Evan-Moor’s Building Spelling Skills – Grades 1 – 6

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Are you looking for a quality spelling program for your elementary kids?  When my daughter was a 2nd grader, we found a delightful program that was phonics based and developmentally appropriate, from Evan Moor.

Evan Moor is a publishing company that serves both public school teachers and homeschoolers.  We loved their spelling program so much that we continued using it through 6th grade.  Here is my review of this program, using their 2nd grade book as a way to introduce it to you.

Ass a second grader, my daughter loved to write and create her own sentences and little stories. I was so pleased that she liked to write but not pleased with the number of misspelled words! I didn’t want to correct each word, as that would affect her free thinking writing attempts.

So I consulted with the staff at our local teaching supplies store and the homeschoolers in my group. They all agreed that correcting each mistake was unnecessary and that the spelling skills would come over time with practice.

When I found Evan Moor’s Building Spelling Skills – Grade 2, I knew I had found what we needed! Easy to use and fun spelling practice for my daughter.

Features of BUILDING SPELLING SKILLS – Grade 2:

• A well set out program!! Each lesson includes 10 spelling words and room to add two more.
• Spelling words are based on the 200 most commonly used words in the English language and the words frequently misspelled by second graders.
• They are printed in large font with black and white illustrations.
• Lessons are centered around common phonetic elements – easier to learn!

Each  lesson in BUILDING SPELLING SKILLS includes the following activities:

• Visual Memory Shape Activity, using the shapes of the letters to make a puzzle.
• Spell Vowel Sounds  – Practice  with the sounds/vowels.
• Word Study – Cut and glue activities.

The activities in this book are repeated in a predictable sequence.

This helped my daughter to feel mastery and to work independently. All I needed to do was to remind her when it was spelling time, give spelling tests and to reinforce her work!

We used stickers and a chart for rewards. My daughter would chose her own stickers at the local store. Friday was sticker day – after the spelling test! She loved Fridays. With time, my daughter became a good speller. She began to integrate her knowledge of English (from her reading), with the spelling skills (from SPELLING SKILLS – grade 2).

Gradually there were more correctly spelled words in her writing! And this learning happened naturally. There are many good spelling programs out there but for my family, we liked BUILDING SPELLING SKILLS.

For more information, please click here.

Building Spelling Skills curriculum is available for grades 1 to 6.

Here’s to equipping the next generation with the skills to become excellent writers!

Betsy’s most important role  is mom to her college student whom she homeschooled from day one.  She blogs at BJ’s Homeschool about the early years, high school and college, and is the author of “Homeschooling High School with College in Mind“.  She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ’s Consulting.