Spelling You See is a brand new curriculum from the Math-U-See company. I’ve used Math-U-See for years, so I was intrigued when I saw this spelling program. I received a PDF version of Jack and Jill (Level B) for reviewing purposes, however, the actual product comes in physical book form. Spelling You See is geared for elementary aged students, but can also be used as a remedial program for older students. There is a section on the Getting Started Page with Placement Guidelines for each level. There are two more levels planned to follow the current levels: Ancient Achievements and Modern Milestones.
Jack and Jill (Level B) consists of the Instructor’s Handbook, two Student Workbooks, a Guide to Handwriting, and a pack of erasable colored pencils. There are 36 lessons all together with each lesson broken down into five segments marked A-E. Each two page segment (A, B, C, D or E) are to be done daily making it so you complete a lesson a week. Now this can be modified, of course, for your particular student. Spelling is learned primarily through a combination of reading, copywork and dictation which covers hearing, seeing, and writing the words for better retention. The program uses visual, audio, and kinesthetic (clapping the syllables for example) learning styles.
The handbook talks about the idea behind Spelling You See, the skills and concepts to be gained in this level, and an overview of the lessons. There is a write up for each lesson to help guide you through. There is also a section discussing some of the tools used in Spelling You See such as letter chunking, dictation, and something called “no rule day”. Intriguing, yes? Plus, there is a section with helpful resources including passages for dictation and a section with frequently asked questions and their answers.
This curriculum is really easy to use. I spent time reading through the handbook, and then I read the lesson overview before I start each new lesson. Basically, we read the nursery rhyme and clap the syllables. Then we read back through it slowly while my daughter points at each word. Then we have an activity such as marking punctuation, recognizing capital letters, chunking, etc. After that, my daughter has some copywork followed by dictation. Dictation is only supposed to be done for 10 minutes or less, so overall, the lessons aren’t that long. At this point, the lessons are fairly easy for my daughter, so she is able to move a little faster for now. Once the lessons become more challenging for her, we’ll slow things back down.
The second workbook changes format a little and includes vowel chunking and some other spelling rule (such as silent e) followed by copywork for the first three lesson segments. The fourth segment has the same first page work followed by the No Rule Day work which is either to draw a picture of the nursery rhyme or to write one (or a story) of their own. Then the final lesson again has chunking followed by dictation.
I asked my daughter if she liked Spelling You See, and she does, as long as we don’t try to do too many pages at once. Since she can move faster at the moment, we stop when she’s done for the day. She likes having this control over her work limit, and usually comes back for a little more on her own accord.
Spelling You See is completely different from the “spelling rules to learn, spelling lists to study, spelling tests to take” cycle. Rather than the disconnect in this typical cycle, the students learn spelling as they use it in their sentence or phrases copywork and word, phrase or sentence dictation.
I know this method is better, but I’m also having trouble letting go of the spelling lists routine. I find myself wrestling between the familiar and what I know to be the better choice. I’m a huge Charlotte Mason fan, and this seems like a beautiful compliment to her educational methods.
I’m going to continue using this with my youngest daughter, and seriously consider buying other levels for my older children. Believe it or not, they enjoy the spelling lists because I make up funny sentences, but this whole language method is really appealing. Besides, we can still throw in the occasional spelling lists for fun.
Bottom line: Do I recommend this? Yes. I believe it is a great approach to teaching spelling. Plus, I like the gentle approach to punctuation, and copywork and dictation are great ways to teach proper grammar, too. Win all around.
Spelling You See: Jack and Jill (Level B):
Instructor’s Handbook = $16
Student Pack = $30
You can find a sample lesson on the product page. There is also an FAQ page with more information. Spelling You See can be found on both Facebook and Twitter.
