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I am a brand new homeschooling mom using Beyond for my would be 3rd and 1st grader. The program seems to fit well for both with exception of the spelling words. Is there a more challenging spelling word list that would be more fit for a 3rd grader? Or would just finding one online with the same letter sounds for that unit be sufficient? Just curious if there is a suggestion for this particular issue.

Thank you! I am so thrilled to be starting this curriculum!

The point of the spelling in Beyond is not just spelling the words write. It is getting them cemented in their brains so they can spell them later. I would read a little bit about dictation (which is what comes after Spelling List 2 in HOD guides) before making a decision.

The Bigger manual has a more advanced spelling list and it also has dictation. Since your child is older, you might order that guide. And I agree with Stephanie, I would read up on dictation. It truly is about training the brain to memorize what kids see. It has a made a huge difference in my house! If your son already knows all the words from list one and two in Bigger (once you get the manual you can determine that), then I would look into starting Level 2 dictation. That is also in the back of the Bigger manual.

Thank you for your input, ladies. I'm going to start with the lists in Beyond and see how he does.

If they can spell the words on the lists already, they are ready to start dictation 1.

mrsrandolph wrote:If they can spell the words on the lists already, they are ready to start dictation 1.

Thank you, I think this is where we should be starting. This is our first year homeschooling. I feel great about the curriculum but I am questioning the placement for my 7yr old/3rd grader. I think I'll get the Bigger guide and take a look at it too.

The words on the spelling lists are the same in Beyond and Bigger. You would need the Bigger guide if you want to move into dictation My kids are awesome spellers and have never done spelling other than HOD spelling (word lists and dictation)

MomtoJGJE wrote:The words on the spelling lists are the same in Beyond and Bigger. You would need the Bigger guide if you want to move into dictation My kids are awesome spellers and have never done spelling other than HOD spelling (word lists and dictation)

This is good to know! Thank you I feel better about it. My oldest had some tough spelling words in public school last year! I think that's why I was questioning it. But I think we'll be just fine where we are now and can move on to dictation later.

MomtoJGJE wrote:The words on the spelling lists are the same in Beyond and Bigger. You would need the Bigger guide if you want to move into dictation

I don't have my manual near me right now but I think Beyond only has one spelling list and Bigger actually has two. But again, I am not near my manual and I could be wrong. I do know that Beyond doesn't have the dictation passages and Bigger does though.

Nealewill wrote:

MomtoJGJE wrote:The words on the spelling lists are the same in Beyond and Bigger. You would need the Bigger guide if you want to move into dictation

I don't have my manual near me right now but I think Beyond only has one spelling list and Bigger actually has two. But again, I am not near my manual and I could be wrong. I do know that Beyond doesn't have the dictation passages and Bigger does though.

I don't have my Bigger manual near me right now, but I checked my Beyond manual and it has two spelling lists. If I recall correctly, Bigger has the second spelling list from Beyond, along with the first level of dictation.

Ha ha - thanks . I guess it is bigger that has only one list then because it also has the one level of dictation.

Yes I was trying to say that the "harder" list in Beyond is the same as the list in Bigger, so you wouldn't need the Bigger guide for the harder list. Does that make more sense? I feel like this is a riddle

If I remember right, Beyond has spelling list one and spelling list two. Bigger has spelling list two and dictation whatever level they start with in HOD two maybe? But a third grader would not need higher than that first dictation level unless you did both spelling lists in first grade (or K and first). But I still wouldn't imagine they would need higher than that level.

Yes - I totally get it

For some reason I kept thing that Beyond had only one list. I was thinking it was Bigger that had both lists and the dictation. I am on vacation all week so I am no where near my manual. At this point...my brain is mush LOL.

Can you ladies explain how the dictation is instructed in Bigger? Are there sentences with the spelling words that you read to the student and then they write the sentence without looking? I'm not familiar with it. We finished our first week yesterday using Beyond and it went great! I think homeschool is going to be such a blessing for our family

There is a passage that they read and study, then you dictate it by phrase and they write it. You are working on spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and attention to detail all at once. There is no longer a set of spelling words.

The first passage is...

Sue has a bird.
It can call and sing.
king ring wing

Bird and sing are in bold print. The child would study it and you would point out capital letters, bolded words (they are kind of the focus words), punctuation, etc. Then the child would stop looking at it and you would say "Sue has a bird," and the child would repeat it and then write it. Then you say "It can call and sing," and again the child would repeat and write it. After that you would do the other focal words at the bottom. The extra words stop later on. After they get all of it written, you let them look over it first and see if they see any mistakes. Then you let them check it with the correct work (I use the book, some people print or write them out). If they've missed something they copy that whole section again. They repeat the same passage until they get all of it correct.