Spell to Write and Read: A Step by Step Guide to Foundational Language Arts

I have homeschooled my children for 8 years now and SWR is the best and most significant program I have ever used to teach my children to spell, read, and write. I would never go back to my old ways of teaching. In just one year with SWR all four of my boys jumped up by at least two grade levels (oldest two boys jumped up by four and five grade levels) as measured by the spelling diagnostic test. Their reading has greatly improved as well. My 6 year old son was able to read 4th grade level books with ease after one year with SWR. (...)Spell to Write and Read is not just a spelling program! It also produces great readers! My 7 and 8 year old boys are able to read 180 page chapter books with ease in only 4 days! Don't forget to purchase the Wise Guide, phonogram cards and tape, and spelling rule cards.

Wanda Sanseri has written Spell to Write and Read along with its companion book, The Wise Guide for Spelling as a homeschooler-friendly guide to using the highly effective Spalding method to teach early language arts.

Spell to Write and Read is a how-to book for the teacher with detailed lesson plans for each step along the way. It is not a day by day lesson plan book, but the Wise Guide for Spelling gives spelling words with sentences for the teacher to use if she wishes and detailed instructions on how to teach each word, including how to mark each word to show each of the five types of silent final E, reinforcement of important spelling rules, multi-letter phonogram, and "think to spell" ideas.

One feature I appreciate is the way I can adapt this program to suit my children's readiness for each step. Each year begins with a diagnostic test to determine where in the Wise Guide to Spelling to begin. Then you proceed at a pace of 10 to 40 words, depending on ability, with the program as written.

Wanda's program is very flexible and not every idea for enrichment activities is meant to be used each time you teach the particular spelling list, but since this is "spiral" learning the enrichment ideas are various methods to reinforce phonograms, spelling rules, "think to spell" concepts and grammatical rules over and over until they are truly ingrained in both teacher and student.

Just recently spelling "clicked" for my son after much struggle and he is overjoyed and confident that the words I dictate to him he can usually spell without much extra teaching on my part. Don't be lulled into thinking that every child will learn to spell well just from reading alone. Certain concepts need to be taught. Wanda gives the tools to teach like a master teacher

These two books (Wise Guide to Spelling and Spell to Write and Read) provide a wealth of ideas to introduce grammar principles along with each week's spelling words, preliminary activities to prepare for each week's words, charts which are built by the teacher and student together to illustrate spelling rules and the various sounds of each of the 70 phonograms taught.

Be sure to order to phonogram cards and spelling rule cards. These are necessary teaching aids. For support in using Wanda's materials you can subscribe to the yahoogroup TeachingReadingHome and/or find a teacher training seminar near you at her website, http://www.bhibooks.org.

If you are not in a race to have your child reading before he is writing and spelling short words as he learns to read them, then this program is well worth the dollars and time spent.