Are your kids great spellers? I have some that are and some that aren’t, but those that are, come by it naturally. Spelling is one of those subject areas I seem to find myself skipping more often than I should. I purchased AVKO spelling and my kids really liked it. The problem was that I never got around to quizzing them. Since AVKO is a “start at the beginning” program, I was working with my 9 and 11 year old on the same list. First, when one child was available, the other was working and, two, one child was much quicker than the other.

I kept reading about SpellQuizzer spelling software on different blogs and forums and decided to give their 30 day free trial a whirl. The website had a list of frequently misspelled words by grade level so I imported those and let my kids try the program. They LOVED it! In fact they regularly asked if they could “play” SpellQuizzer. Um…sure! lol Since I was just getting an idea of how the program worked, I never got as far as trying to make my own lists.

However, I was thrilled to be asked to do an actual review of the program, recently. To do the review I had to re-download the program to make sure I had the latest version. The download process was simple and easy to follow. After download, you’ll find a SpellQuizzer icon on your desktop. Simply click the icon to start the program.

Now, you may be caught off guard when the program starts as there are no instructions. You’ll simply see a screen with options for “Quiz me on a list”, “Create a spelling list”, “Edit spelling lists”, “import spelling lists”, ”Export spelling lists”,and “Help”. And, really, it’s so simple instructions are unnecessary.

First, click “Quiz me on a list”. You’ll find the program is loaded with several grade level sample lists. Click on one and then click “OK”. The program immediately starts quizzing the student. For the Grade 1 sample list, you’ll hear “Cat. The cat played with the ball of yarn.” In the box provided, your child will type the word cat and then either press “enter” or click the “check spelling” button on the screen. If the answer is correct, the program reads the next word. If the answer is incorrect, a small screen shows the child how they spelled the word and how it should be spelled. Click the “OK” box and continue with the quiz. When the quiz is finished, a small screen appears telling you how many errors you made. Click “OK”. You will then be asked if you want to retry the word you missed. Click “Yes”. Try the missed words again. When finished, a box tells you that you’ve correctly spelled the word and another asks if you want to start over. Click “No” and you’re done. A sentence showing “5 of 20 words” displays over the spelling screen as your child works through the test so they always know how many words they have left. The whole process is simple and intuitive.

For my free trial I imported all the frequently misspelled word lists from the SpellQuizzer website. My 6th grader quickly worked through them all, even the “college and above” list! The import process is very simple. I just saved each list to my computer then, in the SpellQuizzer program, clicked the “Import spelling list” box. A screen asks me where to import the file from, I choose the file, check the box for that file in the import box and check “OK”. That’s it. The list will now be available in my “Quiz me” list.

One thing I had not tried with my free trial, was creating my own list. I was a little concerned about setting up the microphone, but that proved to be simple as well. I had a microphone headset I use with our Rosetta Stone software so I just used that. If you don’t have a microphone, you can buy one for around $10.

I plugged in the headset and clicked the “Create a spelling list” icon. First, a box appears asking you to name the list. Since I use AVKO I named they by the book and day. For instance the 7th day list in Book 1, I named AVKO 1.7. A screen will appear with the cursor in a “word to add” box. Type the word. If the word is case sensitive (August, Joe, Mr. Wood) there is a box to check. Then, under the sentence “click Start button to begin recording”, click “Start”. Say the word and a sentence using the word, then click “Stop”. To hear how it sounds, click the “Play Back” button. If it sounds good, click “Add Word” and the word is in your new list. My recordings were a bit crackly, but perfectly acceptable. I’m not sure if that’s because of the cheapie microphone, or what.

At the bottom of the screen is a box to “Adjust Audio and Recording Levels”. When I first recorded there was silence when I hit the “Play Back” button. Oh dear. But I checked the “Adjust Audio” button and got a screen that allowed me to increase the Master Volume, Wave Volume, and Microphone. I moved the Master Volume and Microphone sliders to the top and it worked fine. (I don’t have a clue what Wave Volume is) Once your list is all in, click the “OK” button at the bottom and the list will be in your “Quiz Me” options. If you accidentally click the “OK” button instead of the “Add Word” button (like I did the first word I tried to add) you can easily fix it. Go to the “Edit spelling lists” icon, find the list you were working on, and keep going.

If you don’t have, or don’t want to use a microphone, you can still use the software by typing in “reminder phrases”. For example, for the word “dog” you might put “ours is named Sam”. While I like the idea of this, I’m not sure how well it would really work in practice. Microphones are inexpensive and well worth purchasing to let the program work well.

The program has some really nifty features. The lists in the “Quiz Me” section can be sorted by either name or by date created which makes it nice if you want to quickly find the last list you entered. You can also export lists that you have created. That means if you are part of a co-op and create a list based on your lessons, you can export that list and email it to your members, who can then import it to their own SpellQuizzer software.

The SpellQuizzer spelling program website also has a lot of resources to take advantage of. There are several lists available on the site including holiday lists, religious themed lists, seasons, months and days, and much more. You’ll also find video demonstrations showing how each part of the program works, in case you have any problems.

The only thing “missing”, in my opinion, is a way to record scores or see progress. My kids are good about honestly telling me how they did, but if you had a problem child, that could be an issue. Still, you could have your child show you the screen with their score when they finish and again, once they’ve fixed the misspelled words.

I really like this software and my kids love it. I can just upload my lists when I have time and assign them to the kids to complete. They can move ahead at their own pace. The program can be used by all your children and, in my opinion, is well worth the $29.95 price. If you’d like the software available on up to 5 PC’s (and includes a CD), you can purchase the Family Pack License for $49.95. If you need help with fitting in spelling quizzes, be sure and check out the free trial, for sure!