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ALL ABOUT SPELLING *FLIP-THROUGH & REVIEW* | Homeschool Curriculum Review
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Jun 19, 2024
Heard about All About Spelling, but not quite sure what the curriculum is like (or if it would be a good fit for your homeschool)? I'm sharing why we are using it in our homeschool AND flipping through the curriculum for you so you can see exactly what it's like. MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ⭐ All About Spelling Curriculum: https://www.allaboutlearningpress.net/go.php?id=1699 Stick around! Subscribe and hit that notification bell for updates on new videos weekly. 📧 Let’s Connect! 📬 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blessedhomeschoolblog/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blessedhomeschool ********************************************* Hey there! I’m Sara, and I’m a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom to 4 kiddos (including a set of twins!). I balance homeschooling while working full-time from home, and am so thankful you are here. I love sharing about homeschooling on my blog, Blessed Homeschool, where you’ll find tips, resources, and curriculum reviews. Whether you are a newbie or a veteran, I hope you will leave inspired and equipped with what you find. MORE VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE
View Video Transcript
0:00
I thought I could get by with teaching my kids how to spell using traditional curriculum
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and spelling lists. Turns out I was wrong. Today I'm going to share my thoughts about the curriculum
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we switched to last year, all about spelling, and give you an entire flip-through of their curriculum
0:13
So you can better decide if this might be something you'd like to try in your homeschool
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Okay, so I personally am a pretty naturally good speller, and I think I just assumed my kids would follow in my footsteps
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right that spelling would come easily for them. Well, as they've gotten older and have started to write more on their own
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I was noticing that the spelling list we've been drilling each week just were not
0:41
translating to them being able to spell well as they were writing, either for fun or for
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their schoolwork. I actually used all about spelling with my oldest son. We did two levels of it, and I began using level one with my girls years ago
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However, this was right at the time my youngest son was about to be born, and I switched
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up our curriculum that year to BJU Press and we used their full curriculum packages. This included
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spelling and I figured that their spelling curriculum was as good as any and that if my girls
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just completed the work and did their lessons, they would basically learn how to spell. That's how
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it works, right? Well, it worked for my son, but my girls were constantly falling behind because
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they struggled with the spelling list each week. So we would spend more time practicing and testing
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each list, going over random spelling words, and it just wasn't sticking. Or they would memorize a list of
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words, but forget how to spell those same words a week later. And if they needed to spell tough
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words that were not on their lists, well, all bets were completely off. And I 100% take the blame for
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not staying on top of this sooner, but we just kept plugging along with the curriculum that
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looking back was obviously not the best way for my girls to learn how to spell. I don't recommend
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doing this, by the way. So last year, we began an integrated language arts curriculum. You guys can watch my video on that if you're interested
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It's the learning language arts through literature purple book video and their
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approach to spelling was still using a list each week, but studying words that kids
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naturally are using and misspelling in their own work along with tough words
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selected from literature passages each week. I think this was better but still not great
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I knew by this time that it was time to really change things up and try a
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completely different approach even if it meant going back to square one with spelling
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So that's exactly what we did. I pulled out our old All About Spelling level one and we started
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chipping away at it. We are now working through level two and we will be starting level three in the fall
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So why is this approach different? How is all about spelling different? Well you don't just memorize
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spelling lists with this curriculum. All About Spelling is a multi-sensory program. It's
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mastery based and uses what's called the Orton-Gillingham approach, which includes many methods of teaching spelling
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that have been proven to be very effective for many types of learners, both kids who struggle
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with reading and spelling and those who don't. I love that this curriculum is sequential
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the lessons build on each other. So when you start from the beginning, you can trust that you're
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not going to have any gaps in the learning process. And when you get through level seven, their
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highest level, your kids will be spelling at a high school level and have the ability to spell
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pretty much any word they might need to. The other thing I really like about this program is that
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it's completely scripted out so I know exactly what we should be doing and saying throughout the lesson
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I don't have to plant anything out. The only thing I really need to do to prep is make sure I have
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the correct cards handy, but other than that, it's pretty open and go. So if you are a busy parent
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like me, this is made for you. Today I'm going to be showing you the level three curriculum
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but the format of this is very similar to the other levels that I've seen. So even if your kids aren't
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going to use level three yet, this will give you a good idea of what to expect to
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with this curriculum. So let me do a really brief overview of what you get when you purchase the
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All About Spelling Level 3 package, and then I'll show you what a lesson will actually look like
