I don't know about you, but calling out spelling words for multiple children is one of those tasks I would rather do without. I have six children. I was doing a little calculating the other night and figured I was calling out spelling words at least 360 times over the course of a school year. Now, if each list takes around 10 minutes, that means I was spending 3,600 minutes or 60 hours of our precious school time calling out spelling words. I was a little skeptical when I was asked to review Spelling City. I really was reluctant to let a computer take over this area. What I discovered through using the program changed my attitude entirely.
Spelling City is very affordable, first of all. A family can purchase a subscription for a year for around $25. There is also a free membership option. With that option you do not have access to the record keeping areas of the program and there are a few games you will not have access to. I would recommend trying the free option for a few weeks to see how you like it, then go on and purchase the premium membership. The membership is well worth the cost.I used Spelling City with two of my children. One is a fifth grader and the other an eighth grader. I really wanted to check out the games to see if they were too juvenile for the eighth grader. Miraculously, he enjoyed them immensely as did my fifth grader. I was using the premium membership. The initial set up was very easy. I am not techno-savvy at all, so I really appreciate when a vendor takes pains to make setting up a program very user-friendly. I used the teacher options to set up my children in my grade book and assigned each of them their own personal log in and password. Then, each week I simply set up their spelling lists in the program. In retrospect, if I had really been on the ball, I would have set up all of their lists for the year at once. That way we just would have chosen the list each week. There are a lot of spelling curricula already set up in the Spelling City program. My curriculum was not, but entering the words was really easy. My children enjoyed being able to log themselves in when it was time to practice spelling. They would actually beg me to let them play their spelling games. There are lots of different options for games. They range from simply spelling the words, to identifying the correct word for a sentence, to writing sentences and paragraphs that are original. I was really impressed that the program wasn't simply a robotic "call out the words" program. If the students use the program regularly, they not only learn to spell the words but also learn the meanings of the words through context and usage. The premium membership does track their progress and even shows what they have been playing.
I can't say enough good things about Spelling City! We have thoroughly enjoyed using it. I didn't receive any compensation for this review. I was allowed to use the program for two months as a part of the Homeschool Crew. I highly recommend Spelling City. For more information about Spelling City, check out their website: http://www.spellingcity.com/. I hope your family enjoys it as much as we have. This is one program I am going to continue using. I am signing up for the premium membership today!
To see more reviews on this product as well as other Time4learning products go here: http://homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolcrew/782954/
