SpellingCity has been a great way for my seven year old first grader to learn her spelling words in a FUN way! When I tried to do spelling with her earlier this year, she hated it. She didn't like having to sit down and take the practice test, she didn't like the worksheets she had to do, and she just didn't find it very fun. It didn't help that she had to do a lot of writing which is not something she overly enjoys doing either. And yet, she was always asking me how to spell words. She's done it so much that my three year old has started to ask how to spell words too!
This website has been a great teaching tool for her. The games make it fun so that she actually WANTS to do her lessons. We have been using the Summer Program word lists and there have been a good combination of easy to spell words as well as harder words. And because the assignments differ with each list, it keeps her from getting bored. And because she types for the tests, she can focus more on the spelling of the words than on how she's writing them which is a big thing when you have a child who still wants to do a lot of writing in all capital letters. I definitely plan to stay with this program for the upcoming school year.
One thing I do want to note and it's something I notice particularly because this was something I had to deal with when I was in school. I'm hearing impaired and one thing I had to learn to do in order to adapt and be able to take my spelling tests was to learn to lip read. This helped me with beginning and endings of words because I specifically had trouble hearing consonants. So, something to keep in mind if this is being used with a child who is hearing impaired is that adaptations may have to be made since the tests are given orally over the computer speakers. A hearing impaired child may have some trouble so something to consider may be to, as the parent, read the word out loud as well with the child facing you. It's something I happened to notice when listening to the tests and so wanted to point that out.
Outside of the tests, everything else is reading based with simple instructions and my daughter had no issues navigating through her assignments independently. I'm very glad I had a chance to review this program because it has become an excellent spelling resource for us.
