Spelling Questions

[Suzybearybake]

My 8 year old third grader has had much difficulty with his spelling. We switched to All About Spelling and love the program. He will start fourth grade in a few months and I am concerned that All About Spelling will not have the books finished as we need them. I was attempting to find something similar to switch to that uses the same format and will continue to yield results. Is any one familiar with Sequencial Spelling or How to Spell 3? Any Suggestions?

[AngieW in Texas]

I don't know much about All About Spelling, so I don't know if the format is similar or not.

I have been using Sequential Spelling with my youngest for a few months now.

Each day you have a list of 25 words. The words change over a period of 4 days.

typical progression (5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th words):
day 53 - fray, cloak, moan, thrown, overgrown
day 54 - frays, cloaks, moans, known, homegrown
day 55 - frayed, cloaked, moaned, unknown, well known
day 56 - fraying, cloaking, moaning, weren't, brown eyes

As you can see, usually the same word base is used all the way across the 4-day sequence, but some words can't follow the full sequence, so either another word is put in that fits the pattern or a sight word is put in. Sometimes there are 2-3 word phrases as well.

I like the program so far. My youngest is dyslexic and I bought it because it was recommended for dyslexics.

We are also using Megawords. I'm using this program more for the reading practice than for the spelling, although it certainly works on spelling as well.

I think Sequential Spelling and Megawords work well together. SS is pattern-based while Megawords is rules-based.