Better Spelling in 5 Minutes a Day: Fun Spelling Activities for Kids and Parents on the Go Intermediate Grades (5 Minutes a Day)

I agree with the reviewer who was frustrated with the "i-e" rule. As a teacher, I find most children have difficulty applying this rule. I use creative methods to help students memorize many of the "ie" words. For example: "friend" can be remembered by saying "I am a friend to the end." It's easier to remember the helpful phrase in place of a rule.

I like the organization of the chapters and most of the exercises are excellent. The English language has many exceptions to the rules, therefore children need to learn how to recognize the correct spelling. I feel this book gives many opportunities to become better spelling detectives. I would recommend it to parents and teachers.

This book looks like a great idea. Reading through it, the theory & exercises all looked great. The "where are you at" test went well. Then we tried doing the first two exercises from "I before E." This chapter teaches children the I before E rule, saying that this can be used to improve your spelling, something like: "I before E except after C as in receive, or in words sounding like A as in neighbor or sleigh, where E before I is the way." I might not be spot-on with this quote, but that is the rule the child is supposed to learn & use.

The first exercise has 5 words with letters scrambled & a description of the word (e.g., every room has this, with "ceiling" scrambled). This was fine, but just barely starts to teach the child the IE/EI rule. The second exercise has rows of 5 words. The child is told to use the rule (poem) to determine which words are spelled correctly, and which words are spelled incorrectly. They are to find a path from correctly spelled word to correctly spelled word across a board. Fine, right?

NO!

The first word on the first row of list DOES NOT FOLLOW THE RULE! The word is mis-spelled, but will check out as okay according to the rule -- seize, spelled sieze. Nothing has been said in the instructions that there even ARE rule breakers! By following the rules -- as instructed! -- the child is being taught to mis-spell words! Then the correctly spelled word in the second row -- the only correctly spelled word -- also does not follow the rule -- foreign. You will take a child who is having trouble with their spelling and confuse them even more.

This book DESPERATELY needs the editor to have a team of technical reviewers go through, perform all of the exercises, and correct errors.

* * * *

After picking up this book from where we had thrown it (litterally) across the room, we decided to give it a second chance. The section for the second rule is very well done, and quite helpful. We are just starting into the third section, and overall the book looks promising. I haven't seen anything out there better than this book -- the others all are "memorize & forget" -- but check the exercise before giving it to your child, and skip the "I before E" chapter.

I borrowed this book from the library and found it to be a great tool. I've now purchased the book. I gave it only four stars because it uses only the American spellings, rather than giving the Canadian alternatives.