Phonetic Zoo: A Phonics Based Spelling Program for the Auditory Learner {Product Review}

Spelling. The bane of our homeschooling experience. We have already tried out two other complete curriculum without any luck in mastery or...enjoyment. Little Britches is an auditory learner and none of the programs we have tried were geared to that style. Enter Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) and their Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level A [Starter Set]--a program designed FOR the auditory learner. I was eager to review this product to see if it was all that I hoped for in a spelling curriculum for our family. 

Product Information

Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) is recognized as one of the premier writing curriculum companies on the homeschooling market today. The founder Andrew Pudewa has a mission to help students learn how to write well, think clearly, and express themselves articulately and confidently. Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW for short) offers everything from complete Language Arts curriculum packages for Kindergarten to High school, to focused writing curriculum. There are even special curriculum available for special needs students!
I have been blessed to have experienced several of IEW's products including their Fix It! Grammar curriculum, the Student Writing Intensive Level A curriculum, and the Teaching Writing: Structure and Style program. I am always eager to discover other products that they offer...like their spelling curriculum!
If you are looking for a spelling curriculum, IEW offers them for the full age group from Kindergarten through High School! One of the programs geared to the 3rd grade+ range is their Phonetic Zoo Spelling Program! It comes in three levels:
Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level A (Grades 3-8) Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level B (Grades 3-8) Phonetic Zoo Spelling Level C (Grades 6-12)
What makes this curriculum different? It's especially geared towards the auditory learner! It's a phonics based program that uses an input through the students ears to absorb the correct spelling of each word. The program also is geared towards repetition to mastery! The audio cds in the starter set allow your child to work independently most of the time too!
A starter set is available for anyone who hasn't experienced Phonetic Zoo Spelling yet. 

Materials included in the Phonetic Zoo Spelling Starter Set (retails for $99):

*5 audio CDs (includes MP3 downloads)or MP3 downloads and no CDs *Lesson Cards with all three levels of spelling words and jingles *Personal Spelling Cards to keep track of your student’s typical misspellings *Zoo Cards that serve as a way to practice jingles or as rewards *Downloadable Phonetic Zoo Teacher’s Notes PDF file *Spelling and the Brain video seminar (link to streaming video)
A placement test is available and highly recommended to determine what level your student needs to start with. If you are not new to Phonetic Zoo, it's possible to just purchase the Audio CD you need for the level you want. It's also possible to buy pieces of the sets. On a budget? You can also purchase a budget package.
After taking the placement test, I determined that we needed the Phonetic Zoo Spelling Program Level A [Starter Set] for completing my review with Little Britches, age 9.

How Did We Use This Product?

I eagerly anticipated the arrival of this product! Even before the physical pieces of the set arrived, I went online to my IEW account and downloaded the Phonetic Zoo Teacher's Notes PDF file so I could begin looking through it. The notes include several pages relating to how the program works and why it works and what the goals are. I went ahead and printed out all the pages and put them into a binder. I noticed that the final pages in the PDF are appendices which are discussed in the notes. One of the appendix section contained a blank spelling test form that could be used for the student, if it was preferred over blank notebook paper. I decided that we would use this and went ahead and printed out ten of them.

I also went ahead and printed out the pages for the "Zoo Cages" where the zoo cards would be attached as we went through our different lessons. There is a nice explanation in this section talking about how you can use these cages to make a big poster board of sorts, or even a Phonetic Zoo city for your walls. At this time, I decided we would just attach them to the papers themselves.

The next thing I did while waiting for the physical product was to listen to the Spelling and the Brain seminar by Andrew Pudewa. I opted for the mp3 that I downloaded and listened to from my Kindle. It was a GREAT way to learn more about the program, why it was created and the kind of children it would work for. As I listened I was like "Yes! Yes! This is us!" It was so worth it just to hear that seminar.

Finally the physical product came and I eagerly tore into the package. I received the audio cds, lesson cards, and zoo cards in this package. I looked over the downloadable teachers notes one more time, this time seeing how the physical products pieced together with it.

It seemed to have very easy and simple steps:

1. Introduce the lesson using the Teachers Notes and Zoo Lesson Card (each are labeled with the lesson number). Read and show the words for the appropriate leveled words (Level A for us). Teach the jingle that is set up for each lesson.

2. Give child a headset, blank test, and pen. Next, set them up with the audio CD with the track that matches their lesson. There are two tracks for each lesson--first track is for the spelling test and the second track is for your child to correct their work.

3. Once your child has taken the test, they are to correct their own work. The teacher can look over the words to make sure the child didn't mistakenly miss a word spelling.

4. If your child got 100% on the test, then they simply need to get 100% on the next day's test. If your child misses words, they write the word correctly next to the misspelled word which has been crossed out. The next day, they take the test again, and correct their test again. The student continues to take the test over again until they get 100% two days in a row.

