Has anyone used IEW's The Phonetic Zoo for spelling?

[Sue G in PA]

I received IEW's catalog today and am very intrigued by this program. It looks, well, *fun*! It starts at grade 3 and IEW has placement test on their website. It's grouped like the writing program (A 3-5th, B 6th-8th, C 9th-12th). It uses animal names to teach and help the kids remember the different "rules" (ex/ a caiman (alligator) is used to teach and "show" the long a rules/spelling). Anybody use this successfully? Not successfully? It's also quite expensive ($99).

[Sparrows-Song]

We tried this a few years back. My dc started out enjoying it, but it ended up being more of a hassle for me and they kept losing the cards they were supposed to collect. We also had no place to display the cards, so that wasn't as big an incentive as it was meant to be.

It's a great program; it just didn't work for us.

[Karenciavo]

I use it with ds13. It is working well for him, but I don't use the cards, I never even watched the video so it is entirely possible I'm using the program all wrong. :o BTW, it looks like someone has level A listed on the for sale board.

[Carol in Cal.]

It's a perfect fit for my so-not-a-natural-speller. She is 11 1/2, and is almost through the A program. We don't bother with the cards.

Because she is an audio learner, this program is sticking for her and spilling over into her writing like no other ever has done. It's been great. I plan to continue through the whole thing.