The Natural Speller by Kathryn Stout, a Masters in Education and a book written from someone who is clearly a Master at Educating, who understands the fundamentals of English and spelling together.

I inherited this book from my mother-in-law who is a wizard in all things homeschooling. At first glance, I scrunched up my face to this book. The cover looked unappealing, and the age of the book made me question how current and applicable it would be to my situation and my children’s needs. However, being on a strict budget, I decided to try it out and see what happened.

I had researched other spelling books before and had utilized many types of spelling resources in my elementary teaching days, but I was not prepared for the benefits this book would bring to the table.

While no curriculum is perfect and I have had to modify it, I would say that this book clearly fits the idiom, “oldie but a goodie” in every way.

Extra Resources for your Spelling Curriculum:

• Super Teacher word search maker
• Dry erase board practice
• Crossword
• Silly story template
• Oral practice
• Writing them 2x each
• Write words in rainbow or with crayons
• Spelling test template

Your Spelling Day to Day/Week to Week:

• Our typical spelling week consists of: practice, writing words, saying words, word search and then oral review with a spelling test at the end of week.
• We use individual binders with the lists/worksheets
• Use boxes of colored pencils or markers, extra paper as needed
• Modifications – 1x written out and no wordsearch if gets 100% on spelling test
• Modification – make challenge/advanced lessons
• Modification – orally speak words multiple times or do more sight/sound lessons

Branching Out Beyond Your Typical Spelling Subject:

This day and age, not a lot of people find value in spelling. It is very important, if not crucial, to daily living. Pronouncing words correctly and being able to spell can help with so many futures for a child’s life. While many people these days embrace the age of technology and Grammarly type programs etc., I believe that those are tools to aid, not replace, the skill of spelling.

*Note: if you open up Word Document some have the option to “speak” or “read aloud” text to you. This can help with pronunciation.

Just like I’ve mentioned in other articles on this website, learning is a window to the world and many skills that are not taught in public school are necessary academia that I believe every child should learn. I truly believe that learning a skill such as spelling trains the brain, teaches a lifelong skill and provides benefits that are often unseen.

Also – utilize spelling words or vocabulary words to their preferences or likes, medical terms, science or history terms. And, utilize dictionary skills and phonetic spelling concepts in the spelling. Make your own spin on this book, that’s why it’s so great.

Why This Book Works:

For the firstborn, INTJ or just a naturally gifted speller…

My eldest son is a wizard at spelling. He always has been. Maybe part of it is because he reads often, maybe because he has a natural ear. Whatever the case may be, this book has afforded us the opportunity to “test him out” of many of the lessons by simply asking him to verbally and/or write the words. If he can get 100% then and there, which he finds a challenge as being an INTJ type personality, he can move out of that lesson and on the next.

We quickly found it to be helpful to do a dual type spelling lists with him. We keep the same format with each child and modify accordingly. For our eldest, he does a lesson of his age and grade to keep his common words sharp and then the next week he does an “AP” lesson, which is expert or very difficult words. He will quickly be approaching the point that he’s graduated from this book and we can either move him on to a more specialized advanced list or we can graduate him completely.

Take away: For advanced spellers, you can use this book to do “AP” type lists and modify, mix and match etc.

For the ADHD, the less-than-thrilled, unenthused child…

Our middle child does not like spelling or writing. He never has. He may be good at it, but he still dislikes it. Sometimes kids are a mystery. However, this spelling book has worked for him because of its format, expectation and pace. When he struggled with a list, I could shorten it in half and break down the sounds and spellings for a week or two.

Often I knew this by pre-testing him, something I learned while teaching in elementary school. Informal assessment can go a long way. If he struggled with the list, I could break it down and slow him down so he could grasp the sounds and spellings. If the list made sense, we could make a longer list of words and pass through it quickly, which an ADHD child enjoys.

As time went on, we modified this book for our ADHD child who hates writing out words and repetitive boring tasks by challenging him to get 100% on the list by only writing the words out once and verbally reviewing them for the entire week. This has worked now for almost a full year straight. Yes, truly. He does not like to write them out that much. So for his binder, he simply has a list of words, a few lines on it and then the test sheet. He takes ownership for his own studying, and so far, it has been highly beneficial and autonomous.

Take away: Not every child learns the same, so take a lesson as a “weekly” task with flexibility and an open mind.

For the poor speller with poor handwriting…

For our youngest child who is already unmotivated, spelling and handwriting are not his strong suit. He’s not the greatest at picking up spelling patterns and sounds, with some pronunciation issues as a child, he hears words differently and often spells them differently. With this book, we were able to fix that issue very quickly. Each lesson comes with a sound pattern identifier and accompanying short note or informal lesson about the concept. With a few review lessons, dictating the words and finding similarities to the words in sight and sound, he started becoming much more successful.

He doesn’t get 100% every time, but as with many students, perfection does not mean mastery and mastery is not always perfection, it’s about comprehension.  We use the written work and wordsearch to help enforce the visual aspect of the words because he finds those activities fun, but also we incorporate an extra lesson or two of sound and verbally repeating the words to help him in a deeper or more thorough way.

Take away: Spelling can be more about sounding the words out and finding patterns rather than just writing the words out.

No matter what your child needs or how they learn, spelling is a very important aspect of schooling. We have found the Natural Speller to be a priceless resource to help us navigate the spelling world in a simple and easy fashion. There are many other great spelling resources out there to try and as our children age and graduate from this book, we will explore other curriculums and resources. The goal is to start them on spelling early. It will impact every other aspect of their academic career in a positive way.