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I’ll admit it up front: This is a homeschool mom post, through and through. If that makes you yawn, don’t feel bad about closing this tab. 😉

We’re nearing the end of our 5th year of homeschooling, and in all five years, one thing has not changed: There are bazillions of curriculum choices out there.

When we started, I took advice from a couple of homeschooling friends, and made some decisions on curriculum, and off we went! It doesn’t help that I was planning to send Gracie girl off to public school until about 3 weeks before the start of the semester. Not much time to prepare! Quick decisions had to be made!

The way I see it, the two main things we teach in kindergarten (which is where we started) are (1) phonemic awareness / phonics / reading and (2) math concepts (time, counting, recognizing numbers, money, simple addition and subtraction, etc). So the language component is very important!

I was a Language Arts major in college. I like language. I love grammar. I am a firm believer in the necessity of phonics in learning to read. (I’m sorry, but sight words and whole language learning do not help a child know how to decode a word he or she has never seen before!!!)

So, with that background, I started off with a program called Spell to Write and Read, which I will hereafter refer to as “SWR.” Once a child understands that oral language and written words are connected, the program starts by helping the child to learn the 70 basic phonogram sounds (i.e. the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, for instance, “A” says different sounds in the words cat, ace, and lava). This is done with flashcards and lots of repetition.

Then they learn to write their numbers and letters. For this part of the program, we opted to use the companion curriculum called Cursive First. I still use this and HIGHLY recommend it. Cursive, because of its curves and connectedness (you don’t pick up your pencil until the end of the entire word), is easier for small brains to learn to write. And it’s a beautiful dying art!

Once these two steps are complete, students are ready to start their spelling lists!

I was floored when Grace wrote this list, only a couple of months into the program:

That was with me sounding it out with her, but not telling her which letters to write. And isn’t her cursive beautiful for a child who has not quite reached her 5th birthday?!

So, all that was fine and dandy. From there, the program was based on learning new phonograms (th, ch, sh…) and writing spelling lists solely from dictation. They also had some spelling rules thrown in there, but I was never very good at remembering to teach them or review them.

Honestly? It went really well the first 2-3 years, and then it became boring. I dreaded teaching that subject and would often skip it if the day was going long. It gave the kids a nice foundation in phonics, and yet it bored me to death. (And remember, I like this stuff.)

SO! Here’s the happy news about homeschooling! If a particular curriculum isn’t working out for you…CHANGE IT!!!

And we did. I had seen a homeschooling blogger I respected mention the All About Spelling and All About Reading programs. So I researched them, read some other bloggers’ opinions about them, watched some vlogs about them, and decided to give All About Spelling a try!

I started Ava (1st grade) in Level 1. And because it was a new program and I didn’t want the older two to miss anything they needed to know, I started both Grace (4th grade) and Caleb (2nd grade) in Level 2. {Grace has advanced to Level 4, which she will finish by the end of the year. Caleb will complete Level 3 by the end of the year. And Ava recently started Level 2.}

The beginning of the program is similar to SWR. Students must learn the phonogram sounds. Thankfully, Ava already knew all of hers from SWR in kindergarten. Once those are mastered, they move on.

There are many things I love about All About Spelling (AAS)…

• No prep for me. The lessons are laid out in a very easy-to-understand way. The beginning of each lesson details what materials I need, and the rest of the lesson is scripted. Of course I don’t have to follow the script word-for-word, but it takes the guesswork out of it for mama!
• Repetition. Key concepts are taught in the lesson, reinforced by flashcards, and practiced in spelling lists.

• Logical teaching of spelling rules. This is a huge one for me. I really struggled with teaching the spelling rules in SWR. But the AAS lessons really focus on a clear teaching (and review) of each spelling rule (such as “C says /s/ before e, i, and y.”).  Once a rule is taught, it is put into context, and the child practices applying it. Key concept cards (the blue ones in the picture above) are reviewed regularly so students remember the rules. And they continue to apply the rules in subsequent lessons.
• Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning…All three learning styles are satisfied in this program. Along with mama’s teaching (auditory) and flashcards (visual), a large part of each lesson is spent manipulating phonogram magnets (kinesthetic / visual). The kids love this part.




• A quick pace…SWR took us a lot longer each day than this program does. Or maybe this one is more fun, so it doesn’t seem like it takes as long? Each level has 25+ lessons, which can be done as quickly or as slowly as is right for each student. Our kids have progressed through their lessons fairly quickly, and it seems to boost their morale and help them to enjoy the subject even more.

The end of each lesson consists of lists of words, phrases, and/or sentences. I dictate these to the kiddo, and the kiddo writes the words/phrases/sentences in his or her notebook, figuring out how to spell each word by using their knowledge of phonogram sounds as well as applying each concept he or she has learned.

In addition, “Writing Station” is added to the end of each lesson in Levels 3 and on, where students are given 5 words and must write a paragraph with all 5 words. Grace loves this part and has been very creative, even linking her short stories from one day to the next. Caleb complains that he doesn’t like this part, but I think his stories are also creative and often make me chuckle.

Honestly? I would not tell you NOT to use SWR. It’s a solid program that gave Grace and Caleb a good foundation in phonics and reading. However, I would more HIGHLY recommend the All About Spelling program for the reasons listed above. We have thoroughly enjoyed the switch to this new curriculum, and we’re thankful for the way it has changed our dread of spelling to delight!