Introduction :-)

Hi :-) I placed my first AAS order on Friday and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival! My name is Cheryl and recognize a few here from the FIAR boards. I have 5 children (15, 14, 6, 3 & 2) and have always homeschooled.

My second child's abysmal spelling (14 yo ds) is what has led me to AAS. He is extremely intelligent and way above grade level in all subjects (including reading, which is college level) except for spelling. In the very beginning we used CLP's spelling (which I didn't like), then Phonetic Zoo (both HATED the CD format), then Spelling Power (worked for my oldest by not my second), then Sequential Spelling (the only thing that he shown any progress with) and soon AAS.

I've been hesitant to try another phonics based program because Spelling Power was such a dismal failure (giving him multiple ways to spell a sound and then a list of words that used all of them left him confused as to which to use and frustrated) but it seems like AAS is different so I'm hopeful. I've been confused because he's such an excellent reader so I thought he remembered all his phonics but now wonder if he only remembers what helps most for reading and not spelling. He is an extremely visual learner (which is why the Phonetic Zoo CD's didn't work for him) and I think that's why we've seen some progress with Sequential Spelling but it's been slow and I'd like him to progress from abysmal spelling to at least lousy spelling before he graduates high school so I'm going to give AAS a shot ;-)

Since I have 2 Pre-K children I'm very interested in the upcoming Pre-Spelling and Reading book and All About Reading.

I'd love any advice/encouragement/etc anyone has to give :-)

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Permalink Reply by siloam on March 1, 2010 at 11:49am: Welcome!

AAS should work where Spelling Power didn't for a few reasons. First being it does have the visual element your ds needs with the different colored tiles. Second is that it generally introduces one sound at a time, the most common form of that sound, building visual memory of the those words before introducing another version of the sound. It shouldn't overwhelm and confuse.

Also you set the pace, so if he has a particularly difficult area, you can slow down and camp out as needed.

Heather; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl in SoCal on March 1, 2010 at 2:36pm: Thanks Heather :-) I can't wait for my AAS to arrive!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Merry on March 1, 2010 at 12:59pm: Welcome Cheryl! I posted on your other thread :-). Glad to see you here. (You look familiar, do I know you from SL or WTM?) Merry :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl in SoCal on March 1, 2010 at 2:39pm: Hi Merry, thanks for the welcome! I'm not sure what SL or WTM stand for so I doubt you've seen me there ;-) The only homeschool forum I visit is FIAR. The only other forum I've been on is Holt's adoption forum but that's probably a long shot and I haven't been on there for a while. I'm on several Yahoo groups (TRISMS, IEW, Mystery of History, MUS and several others but there aren't pictures on them. I probably just have one of those faces :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Merry on March 1, 2010 at 3:04pm: LOL, must be! Hey, I'm on the Mystery of History group too :-).

Merry :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl in SoCal on March 4, 2010 at 12:55am: I'm not very active but I'm there :-)

Is the tentative release date for Level 6 and the new readers still April? I need to place another order but want to do it after they are available to save on shipping. My 2 year old got a hold of some of the letter tiles and chewed one of the titles :-/; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Merry on March 4, 2010 at 10:07am: Yes it is :-).

Also, if you need just a tile, or a couple of tiles, email AAS & they can send them out free.

Merry :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl in SoCal on March 4, 2010 at 12:12pm: How nice, thanks for letting me know! It's just one of the titles (The Sound of /sh/) so I'll email them :-)

How do most use the white board (I bought a 2' x 3' magnetic white board from Costco)? Do the kids put it in their lap/on the table/etc? I don't really have room to mount it because I have a 4' x 6' white board that fills up the large wall space area in our school room.

Thanks!
Cheryl; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Merry on March 4, 2010 at 1:50pm: Different ways. We have leaned ours against the back of the couch & sat on either side of it, or we've put it on a chair, or leaned it against something and sat on the floor etc... Recently I figured out (yes, it took me almost 2 years, LOL!) that I could re-orient the set-up vertically and that then I'd have room to hang this on a closet door that's in our hs area (I also didn't have a 3' wide space to hang it). Before that we just stored it next to the couch & pulled it out when we needed it.

Merry :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cheryl in SoCal on March 4, 2010 at 7:59pm: Thanks so much; those are excellent ideas! Our closet is in the hall so I don't think that would work but looking for a space 2' wide is easier than 3' wide. If I could figure out how to mount it on the side of our front door we never open that would be great. I'll have to see if maybe the doo-hicky I use to hang a wreath would work with the magnetic white board. Then I could even just store it out of the reach of a certain hungry toddler but easily be able to get it on/off the door.

Cheryl :-); ▶ Reply to This

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