Spelling books

[GemB]

Hi
Has anyone come across or used

11 + Spelling and Vocabulary: Basic Level: Workbook Bk. 1 (11+ Spelling and Vocabulary Workbooks for Children) (Paperback) - Stephen Curren

Would like to know if these would be any good to try and "boost" spelling

My daughter LOVES learning the new words using the index cards as suggested by Patricia THANKS and is so motivated by "doing her words", but would like to do something to do with spelling. She is doing well in the middle set at school, but does struggle at times in practice

Am a bit dubious (one of our words!!!) of workbooks as my daughter has not engaged with them in the past

Thanks for your help -any other tips for spelling would be much appreciated.

[Sally-Anne]

Hi GemB

I posted this in reply to your post under Tips - this is for the information of others looking for follow up on this thread.

I can't comment on the Stephen Curran books, although I recall that he has posted replies on this forum in the past year or so. Who knows - he may pop up and tell you himself why he thinks they do the job well?

My recommendation for spelling help is Wordshark, a computer game produced by a company called Whitespace. It is used fairly widely in schools and Learning Support departments. At around £70 it is not cheap, but it includes all the spellings for KS1, 2 & 3, so takes a child right through to GCSE. It is a very well thought out programme, and does require parental involvement at every stage - to set the spellings and let the child to move on to a new level, so it allows parents to supervise and reward progress. You can also programme in your own lists of spellings, such as the excellent ones that Patricia has posted on this site for 11+ familiarisation.

My children have both thoroughly enjoyed using it, and if you spread the cost across two or more children, it starts to look cheap compared to most ideas apart from Patricia's index cards!

Sally-Anne

[stevew61]

GemB

Have just started using 11 + Spelling and Vocabulary: Basic Level: Workbook Bk. 1 with my seven year old having discovered that my ten year old had gaps in his vocab. in the run upto 11+ taken in November 2006. I agree that reading, reading and more reading is the best way but these books are useful I believe as an additional tool. My older child whizzed through the word list at the end of the first book and tripped over the word blot!

Have also purchased the times table book and book one how to do NVR which also look useful for our current needs. I guess it's horses for courses you need to find what works for your child.

I know Mr Curran has brought some adverse comments on himself with his apparent alleged self advertising postings but I have to say his products do have some merit.


stevew61

[Guest]

I have brought the first two English and first two maths for my eight year old daughter. The maths is too advanced but the English is about right. They are full of simple crosswords/ put the correct word in the sentence type of puzzles Having said that I don't think she is entrance exam material and will be going to our local comp. Her brother who will be sitting entrance exams would have found the English far too easy (at least the first 2 books anyway) and I won't be buying any of the books for his use (he's 10).

I think if your daughter has not engaged with workbooks in the past you really need to see before you buy although the English is more like a puzzle book than a 'workbook'. Some bookshops will let you do this. WH Smiths has a good returns policy on books you order so maybe you could check them out that way if you can't find them locally.

The other way to improve spelling/ vocab is, as has already been mentioned, to read ++++