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Okay, so when you purchase the All About Spelling Level 3 kit, this is what comes in your package
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So you get a set of the letter tiles. This includes letter tiles for all levels. You get tokens
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syllable tags, magnets, and then two zip storage bags. I haven't opened this yet because
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we have letter tiles already. This came with an extra set that I purchased that I just wanted to show you
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But you guys probably saw these on the board when I was doing my other part of the video
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They're just little tiles that you can use and the consonants are in blue, vowels are in red
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and then they come with the little magnets that you can stick on the back. So you can use them on a whiteboard if you have one handy
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Or I've seen people use them on cookie sheets or just small magnetic boards
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things like that. They also now have an app that you can use instead of the letter tiles, which they
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didn't have when I first went through the curriculum. I like the app. However, I only have an iPhone
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I don't have a big tablet right now. So it sometimes is a little bit harder to use on an iPhone
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So a lot of times we just prefer to use the tiles. And since I have them out all the time, it's not a
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huge deal just to go to the whiteboard and use them. But if that is cumbersome for you, they do have an app
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that you can purchase separately and a lot of people really like it. It's a great addition
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I think, to this curriculum. Okay, so then you also get a set of stickers and these are going to go
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on the progress chart in the student book, which I'll show you in a minute, but every time they
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finish a lesson, they get a sticker. These were just extra tiles that came with the kit. Okay, you have
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your teacher's manual here. I will be flipping through this in just a minute, kind of giving you a
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bigger look at what an actual lesson looks like, but you get a teacher's manual and you get a student
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activity book. The activity book is great. It's a new addition to the color version of this curriculum
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and I will go through this as well and kind of show you what is included in here. Once we get
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through, once we get to the look through part, you also get your sets of cards in here. So you
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they all perforated You have to tear them apart but the different colors you have phonogram cards in yellow So they basically just like flash cards The back tells you what the sound should be
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And so these are just to teach your kids the different phonograms that they'll be learning
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The red cards are going to be your sound cards. So making sure your kids know all the correct sounds that they're going to need to know in this level
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Blue cards are key cards or rule cards. So there's different rules throughout this curriculum that they will learn
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And these kind of are flashcards to help quiz your kids and make sure they know all of the rules
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And then finally, the green cards are your word cards. So these are going to be the words that they're learning to spell
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You kind of again, use them as flashcards to make sure that they know how to use the different rules that you're learning
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And something else that I recommend getting. This is not included, it's extra, but it's their spelling review box
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I highly recommend purchasing one of these because it's a great way to just store all of your cards and organize them, help you keep track of what your kids are learning throughout all of your years using all about spelling
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So when you purchase the box, you get a set of tab dividers. I have an extra one in here because we were using them with my son again
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So I have duplicates of some of these things. But all my girls level one stuff is in the back
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And then this is our level two stuff that we've been using so far. How they organize this is you've got those yellow cards, the phonogram cards
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You have a review section mastered and then future lessons. So all of your future lessons, if you already have them cut out, you put them behind that third tab
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Once your kids master them, they go behind that tab. And then you're still continuing to review them throughout the year
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And then the ones that they don't know quite yet go in the review tab
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And this is the same for each of those colors. So you have sound card, sound cards, review, mastered, and future lessons
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Key cards review, mastered, and future lessons. And then same for your word cards
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So it is extra, but it's a great sized box. It holds all of your cards, and it's just a really good way to keep everything organized
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Now, if you are using all about spelling with more than one student, you are going to need an extra
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I would recommend getting an extra box, and you're also going to need, with this new edition
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an extra activity book per child. And then you're also going to want that extra set of flashcards
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You really do want one of these per student. I'm using this curriculum with my twin girls, and I didn't get one for each of them the first time through
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I thought I could just get one of them, get one set, and keep everything straight
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But it totally didn't work because, of course, my girls didn't learn things at
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the same rate. So this second time through that we went around, I got them each, their own box
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their own cards, their own materials, and it's been so much easier to keep everything straight
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The teacher's manual is non-consumable. So I love that you can use this with future kids once you
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have it. So the only thing, if you buy a level of all about spelling and then you want to use
