I will always remember the day. I was in fourth grade (one of the two years I wasn’t homeschooled and went to a private Christian school). It was Friday afternoon, and I sat back in my desk only half listening to the teacher. After all, it was the time every week when she passed out spelling tests. She always announced the grades of those who got a 100 or higher (bonus word were extra points), and then those kids would go up and get a piece of candy from the jar. Now, my name NEVER got called. I was lucky I wasn’t failing spelling. Seriously, I couldn’t spell to save my life. But that day… I had to do a double take when she called my name off. A 103%??? How is that even possible!?! I jumped out my seat and bounded to the front of the classroom to get my test and a piece of candy. I got a piece of candy! I carefully selected a piece of gum (you know, those hard ones that come in the cheap bags of candy?). Well, I chewed that thing until my jaw hurt and then kept chewing. Even set it on the side of my plate during dinner and popped it back in. Didn’t throw it out until bed time. That piece of gum was precious to me. All because it proved I wasn’t a complete failure.

But I still hated spelling. I hated studying for a test. I hated trying to memorize a stupid list of words that I knew I was just going to forget anyway. Of course my only hope was to memorize them, because that was at least one thing that came more easily to me.

What if there was a different way to learn spelling? What if you didn’t have to cram spelling words down your kid’s throat every week? What if spelling didn’t have to be stressful?

Good news! It doesn’t have to be stressful because there is another way!

The answer: Spelling You See from Demme Learning, the creators of Math-U-See.

I came across this spelling curriculum just after K started kindergarten. Pretty sure I saw a Confessions of a Homeschooler’s YouTube video, and I was sold by the end. This is the answer to a prayer I didn’t even know I should pray. I bought it, and we started using it as soon as K knew all her letters and their sounds (short vowels and basic consonants).

Favorite Features

My absolute favorite thing about this curriculum is that there are NO traditional spelling tests! No test, no pressure, no memorizing a list of arbitrary words.

I also love that it only takes about 10 minutes a day. In fact, the instructions in the book say to stop the dictation part after 10 minutes and that’s it. You move on after that.

Another thing that is amazing about Spelling You See is that the student receives immediate feed back. They can get as much help as they need. If they spell a word incorrectly, you gently tell them that it’s not write and help them put down the right thing.

Format and Elements

Each lesson is divided into five sections (a-e), one per day each week. In Level B and up, each day has a two page spread. On the left you have the text (a nursery rhyme for Level B) that you read with the student and then the student “chunks” the passage. To “chunk” means to go through the passage looking for specific letter grouping and color them with a specific color. The colors are the same throughout the program so consonant chunks (two consonants making one sound: ck, th, ll, etc.) are always blue. The right side of the page (a-c) is copywork. They copy the passage and chunk the words again.

On the d section the left is the same, but the right side is a “No-Rule Day.” It’s a blank page with a section for drawing and a section for writing. The students are encouraged to respond to the passage, but allowed to do whatever the creative bug is itching for them to do that day without worrying about spelling or punctuation. My creative one loves this day!

On the fifth day of the lesson, section e, the left side is dictation instead of copywork. We cover the left side once we’ve read it and done the chunking. I then slowly read the passage as she writes it. I provide punctuation as needed.

We only school four days a weeks since we have a co-op on the fifth day so we skip the c lesson each week as it is a repeat of the a or b section. This works well for K as she is pretty astute and is a visual learner. This might not work for every child though. In Level A – Listen and Write we do not skip anything in the early lessons as we are still getting down the sounds that every letter makes. But the format for Level A lends itself for more fluidity, in other words you don’t feel like you have to complete a lesson in one week since every day is the same.

Level A is a little different from the other levels. Each lesson is still divided into five sections (a-e), but instead of chunking and copywork the lessons are entirely dictation of individual words. The words in each day focus on a rule, such as all short a words, and slowly get harder over the course. But Level A is entirely short vowel words. The first seven lessons include a letter practicing section to help a young student solidify the letter formations and sounds. With both of my older two I have started this book part way through kindergarten once we have covered all the sounds. I didn’t wait for them to have them down pat, just introduced. So we are always going on to the next book part way through the year. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

Cons

I seriously can’t think of any cons of this curriculum. I suppose if you’re child enjoys spelling test this could be a spot of contention. But I “slipped” and called the dictation section at the end of the lesson a test the other day, so you could make that into a test. But the biggest difference would be that you are supposed to correct as they go, encouraging them to figure out what spelling looks right.

I really have nothing bad to say about this program. I absolutely love it! If you want a different approach to spelling, especially if your child struggles with the pressure of a weekly spelling test, check out Spelling You See; it is amazing!