5. Once the child has received 100% two days in a row, it is considered mastered and they can move to the next lesson. The process then repeats with each lesson.

6. When the lesson has been learned, you can give the student the zoo card which will help them remember the lesson rule with an animal cue. The student can attach this to the cages sheets where they can note down three words from their lesson.

7. Every 5th lesson is a Personal Spelling card. Through out the weeks prior, the parent can note down words that are being misspelled from writing lessons, or they can use words from the lists of frequently misspelled words included in the Appendices, or use the extra lessons provided in the appendices that aren't going to be covered in the lesson cards. These lessons will have the parent doing the test giving and correction--but should be done in the same manner as the audio cds.

As of right now, we are on Lesson 5-Personal Spelling cards, where I used the -ck spelling lesson from the appendix. He has received his first 100% and is going to be hopefully getting his next one with our next spelling day. 

What Are My Thoughts On This Product?

Little Britches: It's the best spelling I've ever done! It's so easy and I can do it on my own and keep doing over the words over and over until I get them right. I like that I get to correct my own work, but I don't have to write my words like 30 times or anything. The jingles also make it easier for me to remember my lessons. I like that they say them several times during my test.

Me: Amen! LOL. I second and third everything he said because---it means we don't fight with spelling anymore! Spelling is easy breezy and he's really learning it...FINALLY!

Here are the reasons it's working for us:

1. It's almost completely auditory. 
He's an auditory learner. Hearing these words over and over. And hearing hearing their spellings over and over in his ears. It's key to his success. Same as having the jingles to guide him. Think Spelling Bee. That's how this program operates! Imput it in the correct order and keep reviewing it orally with them hearing the correct spellings until they get it right!

2. It's independent.
Other than the first day when I give the lesson, it's pretty much all on him to get it done. He simply grabs his headset, paper, and pen...then gets going on the laptop with the audio cd. He loves being able to correct his own work and I hear him cheer his own progress. "Yes! I got that one!"

3. It's short and to the point.
He has a fairly short attention span--he is a boy you know. The fact that this system requires just a little time each day and is very to the point without a lot of extras, makes it ideal for him.

4. It's repetitive to mastery.
For many spelling programs, you take one test and then move on--no matter what your score. With this program, you can't move on until you get two 100% tests in a row. This is ideal for him. He loves that it's the same words every time. He tries hard to do better with each test all on his own. He comes up with little ways to remember the word combinations so he doesn't miss them the next time. "Pe-o-ple". He is doing well and remembers the rules. I even saw him use the jingle for one of the writing assignments which made me very happy.

Is there anything I don't like?
Well, the only thing that's more of mom-student thing to take care of is that I caught him a few times changing his spelling of words during correction. Fortunately, I had seen the words he had written so I knew he had done this. I explained that he needed to remember there wasn't a penalty for missing words. Nor was it going to help him learn the words if he continued to do it. For the next few tests, I simply had him bring me his test to look at before he corrected his work. This quickly nipped the issue in the bud. It is something that the parent will need to be aware of when allowing them to work through their tests on their own.

So, will we continue to use this program?

Teachers Notes can be used for all 3 levels, just like the cards

Absolutely. No doubt about it. This is working for us and I thank God that we were blessed with this program. I really like that the Lesson Cards can be used for all three levels, so once we are done with Level A, I could continue to use the program to work through the Level B and Level C words.

If I want the independent aspect, I would have to purchase the audio cds (or mp3s) for each of these ($59 download each), but I can always simply follow the method and do the spelling tests for the upper levels the way I would do the Personal Spelling cards.

Will I use this with Baby Britches?
Hmm. That's the catch. I don't know. He does not have an auditory learning style, so other programs might work better for him, but this one is so good, I may just give it a whirl for him too when the time comes. 

Would I Recommend This Product?

Are you struggling with spelling in your school? Does it seem like your child can spell the same word four different ways, EVEN after learning it the traditional spelling way? Does your child HATE spelling? Do you want your child to have mastery over the words they are learning? Does your child work well with some independence in their lessons? Do you want an open and go program? What about multiple students able to work through it together? Then I definitely would recommend checking out this program! It has been a Godsend for us because I was answering yes to all of these questions myself--even after trying out two other well known spelling programs!

Want To Know More?

We reviewed Phonetic Zoo Spelling Program Level A [Starter Set] (retails for $99.00) from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). You have seen how much we enjoy this program, but why not check out the rest of my review crew thought about it! I also encourage you to check out some of the teams review on the Resource Set!

