Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was disappointed in this after reading several good ratings. It is listed with our SonLight curriculum. Some loved it, others complained of labor intensiveness. I can see how some would label it labor intensive because it is soooo repetitive. But, actually if you stay with it EVERY day, each day is pretty short. I agree having the rules listed would be nice (another common complaint), but I'm not sure how they would fit into the format. Maybe a short lesson to be read aloud would help? We stuck with it for half the year and then got seriously bored (I'm not sure if that was the kids or me, maybe both). My kids would express words of dread, but then the lesson was over. Maybe I should have stuck with it longer, but we're looking for another curriculum this year. Jan 2011 f/u after switching to Spelling Power - excerpt from my mid-year f/u review: I just listened to an interview with Andrew Pudewa, director of Institute for Excellence in Writing (seriously considering buying), discuss spelling. He said some kids are not good visual organizers and writing/reading to spell is overwhelming because they see all the letters at once instead of in the correct order (not to be confused with dyslexia since 9yo boys are still not developed 100% neurologically - relieved since my son still flips letters around). He pointed out spelling use to be taught all verbally, thereby forcing kids to deal with the spelling one letter at a time while soounding out the word one syllable at a time. He also said phonetic rules complicate the learning process and has observed terrible spellers with strong reading skills that were ruined by the push of phonetic rules after learning how to read. I can definitely see how my son fits this. Therefore.... Mr. Pudewa recommended the Avco Sequential Spelling (my method last year - hated it) because the words are grouped into phonetic families and there is no phonetic rules to learn. But, he also mentioned this book as a great resource for learning the most commonly mispelled words. I wish I had learned this method's concept of not requiring kids to practice words they already spell correctly. I may have stayed with the Avco and found success. Since I already have this, I'll tweek it and hope for the same success. If you decide to purchase this, consider doing the excises verbally (especially for boys 7-10 yrs still flipping letters around) and do not require the kids to repeat words they already know how to spell. Wish I could add a star and not skew the rating average so much.