Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Dr. Aardsma's Spelling Drills

I've had numerous search hits to my site about Dr. Aardsma's Spell Drill in the short time I've had my homeschooling blog. So I thought I'd do a specific post on them.

I love them! For our family it's a great alternate medium to break up repetitious book work. They are a "computer game."

Here's how it works: You enter your name, grade and desired spelling list. (Abeka, Bob Jones, etc. It has about 7 lists). Once you've signed in it stores your name, "grade", spelling list and how you do each time. If you are in 4th grade you will receive 20 questions. The narrator gives you the word, then he repeats it in a sentence. You have two chances to spell it correctly. After that it will then show you the correct spelling and then you have to try to do it again until you get it correct. After several times of correctly spelling the same word from various spell drills that word is dropped. Each time you do a spell drill new words are added. But if you are a 4th grader you only ever get 20 words per session.

I enjoy it because the child is not endlessly quizzed on words they know and new words are given as they progress. Therefore, they can go through as quickly as they are able. They love the challenge to get a word they haven't been getting right. And like I mentioned early it just breaks the learning up into different mediums. A bonus for elementary children!

There is nothing flashy about this program. It rather boring appearance wise. It's simple and straight to the point. This is not an arcade game at all.

I hope this helps. Please ask questions in the comment box if you have them and I'll be happy to answer them!

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