Spelling Workout/Modern Curriculum Press Review

by Elizabeth B
(Safety Harbor, FL)

Through our part homeschool/part-on-site school, we have used Spelling Workout homeschool curriculum for five years. (We are currently looking for a better one.)

The set-up of the lessons does not overly impress me. For students who struggle with spelling, it is not the best approach. Students are given lists of words that are all similarly grouped together. They use the words for 2-3 short pages of workbook activities and then move on.

My older student memorizes the words for the test and then doesn't worry with them again, and not in a good way. :) My younger student had trouble with most of the lessons as far as the words they chose to include in the particular lesson; they are grouped in a confusing manner (ball, crawl, draw, or girl, her, turn or due, grew, and you). Which are spelled with ir, er, or, or ur? The lists should be separated with sounds in mind instead of combining like sounds.

Also, the curriculum tries to insert grammar into the spelling lessons. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your take.

I find that I would rather concentrate on spelling and learning more about the words and their definition, origins, usage, etc. than learning how to spell a list of words that the consonant doubles when adding "ing". I have a great grammar text that teaches these very well.

I do appreciate the lessons on recognizing misspelled words and other grammatical mistakes when reviewing and what the appropriate proofreading marks are to indicate them.

Spelling Workout Homeschool Curriculum Gets an A+

by Chanin

Struggel with spelling wurds corectly? Give yor bad spellr a great Spelling Workout; find spelling success, and have loads of fun in the process!

Our family has really enjoyed using the Spelling Workout books by Modern Curriculum Press. We have been using them for three years now. We used 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade editions which are actually labeled A,B,C.

My children enjoy the fun approach they use to spelling. As part of the program they right rules of spelling (i before e...except after c....etc), learn to proofread, spell, write simple stories, learn prefix and suffix, etc.

It is a nice complete series that makes me feel like my children are progressing and learning as the move through the books.

They have fun doing so with the sports themes the books use. When they spell a word wrong, they get to put it in their "word locker" and we pull them out of the locker later once they have mastered spelling that word.

Thanks for sharing your review of Spelling Workout! I know spelling is a subject many children struggle with and parents are looking for resources that work. Blessings, Heather :)

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