Hey everyone! I’d love spelling curriculum suggestions. We have tried AAS and it didn’t work for my kids at all. This year we are using Sequential Spelling. It’s decent, but I’d like other suggestions. I’m looking at Spell You See. What else should I look at?? Btw: kids will be in 2nd and 4th. Thanks!!
You might look at Rod and Staff. The words are quite age appropriate and reinforce the phonics rules.
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have you looked into a reason for spelling?
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We love Phonetic Zoo.
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Thank you everyone! I will take a look at these suggestions 
@Lindsay - can you tell me anything about Phonetic Zoo? It looks very interesting, but the price is fairly high per level. How long does each level typically take to complete? I haven’t had my daughter take the placement test yet, but let’s say she was placed in level A. Is it one year per level - meaning you finish all 3 levels in just 3 years? Or am I missing something? I appreciate any help! Thank you! Re
Well first I bought used. And also no, it takes more than a year to do a level, I would say closer to 2 (or more). A is geared toward elementary, B middle school, C high school but obviously depending on your child’s spelling ability they could fall anywhere. I love it because there are no consumables, so all 3 of my kids can use this and it’s almost 100% hands off for me. I have several subjects that require a lot of my time and I need some that are more independent. This has been great for us!
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We use spell by color. My 3rd grader is in year two and loves it.
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We are looking at using it next year. It looks like it has fun activities and such to learn the words.
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I know you mentioned having tried AAS but check this out just using their concepts of rules of spelling but your own curriculum to implement it. I do my own thing re:spelling. I use the list and concepts or rules in the AAS program BUT I don’t use the tiles or their recommended way of teaching. I get FREE spelling worksheets, games, and ideas from teachers pay teachers or Pinterest that help keep my second grader excited and engaged in the spelling words and concepts. I need the book BC I honestly don’t know why we spell the way we do so this helps me learn the concept so I can teach it my own way. So basically I do a quick little blurb of a rule in my own words which literally take less than 5 mins and I give her the spelling cards- she then picks a different activity to do each day x 4 days- for example, rainbow writing, paint your words, typing them on the computer 3 times, use 5 words in a short story (2-3 sentences long), stamp your words, etc. you can also make a word search with her list. Then on day # 5 we play a game with her words like spelling battleship (her fav), scrabble, scrabble slam, etc. You could also give her a prize or special treat at the end of the week if she completes 3-4 activities by spelling test day. I do reiterate the concept re: the rule the lists is following by asking her each day a question of why we spell one of her list words this way and she can usually tell me with confidence by the end of the week. Try these kind of activities w/ the AAS lists and see if she enjoys them, it may save you $ in the long run or at least for the rest of this year. I’ve found that all I need is the AAS teacher book and the green spelling cards, which I can buy cheaply from eBay and Amazon and I don’t have to waste $ on the other things they have that I don’t like to use). And every 10 lessons I do a quick review by looking at the past lists and having her orally spell 1 or 2 words from them and why - this takes 5 mins or less to quickly do and I try to use the words in funny sentences I know will make her laugh. Hope this helps some, it took us a few months to figure this way of spelling worked for us.
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Thank you, these are all great ideas. This is exactly what we did with AAS when we were using it and realized the program wasn’t going to work for us. My kids enjoyed doing it this way, as did I. Thank you for reminding me that we can modify the book to use the way that best works for us. I appreciate your thoughts and ideas.