McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book

This is a good book that list many words every child should be able to spell. With the USA having the highest illiteracy rate in the world and witnessing many high school students that can not spell nose, knows, and no correctly, I think everyone needs one of these books.

The McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book is an excellent, educational tool that one can use to strengthen spelling/language skills, both independently or with the assistance of a teacher/tutor. This is a great book!

Last year we used the Spalding method of spelling, and I think it is a geat way to learn spelling. The biggest hurdle to implementing that program for my son was the randomness of the words with no connection to what he is reading or learning in his daily life. This was a difficult hurdle for an intuitive learner like him to overcome. The McGuffy Speller lists words with common sounds. Thus you will have words like fair, and fare together on one list, teaching the child the different ways one sound can be spelled. I think this is easier for a child to deal with than having to decide as in Spalding which spelling goes with the same sound. In McGuffy the sounds are introduced with the words and this is less frustrating than a child having to feel he should somehow know which spelling to use: are, or air. If you tried Spalding, and liked the phonetic approach, but don't think you will continue in it, and are looking for a similar but more conventional approach, this may be a good choice for you. I think it takes the best of phonics, memorization, and word patterns, and combines them into a great word list that can be used for weekly spelling tests. Personally, I am not using even this method this year as I believe the memorization and detachment from hands on learning just won't stick with my son. If your child doesn't balk at weekly spelling tests, learning the words in this book will prepare him for college level reading and writing.