I think many of us are looking at options for next fall so I’ve been asked about this. You can click on my link for SWR under the “Categories” if you want to see what I’ve read in the past or our lesson schedule but here’s an overview:

SWR (Spell to Write & Read) is a spelling, writing and reading program. 🙂 I bet you could have guessed that. You can purchase an optional extra booklet called Cursive First or you can use standard print lessons for handwriting. SWR is a collection of books, flashcards, and a CD with phonograms (the letter/letter combination sounds) which can be used from pre-K through 5th grade and up and the only thing you’ll need to purchase from year to year is composition books, one per kid. You can buy customized ones from the company but I’m finding the standard composition books work great (and are cheap in the back to school sales.)

There is a big learning curve, you will have to invest some time getting to know the program yourself before you start working with your kids. It can be confusing sorting out the various books and where to start and I’ve posted the schedule of how we began here. Which will make no sense unless you have the books or are familiar with them though you probably can figure it out much faster than I did.

Why this program? It can be used starting with kids as young as 2 or 3 to learn their letter sounds using the phonogram flashcards. (Think Leap Frog fridge phonics.) It can be used with a variety of ages – I’ve got four kids, 3 years through 8.5 all using it now. It doesn’t require any additional purchases year by year except the composition books. It addresses a variety of learning styles – visual, kinesthetic, auditory. It’s as simple or complex as you want to make it and it’s easy to pace it to your kids’ needs and your family schedule. 10 words a week, 20 words a week, 40 words a week? Skip a couple weeks and you can start right back up.

It provides a strong foundation of phonograms which naturally leads into spelling/sounding out simple words which leads directly into kids reading. It’s a phonics based program but it does realize there are some whole words that just have to be memorized. It breaks things down in a very logical, analytical way which my brain likes. I didn’t read much about this aspect but it’s a program that comes highly recommended for children with dyslexia (and the cursive program is suppose to be wonderful to help prevent dysgraphia.) It’s been absolutely fantastic for our kids with speech issues because they are able to break down the words into the phonograms (sounds) they already know.

It can be intensive if you want it to be or it can be simple and fun. There are games and a variety of enrichment activities listed in each week and it’s set up with an easy placement test to know where to begin your child but also assumes you will be going back a few sections to review from year to year and the manual explains all of that.

I like the visual cues for spelling dictation – you hold up a finger for each letter of the word and put the fingers together to signify a phonogram/sound blend. You do different syllables on different hands. Then you write out the word so the child can see it before writing it down themselves.

Disclaimers: I do NOT always have my children mark their words in red pencil. I don’t do all the extra enrichment stuff at this point. I’m totally lazy about having them fill in the back reference pages in their composition books. But even if you use none of that stuff I think just the spelling book itself is worth buying for the spelling lists. That combined with everything else does feel overwhelming and we’re slowly implementing it into our days – our kids are still young. But the spelling list book and flashcards I think are absolutely fantastic, with or without the rest of the SWR program.

This is NOT a grammar program, though it does include many grammar lessons. We use SWR in addition to a grammar program (we like First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind but they do have some overlap.) And it has writing but we’ve not gotten much into that since we’re still in the early stages with our young kids. It does include dictation work (as does our grammar program – copywork, dictation, narration.) We’ve only been using it for a year but so far I’m very happy with it and I think it’s made a big difference for both of our older kids.

So the components I broke down in this post and you can buy them here as a kit or you can look at individual components here but that’s a lot of extra stuff.

I think if you want to just get a great list of spelling words and money is a concern then get:

WISE Guide ($35)
phonogram cards ($13)
spelling rules cards ($8)

If you want to do the actual program and not just have the spelling list to do on your own then you do need the teacher’s guide. You could use the WISE Guide without the teacher’s guide but it does refer back to lesson plans in the SWR teacher’s guide:

Spell to Write & Read ($35)

I do NOT think you need the phonogram CD ($9) because you can borrow mine and it’s good to hear but it’s not something you need to keep listening to – though good for the kids to hear when they are older. And I don’t think you need their special Learning Log/composition books ($5) because a regular composition book works fine and they even tell you how to format it.

There is prep work needed, you need some red pencils and binders and you need to cut apart the flashcards – I cut and laminated them then punched a hole in the corner and hang them in a ring. I have fun with stuff like that so I didn’t mind but your flashcards aren’t set for you and if you want to save $21 you can write up your own phonogram and spelling rules cards. I think there are about 97 flashcards between the two?

I’m rambling now, I’ll stop. 🙂