Apples and Pears Spelling Review
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please read my disclosure policy.
Apples and Pears Spelling review
In a previous post, I wrote about using Spelling Workout. Spelling Workout is an excellent program for many children, but I found Apples and Pears Spelling works better for my struggling spellers.
Apples and Pears Spelling is an English spelling program published by Sound Foundations. The Sound Foundation books were designed to include enough overlearning for even severely dyslexic students to master reading and spelling, and they were also designed to be easy for parents to use.
The Apples and Pears Spelling Program
The Apples and Pears Spelling program was developed using the morpheme method of spelling instruction. Morphemes are units of meaning within words. For instance, necessarily breaks down into the morphemes ne-cess-ary-ly.
The spelling curriculum first teaches the root word and then teaches the rules for putting the morphemes together over the four books in the series.
So I mentioned overlearning earlier. When I say overlearning, I mean overlearning. Apples and Pears Spelling drills the root words, and drills, and drills, and…. in order that the spelling becomes entrenched in the child’s mind.
This means my child and I sit down for 15-20 minutes and work on spelling.
The Spelling Lesson
During the lesson, sentences are dictated, words are broken apart, words put together, root words introduced or drilled, spelling tests given, and meanings are given. It is a thorough program, and my child does a lot of writing during our 15-20 minutes.
There are two indispensable parts. The first is the student workbook for the student and the second is the teacher’s book for the teacher. The teacher’s book only has the instructions for the teacher to read to the student. It has dictation lists, answers, and oral explanations for the rules.
The student book has the lines for students to write, lists the broken morphemes for students to practice putting together, includes the puzzles, and more. This isn’t a program you can purchase the student book and skip the teacher’s book or vice versa.
You need both books.
The books make the program easy to use because everything the teacher needs to know is included right there in the teacher’s notes. If oral instructions are needed, they are written out for you to read. Words to dictate for spelling tests are right there. Answers to the puzzles are given.
You can receive the books in the mail and be off and running 5 minutes later.
Apples and Pears Spelling is a program that works wonders for struggling spellers. It is easy for parents to use, has a systematic study of spelling, and includes enough overlearning for even severely dyslexic students to learn to spell.
For more information on classical homeschooling and struggling learners, read Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child.
Recommended Reading:
Thank you for sharing your review of Apples and Pears. š
I’ve never heard of Apples and Pears. Thanks for sharing about it! I recently started All About Spelling with my kids and so far I really like it. Do you have any experience with AAS?
I’ve heard good things about AAS, but I’ve never had the chance to take a look at it.
Would this be too much for a first grader?
It might be. The lessons are long and have a lot of writing. However Apples and Pears begins with letter sounds. If you’re willing to move slowly and do small portions of the program at a time, it could work very well for you.
What age student should begin this study? My daughter is not dyslexic, but is an extremely poor speller and fourth grade. Would this be a good supplement to her public school education?
4th grade would be perfect, I think. There’s a lot of writing, so it can be difficult for 1st graders, but most 4th graders can handle it.
I would think it would be an excellent supplement to her public school education. While we spend 20 minutes or so working through the lessons, we certainly didn’t spend hours each day on Apples and Pears. š
We LOVE Apples and Pears and Dancing Bears. Thank you!
What did you use after this program?
We moved straight into reading literature and writing papers in Tapestry of Grace. Once the children are reading well I prefer to jump into good literature. Also I consider Apples and Pears a complete spelling program and concentrated on grammar and writing skills after finishing it. š
Is there somewhere to order this in the United states?
Yes, here’s the link to the US shop. š
Hi, I have a 10 yr old who was a vary late talker and was seen by an in home speech therapist for years. He never liked reading but has come around over the years and writing is still a HUGE battle. He was never technically diagnosed but was seen by a therapist who was seeing signs of dislexia. So his spelling is obviously not doing so well. Iām lucky to get him to write a few sentences. I seen that this has a lot of writing which worries me but he needs help in spelling asap. Would you still recommend this program for him or suggest something else? Thank you for reading.
It worked when nothing else did, so I don’t know what else to recommend. What I do suggest is to gauge the lesson lengths by your son. Don’t try to finish an entire lesson in one sitting. Instead work for 5 minutes 2 or 3 times a day and stop before he gets frustrated. You’ll make slow progress, but you will make progress. š
Hi,
My son Is seven n half and he is in independent school at Nsw and going in year 3 in January 2019 but he is struggling and he is youngest in his class. Also, English is our second language but he can speak English and mother toung fluently.
Does apple and pears will help him.
Thank you,
Vaishali
It might help. The Apples and Pears curriculum focuses on spelling and includes quite a bit of writing. If you take it at his pace, you should see improvement in his spelling.
Thank you for this review. We began Apples and Pears about two months ago and I cannot say enough good things about this approach for my son. He doesn’t present as totally dyslexic or totally dysgraphic but there is definitely some learning differences for him with spelling and writing (reading is fine though). He is in 4th grade and could barely write. It was as if he couldn’t see the sounds in his head even though he can read at a 6th grade level. We began Apples and Pears and for the first time in his life he is able to write sentences that I dictate to him with confidence. It’s been life- changing. This program is so rote and boring and nothing that I would have ever chosen based on how I teach, but I am thrilled with it. The over-learning is exactly what he needed and what I didn’t know how to teach. Breaking it down into 10-15 minute lessons a day is perfect. I love Apples and Pears and plan to stick with it for all of the levels.