they tend to mix up homophones.
Thanks for the compliment! 
. She has been just cruising right along with big brother and it has been great. One of the main reasons I wanted to homeschool. She was bored in kinder in public school already so I kinda just let her do her thing for the past 3 years and she has just taken off. Sorry I’m not try to brag but I’m proud of her and no one else really gets it.
I haven’t looked at level 7 but after talking with my husband about what you said, I get it. I don’t know why I was thinking they would need a formal spelling curriculum in the upper grades cause that’s not what they do in public school. They learn the words while writing. I was stressing for no reason. 
. Thanks for the advice!
We have tried Rod & Staff and All About Spelling. My kids didn’t mind R&S, but they weren’t retaining anything. I liked the idea of AAS, and everyone else seems to love it, but my kids HATED those tiles! We now use Sequential Spelling and it has worked out well for us.
I think I might have flagged this message by accident! If i did sorry Kathleen! Anyway i would love more info on all about spelling. My son Really struggles in this area.He is a good reader but spelling the words not so much. Is this curriculum worth the money? I would need to get another student pack for my daughters, cards, card holder etc etc. It just seems like alot. Also is it hard to teach with all those tiles and what do you do if you as a teacher dont know the rules. Thanks!
We also have tried AAS & my 10 yr. old did not like it at all. We purchased Sequential Spelling for this year & it seems to be helping. I really think AAS is a great program it just didn’t work for my kiddo.
Hi Kelly,
I think that AAS is worth the cost. I like the way it teaches the ‘why’ of spelling. I also like how it is self paced. You do not have to do a lesson a day. You go through each lesson in your own timing. Every lesson starts off with a review.
The lesson plans are step by step so regardless of how well you know the spelling rules, you can teach it. (and learn the rules at the same time)
I had two struggling spellers, especially my oldest, so it was worth it here. I hesitated for about a year to try it because of cost, but two things won me over:
1, I spent more on math every year, and both spelling and math are things we use daily
2, the money back guarantee if it didn’t work!
But, after 2 weeks, my kids both told me to never switch spelling again (we had tried several other things!) Here’s a review and follow-up I did awhile back (both of my kids are done now…I should post again sometime).
I started with one student packet and did my kids together (they are 2 years apart). Eventually I did decide to split them and got a second packet for my daughter, but if your children are close in ability, try them together, or try with one packet taking the oldest through first and see how it goes–you can always get another packet later.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the rules–everything is scripted, so you’ll learn as you go. It shows you just what to do and say without being overly scripted.
I didn’t find it hard to teach with tiles. My oldest outgrew them around age 12, but he loved them at first–he was a very reluctant writer, and appreciated getting to practice spelling with tiles first, before having to write–he felt set up to succeed by working on it first with tiles. He was 11 when we started so he only used the tiles for a year or so. After that, I used them for demos for awhile, and then transitioned to underlining as I wrote things on paper or a white board (underlining 2 or more letters that are working as one phonogram is another visual way to show the phonograms). My youngest used the tiles for about 4 years–she was 13 when she transitioned away from them.
If you want to see what our typical week looked like, here’s a blog post with pictures. That might help you to get a feel for the program and whether it could work for you.
I now work in customer service for AALP by the way–and if you ever have problems you can always call or email to get help. They provide lifetime support for all of the programs.
HTH some!
Thank you for replying! I just went to the website and will be ordering it for next school year. Have you used the
cd were it says the sounds? I wanted to know if that was useful or not. Thank!
I will confess that we love AAS, but do not use the tiles. My kid HATES manipulatives, and preferred writing out each word on a dry erase board to pulling down tiles.
When I am rough on rules or exceptions, I pull out the teacher’s manual, I also use the TM for dictation phrases and sentences, but there is a lot to ASS I do not use because my kid finds spelling easy. I would be doing a lot more review and using it more exactly as written if I had a struggling kid.
@Merry I have spoke to you numerous times! You were super supportive and gave wonderful suggestions in various issues my son was having! I have a question for you, I spend 1 full week per lesson in AAS (level 1). Thus far, my son has spelled all the words with 100% accuracy! Is this program spiral? Or do the books just keep introducing new rules every year? Also, is 1 book meant to last a full school year? And finally (sorry:), I looked at your typical week with the above link…would you change anything for a younger student (7.5 yrs old), or would that schedule accommodate younger students? Thank you!!!
Hi! I’m glad I’ve been able to help! The books are meant to be taken at your child’s pace. We recommend working about 15-20 minutes per day (you can vary a bit depending on your child’s attention span). Each day, start with any cards in the daily review tabs for 2-5 minutes, and then pick up wherever you left off previously. If your son finds it super easy, you could move a bit more quickly through level 1. Or, if it’s simply a good pace that allows him to master the material, then keep going as you are. Some kids do a level per year, while others will go more quickly through the first level or two, and then slow down. The blog is just an example of how things might be broken down for a student–you are free to move as slowly or as quickly as he needs. If he starts to forget previously learned words when he does the dictation, that’s a sign to spend more time on each lesson.
Overall, we find that short, daily lessons produce better long-term retention than longer but fewer sessions.
Does this help?
The books are mastery-based rather than spiral. The rules and concepts learned in Level 1 are applied in Level 2, and then those are applied in Level 3, and so on. The dictations help you to know how well your child is retaining the concepts, and the cards allow you to review previously learned concepts so that they stay fresh. AAS periodically schedules “mastered” reviews where the student goes over previously learned concepts, and also any troublesome words. And the card system makes it easy to customize the review–you can do as much or as little as your child needs. One of mine needed a lot of review, so I reviewed each type of card at least once a month (one week I would go through all mastered phonogram cards, the next week sound cards, the next week key cards, etc… When we got into upper levels, I broke the sound cards up over two weeks as there get to be a lot).
HTH! Merry 
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