This blog is my attempt to document our busy but BLESSED lives raising and educating our children for His glory. A child of God, wife to one, and mom to6 fabulous kids. We are in our 17th year of homeschooling using a Classical ~ Literature based approach. Come along for the good, the bad & the ugly.
Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Regulations.
Hi there! Today I am excited to tell you about the homeschool spelling curriculum we have been using with Micah, my 6 year old, since January. It’s called Superstar Spelling from The Crafty Classroom and it has helped him to learn to spell his weekly spelling words in a fun way!
The Crafty Classroom is the brainchild of Valerie McClintick who produces top quality educational resources for math, reading, science, alphabet, Bible, writing, and more! All of her products are priced affordably so you are not going to break the bank getting quality curriculum material. We received a digital download PDF of the editable spelling curriculum designed for children in Kindergarten to grade 5.
The best feature of the Superstar Spelling Program is that it is editable! Meaning you can choose 20 of your own spelling words to input and the program will automatically generate a customized spelling list. The included worksheets pages cover the important spelling lessons including: Syllables ~ Vowels ~ ABC Order ~ Beginning Letters
This multi-sensory spelling program has a clear set routine so it takes the guess work out of what should be done each day. With over 30 differentiated activity pages across the five school days you will have plenty of hands-on spelling activities to choose from to help your student learn to spell. And for the busy moms with multiple ages, it is NO-Prep. Just type the list once and your words are generated in black and white for all the activity pages.
Using this with Micah was so easy! I simply downloaded the PDF curriculum and saved it to my MAC desktop. Then I opened it up in my Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to enable editing. Just an FYI, If you open the file in a browser or a different program you will not be able to edit. The PDF file gives you a link to download a free copy of Adobe Reader as well.
Then I simply typed in Micah’s wordlist into the correct numbered boxes. I really liked that the longer words would automatically resize to fit the space properly. There is space for 20 words for each list. The spelling curriculum we are using only includes 15 words each week for a 1st grader. It did cause a few problems on some of the activity pages by leaving blanks for those missing words. Not a huge deal on our end though! I simply took words from the previous week that he may have missed and plugged them in for extra review.
Because there are so many worksheet activities to choose from Micah just did one worksheet each day over the course of the review period. The Alphabetical order, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Gumball Dab & Spell activities were some of his favorites to complete.
I also printed a few of the worksheets for my 5th grader, McKenzie, who is not a strong speller. She enjoyed the hands-on aspect of the worksheets and did not feel they were too “babyish” for her. I definitely saw improvement in her spelling tests each week when she utilized using these worksheets.
Overall, this is another great Curriculum product from The Crafty Classroom! We have used several of the products offered by The Craft Classroom in our homeschool, either through review or ones we have purchased separately. This site is my first go-to when I am searching for anything from Alphabet, Bible, Fine Motor, Geography, Math, Reading, or Writing!
I think The Crafty Classroom offers quality, affordable, homeschool curriculum that won’t break the budget! But don’t just take my word for it, be sure to click the banner below to read the reviews from 24 of my CrewMates who reviewed the Superstar Spelling curriculum as well as the other two products reviewed, Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle and the Tracing Bundle.
Spelling and Phonics practice just got 10 x’s better since we have been using our Can Do Cubes from jollyliteracy.com {just2ducks LLC} to learn letter sounds, digraphs, and blending. Earlier this week I shared about the new phonics program, Jolly Phonics, that I am using to teach McKenzie and Micah the 42 sounds that make up the English language. Let me tell you a little more about the Can Do Cubes.
Just what are Can Do Cubes? Well, for starters they are super cool, 6-sided, finely polished wooden blocks that are laser engraved with the letters of the alphabet along with the alphabetic code. The Can Do Cubes are separated into two stages and focus on hands-on, multi-sensory learning of the alphabetic code that goes along with the Jolly Phonics program and help children decode the phonemes, or sounds, of the English language.
You can use these cubes with any phonics or spelling program but they are especially packaged to be used to teach a small group of sounds in specific order, like in the photo above.
Is that confusing? I hope not! It’s really quite simple. Think for example, when you say the word “they” you are not taught to spell it “t-h-e-y” in this program. Rather, you are asked to think of the sounds that the letters make together as a whole and spell the word as “th-ey”, because “ey” says “a”. The blocks give you the ability to literally build words.
For this review we were blessed to receive:
~ 1 Tray of 27 Cubes in Stage 1 which present the simple alphabetic code
~ 1 Tray of 30 Cubes plus 2 cubes connected with a string to represent split digraph sounds in Stage 2 Cubes which present the more complex alphabetic code
~ Handbooks for Stage 1 and Stage 2
~ DVD with Interactive Demonstration of Sounding Out of Letter/Sounds Presented by Debbie Hepplewhite, who is a synthetic phonics consultant
~ Phonics Chart
~ Word Chart
~ Online Templates and Worksheets in PDF Format for printing
Can Do Cubes are perfect for preschool prep through elementary students. The complete set of Can Do Cubes that we received retails for $95.00 and shipping is always free for US schools.
Micah (2) and McKenzie (6) love, love, love using these hands-on cubes during school time. We have been using the cubes alongside our reading/phonics and spelling programs with McKenzie and just for teaching Micah his letter sounds. A few times blocks have been everywhere because of busy two-year old hands, but luckily they have a little number on the bottom so I know just where they belong in the set in the nice box set.
I can’t say enough good things about these cubes! For such a tiny product, they pack a big punch in helping to take the stress out of learning phonics. If your children are hands-on learners, then definitely check out these cubes if your budget allows. We wholeheartedly give these 2 thumbs up and they will get many, many years of usage in our homeschool.
Be sure to check out what my CrewMates thought of these cubes too by clicking the banner below!
I think The Crafty Classroom offers quality, affordable, homeschool curriculum that won’t break the budget! But don’t just take my word for it, be sure to click the banner below to read the reviews from 24 of my CrewMates who reviewed the Superstar Spelling curriculum as well as the other two products reviewed, Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle and the Tracing Bundle.
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