"Mom, That Board Is Magic"

One thing that our 4th grader really struggles with is spelling. When she was in public school I would do practice tests with her Monday-Thursday night and at least one of those nights she would end up in tears. I on the other hand find spelling to be very easy. However, just because I can spell doesn't mean I can teach someone else how to do it!

We started our school year out using Spelling Power. This program is a huge book of word lists that you work through. I thought it was just what we needed. Give me some word lists and we'd practice those words each week in different ways and we'd be all set right? Well, it didn't work for us. Within the first month she was crying because she had had the word "neighbor" on her list for over 4 weeks.

I was talking with another home schooling mom and friend, she suggested a program called All About Spelling. She was kind enough to let me take Sissy down to her house and run a lesson through and see how it worked for her. It seemed fine, so after only a little thought, I purchased the first level of the program. I'm not very good at describing exactly how it works, you'll have to check out the website but for my daughter, it has been a lifesaver. She actually told someone the other day that her favorite subject is spelling! She is actually learning spelling rules right now and feels much more confident and understands why we spell words a certain way.

Both the girls are doing the same program and they are on the same level. To some degree I can see it only ocassoinally frustrating our 4th grader that her 1st grade sister is keeping up with her spelling, but I think the fact that the oldest is finally "getting it", overshadows the frustration.

So why did I title my post like I did? Because one day last week we she had been writing a story and spelled "leaned" instead of "learned". Should be a simple fix right? I think so, but for her it isn't. So I told her to go to "the board" and "segment" the word (AAS lingo) and see if it helped her to move the letter tiles around. Yep...she did it...first try! She was so proud of herself! I almost cried because I was so excited for her!!! She looked at me and said, "Mom, I think this board is magic."