Copywork using Wheeler’s Graded Studies in Great Authors was been a delight. We only copy a few items a day so we are not even close to completing it, which is perfectly fine. It’s about quality, not quantity.
Copywork is great, but dictation is calling. It would seem the path would be simple.
- Read passage.
- Student copies words on paper.
- Easy breezy.
- Nope, not so fast.
Dictation passages need to be within the spelling realm of my student or frustration can easily set in.
Spelling. The word makes me shudder. So many words, so many rules. As normal, I want it all. I want spelling words, short lessons, dictation, copywork and a sprinkling of rules which will not overwhelm in a prepackaged bundle of frugal delight. Yes, I probably just made Charlotte Mason sigh in exasperation. But, I’m sure that once she saw my kitchen sink she would understand. Thus, my quest for spelling began. I looked through tomes of books. I gazed numbly at endless websites. I even entered desperation and started assigning a weekly spelling list. Gasp, the insanity of it all! Who knew the answer was staring at me each and every day.
Wheeler’s Graded Studies in Great Authors is actually labeled as a “Complete Speller” and it appears to be an upper level book. Hmmm…I wonder if he wrote a lower level book.
JACKPOT! ..and FREE!
Enter Wheeler’s Elementary Speller. This is too good to not quote directly from the book:
It is the purpose of this little book to start the pupil on the right track, and to furnish him a vocabulary of words which are in general use and which every pupil should know how to spell. In its preparation the author has been guided by the conviction that spelling is largely a matter of memory, and that, as memory is usually the best developed faculty of the child’s mind, spelling should receive special attention during the earlier years of school life; that it is a waste of time to drill a child on words of whose meaning he has no idea, and a large number of which he will never have occasion to use; that some knowledge of the diacritical marks is absolutely necessary for the intelligent use of a dictionary; that the pupil should be taught not only to spell orally, but also to write without misspelling words; that the meaning of a new word is frequently detected more readily by seeing it or hearing it in a sentence than by studying its definitions; that teaching spelling can be made less mechanical, more interesting and more effective by using some carefully selected and well-graded dictation exercises than by confining the work entirely to lists of words; and that a word has not been thoroughly learned by the pupil until he has mastered it in its four relations, viz. its sound to the ear, its form to the eye, its meaning to the mind, and its correct use in connection with other words.
-Wheeler’s Elementary Speller
Forgive me, but I just have to repeat the last part:
…a word has not been thoroughly learned by the pupil until he has mastered it in its four relations, viz. its sound to the ear, its form to the eye, its meaning to the mind, and its correct use in connection with other words.
-Wheeler’s Elementary Speller
Can I get an AMEN here?!
The 346 lessons increase in complexity and include: copywork, dictation, spelling, composition, memory work, picture narrations. Over two years worth of lessons! It appears my quest for spelling has finally ended. I’m waving a banner in victory!
{I’ve included some sample lessons below for you to get a feel of the book. All images are from the same book, so you can click on an image and it will take you to its Google Book site. Once you are at the Google Book site click on the gear icon at the top right hand corner, select “Download PDF” and download the book.}