Just a short background in general with us and HOD products. We started HOD last year with my oldest in Preparing and my younger two in Beyond. Because of scope and sequence issues with other products, I kept my original math and spelling curriculums when I started HOD for that entire first year. However, this year, with my oldest, my math program wasn't going as well as I had hoped. My oldest was struggling and not retaining. She needed more instruction. So I prayed about it and switched over to Singapore for her shortly after the school year began. I must admit, I was scared to switch but was the best decision I ever made. Now, because of the smoothness of that transition and feeling suffocated by the spelling program I was using, I decided half way through my year to switch her over here too. Again, fantastic decision!!!! I absolutely love my day and smoothness of it. I feel like because of all of the integration in guide, that switching to dictation was perfect.
Fast forward. What I am searching for is advice on what to do about my son. I am miserable
Well.... I guess miserable a very strong word and at the least, I would say that I am in no way, shape or form, at peace. I am at complete unrest here. At the beginning of the year, I started with All About Spelling and RightStart math for my younger 2 kids also. I do like them. I think they are good programs. But after seeing how wonderful my year has gone with my oldest, I knew I wanted to switch my younger kids over to Dictation and Singapore. For my youngest, she has been doing some Singapore and some RightStart all year. I decided to drop RightStart with her a few months ago because RightStart was very hands on and she just didn't need it. Plus, I found that the activities in Bigger for her (she is finishing Singapore 2A) were more than enough. They were short and sweet and she totally got it. My son, I very recently decided to drop RightStart as well because he needed to learn skills to complete word problems. Because of his auditory processing disorder, he struggles sometimes with understand words and things written to him. I love the Singapore student textbooks and feel that these will give him the best benefit. Now, on to spelling. This is my area of struggle! My son (and youngest for that matter) has never done a spelling list. He has only learned to spelling using the activities in AAS. Well, I am finding, he needs to "see" words more so that he can spell them correctly. I also am finding that because AAS is so rule based, we are now entering the waters where we are learning words that don't follow the rules or their isn't a definitive correct rule. With AAS, I left it when my oldest was at a much higher level because she was spelling rule breaking words according the to the rules. So for example, she would spell the word "such" as "sutch" because of the rule use tch after a short vowel. And with my oldest, she original did do spelling listings. We switched to AAS because her spelling was so bad. But my son is literally dying in this area! He can spell most simple words correctly but now that there are words that could fit into either category, he is struggling. For example, he learned the rule to use "ai" or "ay" to spell the sound of long a (like in sail or play). Well, last year he learned that long a can be spelled with "a" at the end of a syllable (like in baby) or having "a" followed by a consonant with a silent "e" at the end of the word (wake).
So.....needless to say, he is frustrated at this point. 
And so am I!!!!! My questions is - what would you do? I am scared to drop it but know in my heart that if do drop it, it will probably be for the best. He is already noticing how to spell some stuff because of all the copy work he has done. Plus, he reading has absolutely exploded in the last month or two. I have looked through the dictation and know that it would probably be appropriate for his level. But I also know that when I look at 1/2 of the spelling lists, he probably wouldn't know how to spell those words right off the top of his head. He does have some processing issues with language in general and that is why I thought AAS might be a better fit. But I can see that AAS is actually putting him into a smaller box and he is frustrated. What I will probably do for now is drop AAS no matter what. I am thinking about move to dictation for the next couple of months since my year is practically done already. Next year, my youngest will be doing Bigger. I have thought about doing the spelling list in Bigger with both kids but keep the dictation as well. Is that a terrible idea? It is overkill? Next year in Preparing my son will be writing a lot more on his own. I just want him to have the opportunity to "think" about how to spell things more. That is why I was thinking both. Has anyone done this?
Also, are there any past threads that talk about kids and spelling issues that might be helpful here? I am have searched through the forums some but haven't search extensively. I am going to the attend the Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati this upcoming week. There is a speaker from Spell-U-See that is going to present a session on stages of spelling. I have absolutely NO intention of switching to them, but with Spell-U-See, they follow a similar progression that HOD already uses. They start with lists of common words, do lots of copy work, and then move to dictation. "A+" to HOD because you have been doing this long before Spell-U-See came out with their program
For me, I am hoping that the session will just provide me more feedback of the hows and whys of what to expect with kids and spelling progression. Sorry my post is so long. I just wanted to share how blessed I have been by following the HOD resources to a T. And I wanted to share how things have worked out so much by switching every area. So now I am just seeking advice on how to switch this last area as well
Thanks for your time in advance.
Wyatt also struggled with spelling, as he had speech therapy for several years due to being born prematurely. He only ever worked through Spelling List 2 and then moved into Dictation Level 2. I think I'd start BHFHG's Spelling List 2 with your ds. It will appeal to his liking to see the words first (as they are written in black on index cards), as well as transition him well into Level 2 Dictation (as they study, turn it over, write as you say it type activity that is done with Spelling List 2 segues well into this similar format of dictation). You already own the guide, and I'd just do a lesson a day, working through the entire spelling list 2, and then move into Dictation Level 2. When you move him into Dictation Level 2, I'd do it daily, 4 days a week (as opposed to the 3 days it is usually planned). This extra day each week seemed to move Wyatt forward more steadily, as it was an area of challenge for him. You will be surprised at the growth in your ds using this method, though slow, it is steady and extremely effective. Wyatt rarely misspells things now. I agree dropping AAS makes good sense for sure. I think doing both Spelling List 2 and Dictation Level 2 could be too much. I think if you started Spelling List 2 now, you'd be so glad!!! HTH!