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it in the future, the only thing that you're going to need, if you're doing this with one
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child at a time is really the extra activity books if you want to purchase those. They do have
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some charts and certificates in here. So like I mentioned before, there is a progress chart that your
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kids are going to use these stickers on every time they create or every time they complete a lesson
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And in the very back, there is a final certificate of completion. And they have extra charts and
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certificates on their website that you can actually print out. So even, you know, if you don't
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buy another book or you don't want to use it with other kids, then, you know, this curriculum is great
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You can just follow along in your teacher manual, use your cards, and reuse this over and over again
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Okay, next I want to show you a flip through of the teacher's manual, which will give you a step-by-step
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idea of how and all about spelling lesson goes. Keep in mind, I have only seen levels one, two, and three
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And like I said, they go up to level seven. But what I've seen some, far is pretty similar meaning the lesson structure is pretty much the same so this is really
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what you can expect i think from any level plus if you have an older edition you will see how this
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new color addition compares to the black and white versions i don't think there are too many
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differences i know that some lessons are slightly reworked and might have slight additions but
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the biggest difference is the addition of the activity book which i will show you when we get there
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oh and there is also a new advanced application section for older students
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that has been added, which is different from the black and white additions. Okay, so let me get this stuff out of the way for a moment
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We're going to go through one of the lessons in here and just give you a really good idea of what
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this curriculum is like. All right, the front of this teacher manual is just a lot of introduction, kind of setting it up
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teaching you how to use the program. So I'm just going to start at a lesson in the middle
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I also want you to know that each lesson is not meant to be completed in one day or sitting
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It's going to seem long. I think for most kids it would be too much to do in one day
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Some of that is going to depend on your kids' age, their attention span, or how well they already know the concepts that are being taught
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But these lessons are meant to be spread out sometimes over the course of an entire week
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And it's recommended that you really only spend about 20 minutes a day on your spelling lesson
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So as we go through this, keep that in mind and don't feel like this lesson would be something that you have to do all in one day or all in one sitting
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All right, so lesson five, they give you at the beginning of every lesson, this green, yellowish box right here
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This is for you as the parents. So they're going to tell you what the objective is, what they're going to be teaching in that lesson
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They're going to tell you exactly what you need. So for this lesson, we're going to need some of the pages in our activity book
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We're going to need a syllable tag from our one of our letter tiles
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We going to need the jobs of silent e poster the silent e book I think this is actually a book that they worked on from their activity book in a previous lesson This isn an extra book or anything that you need to buy But these are the word cards
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you're going to need and then a yellow pencil. And then before you begin, it always just gives you
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an overview as a parent what your kids are going to learn and what you might need to keep in mind
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as you are going through the lesson. All right. And then so every lesson
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starts off with a review. So you're going to go through that card box and you're going to
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review some of your phonogram cards. You're going to review the sound cards, the rule cards
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and your word cards. And these right here are having you review ones that are behind the review
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section. Some lessons, I think, go back and even have you review ones that they have mastered
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already just so they keep that practice up. And you don't have to review every
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single card. If you have a lot of them back there, you can kind of pick and choose which ones you
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want to review for each lesson and what would be enough for your kids. All right. And then after the
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review, you get to the new teaching. So it usually is going to have you using the letter tiles or
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that app. You will build certain words and then do different things with those letter tiles to teach
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whatever the new rule is that you're teaching. So here they're teaching about the pickle syllable type
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So they're doing some things with the open syllable tags. And you'll see that it is completely scripted out
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So it tells you exactly what to do. It tells you exactly what to say, what your kids should be answering, what to do next
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So it's a no-brainer. You don't have to plan anything out. It's all right here for you
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And then you get into the new teaching continued. They're introduced to this new syllable tag
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This is going to be one of the letter tiles that they'll have. So they will be using that along with their letter tiles
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now from now on talks about how they're going to be using those how you should label the different
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sections and when that is used so that is a short brief new teaching and that is the focus of
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that lesson so then the kids are going to move on to an activity sheet again these are new
