Spelling You See was the spelling curriculum was that a game changer in our homeschool.
Our eldest was struggling with spelling lists since the beginning. For some kids, this approach works, however many kids memorize the spelling lists for one spelling test then forget weeks later.
I wanted something that my kids wanted to do.
I honestly wish I’d found this curriculum sooner.
It wasn’t until grade 3 that I started my struggling speller with Spelling You See and I saw improvements right away.
This post will cover
- The reasons why it’s a fun homeschool spelling curriculum
- Why this curriculum works for struggling spellers
- How to choose a level for your child
- See inside 4 levels of this curriculum : Level A, Level B, Level C and Level D
- Where to buy this spelling curriculum
Disclosure-
Spelling You See sent me levels A & D for this review. I purchased levels B and C. This review is based on my own experiences using this spelling curriculum for over a year now.
Spelling You See Pros
This spelling curriculum offers
- Short lessons. The goal is to have maximum retention with short lessons. This is great for both the parent and the student.
- Visual help understanding word chunks. The kids color certain word chunks, for example: vowel chunks or consonant chunks. Coloring offers a visual aid in recalling how words are put together. This coloring of word chunks starts out simple and over the levels gets a lot more in-depth. This works for struggling spellers because they can visually see how words are put together and memorize vowel or consonant chunks. Level A doesn’t do this yet, the coloring word chunks starts at level B. Spelling You See packages includes erasable coloring pencils.
Samples from Level B- Jack & Jill
Sample from Level C- Wild Tales

Sample from Level D- Americana

- Copywork & Dictation. Kids practice their hand writing skills with copywork. The levels progress to include dictation (where the parents read what the student needs to write down). As our family loves Charlotte Mason homeschooling, this spelling approach fits perfectly.
- Educational reading practice. Students learn different things from each of the levels. Level B offers enjoyable nursery rhymes as an introduction for the younger ages. Level C kids learn about animals, Level D American history.
- Boxes for the spelling ‘tests’. For levels A & B kids will do spelling ‘tests’. The difference is that they aren’t memorizing word lists over and over, but end up being taught in a more organic way. The way it’s done is to have spelling boxes so students know how many letters will be needed to spell the words out. The teacher reads these lists from the instructor guides. They also have a grey boxes where the vowels go. All the words they work on that day have the same amount of letters, and many sound similar to make the spelling connections. These spelling tests start with 3 letter words in Level A and build towards 5 letter words without showing where the vowels go in Level B part 1.
How to Choose a Level
It’s very important, especially with a struggling speller, to choose a level to gain the kids confidence.
Spelling is often harder than learning to read, and there are many kids that can read above grade level, however spelling can be a challenge.
My grade 3 daughter started on level B, even though level D is typically included in the grade 3 level packages. I wanted her to feel comfortable with spelling rather than struggle. Because only levels A & B part 1 have the word boxes for spelling basic words I figured this was the best place to start (and it was!).
If your kid struggles they won’t enjoy learning how to spell or learn language arts.
I also started my grade 1 daughter with level B, so they basically started the same level at the same time. My grade 3 student, even though she struggled with spelling, has the ability to write for longer periods of time and completed it faster to move up levels.
My daughter learned to love spelling using this curriculum.
It gave her confidence.
See Inside
Here are some of the levels so you can get a feel for the content. Each level offers an instructor guide and 2 workbooks (level A only has 1). If you buy the package you’ll receive erasable coloring pencils too. You can hang onto the instructors guide and the buy only the workbooks for future students.
Level A- Listen and Write
This level is geared towards Kindergarten or grade 1. This level introduces basic spelling words without the word chunk coloring. Stickers are included for some added fun. The goal is an introduction to 3 and 4 letter spelling words.
Level B- Jack & Jill
Grade 1 or beginner spellers that want a gentle introduction to coloring word chunks and spelling. Words start with 3 or 4 boxes and build up towards 5 letters. Part 1 offer spelling word boxes, by part 2 they no longer do the spelling boxes. Part 2 begins 4 sentences of copywork instead of 1 or 2. They also begin gentle dictation after previous days copywork practice.
