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I am wondering what the spelling will be like in Preparing. Will there be spelling lists to choose from, dictation, or both as in Bigger..?

inHisTiming,

There will be two levels of dictation passages provided in the Appendix of "Preparing...", but no spelling lists. We are assuming that kiddos using "Preparing..." will have the basic words on the spelling lists 1 and 2 down. Then, those kiddos are ready to move onto studied dictation. Two levels of dictation passages will be provided, so you can jump in wherever it fits your kiddos needs best.

Hope that helps!
Carrie

Thanks, Carrie. One of the other threads just got me curious!

I keep reading about all the wonderful ideas for spelling work in the other volumes. Will some of those be included in Preparing even though there aren't actual spelling lists.

Janet,

The hands-on spelling activities are only in "Beyond.." and "Bigger...". In "Little Hearts...", we mainly use cloze passages, where kiddos fill in the blank with important words to practice spelling that way.

In "Preparing...", we're assuming kiddos can now visualize words well and are ready to move on to visualizing sentences for dictation. You could always use the hands-on activities as needed from our other guides though! At some point, children do have to learn to spell words in the context of writing though, so that's the focus of "Preparing...".

You'll find each of our guides cycle in and out with different areas of skill emphasis to pinpoint those that are needed at each age range. So "Beyond.." and "Bigger..." use lessons to engage the student in learning to visualize spellings of words. Visualizing correct spelling prepares children for written narrations. Then, "Preparing..." will have lessons on written narrations and using other types of writing that "Bigger..." didn't address. The written narration lessons in "Preparing..." will help students prepare for harder writing the following year.

Each guide has different needed skills (in bite-sized pieces) that we emphasize for preparation for the years to come.

Blessings,
Carrie