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with the color additions my girls really love these even though some of the activities seem
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kind of young, they still really like them. They give kids just different ways to practice the new
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concepts that they are taught. So it might depend on your kid whether or not they enjoy these
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activities or if they think they're kind of silly. You might get some mixed reviews on that
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But for this one, see, we have page 45 and 48. So you would have your kids split to those pages
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and you could tear them out. But we've got this page here. And then these cards, looks like you're
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going to cut them out. So you're going to cut out the pickle and dill cards and place them in a pile
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with the words facing up. So these words would face up. Place the pile in an upper corner of the
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pickle jar scene. Have your student pick a card determine whether the word ends with a pickle
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syllable and then turn it over. If they find a pickle, they can place that word on top of the
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pickle jar. If they find some dill, they may place it in the lower right corner with other ingredients
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and you're going to continue until they have picked all the pickles. So it's just a different way, a
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hands-on way for your kids to practice what they have just learned. Okay, so there is that first
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activity in the activity book. Okay, and then we move on up to this point kids have been learning
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about jobs of silent E and what the different jobs are in spelling. So there is a fifth job that
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they're going to be learning in this section and there is a jobs of silent E poster that goes along with
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And again, these are found in this book right here. Oh, and here is that silent e book. It looks like it's a little book that they're going to be putting together as they learn the different jobs of silent e. And then here is the jobs of silent e poster. So again, this would be something that you would probably tear out. You could hang it up in your room, wherever you do your spelling lessons so your kids can kind of see them and be, have that reinforcement of their lessons throughout the day. They've got posters for all the different spelling rules
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that your kids are going to learn. They're illustrated, colorful. So they will look great hanging up in your home school area
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Okay, after that part of the lesson, then you get to your word cards
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So usually there are about 10 new word cards every lesson. And you're going to take those out
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and have your child spell them in their dictation notebook. I know in some of the younger levels
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they first have the kids spell them with the letter tiles and practicing
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the different sounds, but it looks like in this level, level three, they go right to dictation. So you
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would read the word to your kids and they would write them down in a notebook. And there are two
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cards it looks like in this set of 10 that are a little bit different. So they've got two rule breakers
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that they're going to go through. And it's just going to teach your kids if there are any kind of
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special rules that they're going to need to just learn. They call them rule breakers. So they're going to
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go over that new teaching here. Okay. And then after this, there
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is always a section with some extra words for practice. So they just give another list of words
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that reinforce the concepts that are taught in the lesson. And if you want additional practice for your kids
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they can practice these in their dictation notebook or with the letter tiles
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Then they have another activity sheet in here. So again, this is from the activity book, page 49
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Okay, and it says you're gonna cut out the green cards at the bottom
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dictate the following words and have your students write them on a green card
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after they've been written, they can place the cards into the sentences at the top of the page in any order and enjoy the silly sentences
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So again, just another different fun way to practice what they are learning
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I really like this new edition of the activity books with the color edition of this program
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So these are a lot of fun. All right. Finally, something new that I have seen in this level
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I don't believe this is in the younger levels that I have right now, but they have a word bank
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These word banks are here to really help kids improve their visual memory They give a list of words that contain the new spelling patterns that were just taught and your kids are going to read through the word bank to get familiar with the way the words look So it better helps them recognize the correct spelling This reminds me
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a little bit of the All About Reading program where you have your word banks to kind of read through
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but they're a lot shorter. And again, this is something new that is included. These are in the
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activity book as well. So your kids would just take the list and they would practice reading through
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this and this could be something that you could do daily if you wanted to the week that you're going through
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this lesson. After that, we've got dictating sentences. You've got a list here of sentences you can dictate
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and they will write them in their notebooks. And then at the end, this is also new for this new color
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edition. You have advanced application. So at the end of most lessons, these are here to meet the
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needs of older students who maybe know how to spell some of the simple words, but they just need
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a little bit more. They need extra. So we are using these now in the level two that we're going
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through. They're usually multi-syllable words that cover the same concept from the current lesson