Level C- Wild Tales
For grades 2 or after completing level B. Coloring word chunks gets more advanced and copywork begins with 4 sentences. Kids also enjoy a ‘no rule day’ where they enjoy writing or creating a rhyme from the picture. This is similar to the Brave Writer lifestyle of ‘free write’ where kids enjoy writing without being told the spelling mistakes (so that they learn enjoy the process of writing). They build up towards dictation in parts 1 and 2. In parts 1 they are coloring 1-2 word chunks, by part 2 they are coloring 4 different word chunks and endings.
Level D- Americana
This level offers an introduction to American history with copywork and dictation. The student begins with 8 sentences to copy after reading and coloring word chunks. They do this for 3 days, the have 2 days of dictation. This level is a great fit for adding into your American history year rotation or fun pioneer education. Even though we are in Canada we study some American history to go along with the early modern history unit.
If your kids are struggling with spelling this level is quite advanced and I suggest starting at an easier level. Many Charlotte Mason homeschoolers do not start dictation until age 10 or until they are comfortable.
Where to buy Spelling You See
- Spelling You See website.
- Rainbow Resource
- Christian Books
- In ‘All in One’ curriculum packages like Book Shark, Timberdoodle or Sonlight
Canada:
Have you tried Spelling You See?
Do you need the teachers guide for level A? I’m considering ordering the student portion, but want to try it first before I spend too much.
All the teachers guides have the answers and the dictation (spelling words) that you say aloud to the kids for the spelling tests. They are necessary, however, you only need one so if you have multiple kids you just buy the workbooks in the following years. Hope that helps!
What will you use after the last level in Spelling You See? 🙂
I’m not sure yet, we have level D for grade 5 for 2020/2021. I love using copywork for spelling practice, I just bought writing with ease and really like it (it’s not a spelling curriculum) and we use Brave Writer Arrows too. I’ve been tempted to try Logic of English spelling.
Hi
Please advise me w hi ch reading circulum would be good for my three year old son to start reading. I taught him abc letters reading and writing. After that I don’t know where to start of with him to make him read
Please advise
Hi Naga,
I personally don’t teach phonics until age 5, younger ages can lead to early frustrations. This is a fantastic pre reading program that I will be using with my level K daughter this fall (we’re currently using levels 3 & 4 for our older kids) https://www.allaboutlearningpress.net/go.php?id=1565&url=5837
Hi There, I’m interested in using this spelling curriculum along with Brave Writer. Do you feel like using both of these requires a lot of copy work for students? I’ve read Brave writer is enough but I love the style of Spelling You See. I will have a 1st grader and 4th grader. I haven’t used either curriculums. Both of my kids are in public school and we may pull them out.
I’ve found that coloring the word chunks helps with spelling you see. The copywork is very different depending on the kids age. I tried using wild tales with my grade 4 daughter this year but the copywork almost seemed too young for her and half way through the year we moved away from it. I often did 3 days a week of spelling you see and 2 days of brave writer copywork, meaning we didn’t complete a week of spelling you see in one week but 1.5
Depends too if you want literature based copywork or what spelling you see offers. Just this year brave writer they changed the Arrow guides to 11-12, and the dart is now for ages 8-10.
I really liked spelling you see for younger ages, then I switched away by grade 4 and will be trying all about spelling this year with her. I found there to be a bigger jump between level C to level D spelling you see. If you live in the US and want that added US history for copywork then it’s great!
Good luck choosing 🙂
You mentioned that your older daughter moved faster through the levels. Can you explain how you did that. I have an older child who reads at a 6th grade level who is placing into level B.
Hi Rachel,
I would basically do one or two days of the color chunking and copywork, then dictation and skipped the ‘write your own story’ page. So basically using 2-3 days a week instead of the 5. I did find however that once we got to level C, because she was older, the content just seemed more for younger kids. This year (grade 5) I switched her to fix it grammar (for copywork) and Evan Moor Spelling (she’s 3/4 through grade 4, then we’re moving to grade 5). I hope that helps!