Posted in Neat Links

I spent a good part of last night looking for a free software program that helps kids study spelling. Not that I'm not willing to pay for a good one, but all I wanted was something basic where I could enter DS's spelling words for the week and he could practice them on his own with some kind of game.

I found a program called ZERO that homeschoolers might be interested in. It's easy to use and my DS thought it was pretty fun when I loaded it up on his laptop today! When you launch the program, the student enters his name while different fonts fly about spelling it out. You click "Play" and there are 10 levels to play each with 10 different lists to choose from! These are VERY helpful in that they are all high frequency words. The first level will likely be too easy for those above first grade.  My son knows all those sight words already. However, my daughter who is 4 years old will find it very, very useful. You can change the level by scrolling to the right when choosing a list to access the harder words.

The program displays the word, speaks the word and uses it in a sentence. When GO! appears on the screen, the student has 15 seconds to type in the word correctly. He gets points based on how fast he enters the word - so, this is also helping with knowing where the letters are on the keyboard. Fifteen seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but a slow "hunt and peck" typer can even do it. DS is 6 years old and he had no problems. If the student runs out of time, they have to type in the word correctly (it's displayed at this point while he types) before they can continue. After all 10 words in the list are done correctly, the score is displayed and the "high" score for that list is shown on the screen. Also after completion, the student can click on a rocket ship and play a rocket game where he shoots at grey asteroid looking things. My son found that to be a nice reward for studying his list.

Now for the really great part, at least for me.  All of the lists are customizable! And there are also an additional 10 lists without any words if you'd like to keep all of the original lists. When you click play, if you scroll all the way to the right and choose the "Set" button, you can pick a list number and change all the words. So, I made list number 4 his weekly spelling list. Now, all he has to do when I say go play ZERO and study your spelling is get into the program (it remembers his name), click Play and choose list 4. It should be noted that it does not speak or use the word in a sentence when you add your own.

Go Here to Download ZERO


TA DA! I think this is really going to help him.

After last week's spelling disappointment, I decided to change up his lists to go along with his phonics studies. It will be easier to remember and he'll also be studying his words when we do phonics. This week's list is long "a" words - a with silent e, -ay, and ai words.

Crossing my fingers that he'll do better this time on Friday's test!

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