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So again, this is in the activity book. So if I go to page 52, you're going to see it there
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It's usually nothing super long, but just a little bit extra for kids who might want that
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advanced practice. And then finally, we go to the progress chart and they get to more
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mark their chart that I showed you earlier with their sticker. Now remember, this seemed like a lot
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Like I told you, you are not supposed to do all of this in one sitting or one day. You certainly can
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if your kid is super motivated and they really understand it. But most likely you're going to
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split this up over a couple of days. So probably, you know, the first day you're definitely
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going to want to do the review. You would probably do the new teaching and maybe the activity
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sheet. I would probably do that on day one. And then maybe on day two, you would do your
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this next new teaching, the fifth job of silent E, do your silent ebook, and then maybe do
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the spelling word cards right here. The third day might be a good day to go over the rule breakers
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You're adding on these two extra cards right here and maybe a little bit extra practice if you
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wanted to do some extra practice on that third day. For the fourth day, you could do you could do
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the activity sheet, have them read the word bank, maybe do some dictation of the sentences
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And then on that last day, maybe finish up the sentences you haven't done, do a little bit
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more practice and reinforcement, and then maybe even move on to that advanced application
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if you want to, if you wanted a full five-day week. But that would be a good way, I think
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to split this up. And there are, I think, about 30 lessons. Let me double check. In this particular
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program level three. Yep, there are 30 lessons. So if you did one lesson a week, it's going to take
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you probably a good chunk of the school year to get through that lesson. And then one other thing
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that I thought was kind of neat, starting in lesson 18, and this is specifically for this
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level three right here. Okay, where is it? Okay, in their activity book on page 129, they have this
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writing station new activity where kids are going to kind of get to use their imaginations a little bit more
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This is kind of described as a bridge between writing from all the dictation that you're going to do in the
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lessons to writing in real life. So for this first part up here, you're going to dictate words to your
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kids. And then for the sentences, they're going to come up with their own sentences, use their own
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creativity, and write sentences using those words. So I thought that was another thing worth mentioning
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kind of as they progress through this curriculum, it gets more challenging for them, which it should
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And I like seeing the progression that we, you know, where we started in level one, how this
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curriculum really, really builds on itself. It doesn't leave those gaps. And it's just really
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scaffolded to make sure that the kids are learning what they need to learn, but then being challenged
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as they move along in the curriculum. Okay, so I think that's it. I hope that gave you a good idea of what to
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expect with these lessons along with a little bit about the program in general. Like I said, from
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what I've seen, the levels do tend to follow a similar format, but I am not 100% sure what levels
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4 through 7 may contain as I have not used them yet. If you've used a black and white version in the
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past, you can move to a color version with no trouble at all. You don't have to worry about missing
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anything. So if you have older editions, I think those are completely fine to still use. You
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really just won't have these extra activity books and resources included. It's highly recommended
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that you begin with level one so you can make sure your child doesn't have any gaps in their learning
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But All About Spelling does have a placement test on their website if you want to take that to be sure which version to start with
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And when I first used this years ago with my son, we didn't begin all about spelling until he had finished all about reading level one
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You want to start after your child has had a strong start in reading already
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So will my girls become master spellers now after using all about spelling
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Time will tell, I guess. I have no clue. But I can tell you that I'm already seeing progress and an increase in confidence. My girls are already more excited about spelling because they are seeing success with these lessons. They are no longer dreading spelling tests on Friday and having that sense of failure when they can't remember how to spell that list of words. So I love that. I love the structure, the flexibility we have with each lesson, knowing that we are not under any kind of timeline to crank out these lessons. And we can simply take them at our own pace
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so much I love about this program. But most of all, I love that we are not just memorizing words
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anymore. My girls are learning tools that they can use that will help them decode and spell
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any word they want to in the future, which is really the point, right? If you have any questions
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at all, I would love to hear them. Leave a comment below and please hit that thumbs up button
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if you found this video helpful and subscribe to my channel if you are interested in more homeschool
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curriculum reviews, tips, and encouragement throughout the year. I love sharing it with you guys
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as always. I will see you next time
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