Want to stay in the know with all things related to Institute for Excellence in Writing? Make sure you add them on these social media outlets! https://www.facebook.com/excellenceinwriting https://www.pinterest.com/iewriting http://vimeo.com/iewtv https://twitter.com/iew https://www.youtube.com/user/iewtv http://iew.com/help-support/blog https://plus.google.com/+Iewriting/ https://instagram.com/iew/

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I am so happy with the results of this program. We finally found a spelling curriculum that not only works, but Little Britches actually likes to do! It is great to add another win to our experiences with products from Institute for Excellence in Writing--I look forward to continuing to use their products for years to come!

Logic of English~Essentials (a curriculum review)

English is one of the subjects that I am very comfortable teaching. We have been using a very good curriculum this year...except for spelling. We hit a point where we just didn't think our spelling was working very well for us. When we also were nearly completed with our Language Arts book, it was time to seek out something new--hopefully something with a strong spelling course that would help us out. I was very excited to be able to review Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set--a complete English curriculum, including a strong spelling course. Perhaps this would be just what we needed.

What Is Logic of English?

Logic of English was designed to fight illiteracy. One of the ways they decided to do this was to design curriculum to address the biggest problem in learning English...the reasons why words are spelled and read the way they are. They made it their goal to present a common-sense approach to reading and spelling and to incorporate multi-sensory learning activities to recognize that every person learns differently. With the intensive phonetic instruction presented systematically, they've endeavored to take the confusion out of learning English--whether learning as a child, an adult, or an ESL student. By teaching the 74 basic phonograms and 30 spelling rules...together these explain 98% of English words.
Logic of English consists of three curriculum:
*Fundamentals: Complete Language Arts Curriculum for ages 4-7 *Essentials: Spelling, Reading and Grammar for ages 7+ *Handwriting: Cursive and Manuscript Handwriting Instruction
I am reviewing Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set which sells for $243. The following items were included in the set:
*Essentials Teacher's Manual *Essentials Student Workbook (consumable) *Spelling Journal (consumable) *Basic Phonogram Flash Cards *Spelling Rule Flash Cards *Grammar Rule Flash Cards *Advanced Phonogram Flash Cards *Game Book *Manuscript (or Cursive) Game Cards *2nd Set of Manuscript (or Cursive) Game Cards Boldface *Quick Reference Chart
I was able to choose either the manuscript or cursive version of the workbook and game cards. I chose manuscript for our review.

How Did We Use Logic of English?

As soon as I received the materials, I took an afternoon to acquaint myself with the teacher's manual. I read all the pre-lesson information, so that I could have the best understanding on how the program was supposed to work. This was probably the single best thing I did before starting the program. I really learned a lot behind how it was designed and how I could determine the best way to go about teaching it. 

Giddy when I opened this box!

This baby is about 1 1/2" thick!

Chart laying out the scope and sequence for the program

Symbol explanation and materials needed

Loved this section! It had different schedule scenarios based on your student...

Some pages from the "Teaching the Lessons" portion

Explanation of how each lesson is laid out 

I loved this suggestion for "say to spell". Holding up the fingers to match the number of letters making the sound! Brilliant!

Better explanation of the multi-sensory symbol guide

Some of the things that are part of the "Teacher Resources" section

Charts all the phonograms to be taught, their sounds, and sample words

Lays out all the spelling rules

All the spelling lists in the curriculum...

 The next thing I did was buy a box to hold all the cards that were included. You will need something to hold the cards, because there are a lot of them! A photo box is the ideal size and I found a super cute one for just $3. I pulled out some rubberbands and clips and got everything organized.

If it's a phonogram card, grammar flash card or spelling rule for the current lesson it gets separated with the black clip

Getting Started: The teacher's manual suggested a couple different schedules to use, based on your child's skill level. I decided to try the schedule for the "Struggling Speller Reading at Grade Level" which suggests completing one lesson every one to two days. (see the photo earlier in this post) I used the scripted lesson just as it suggested. It was very easy to follow as all the teacher "talk" is in bold. If there is an exercise from the workbook to be done, there is a little pencil icon noting which exercise is to be complete. Every lesson also contains colored boxes with additional activities, as well as challenges that you can have your student complete. Not all the workbook exercises are part of the main lesson, so you can see if there are any you want your student to complete from the extras. 
Rather than explain in detail everything we did in lesson one or any other lesson, I'm going to explain the parts of each lesson and what is in them, as this has been consistent for every lesson in the book up to the lesson we completed this week (Lesson 12). This will give you the broadest look at what you could expect from this curriculum.
Every teaching lesson is separated into three parts.  Part One focuses on phonograms, exploring sounds and spelling rules.
Phonograms is the first portion of each lesson. Here the student will learn a particular phonogram or set of phonograms. If it is a set, they typically all share a sound, are all very common easy phonogram pairs, or share the same rules. (ie. ay, ai are taught at the same time as oi, oy because each pair shares the same rules; or oa and oe are taught together because they share a sound). Teaching them follows the same routine each time--review the sounds each phonogram makes. See if there is anything similar between them. Then meet some words using them and learn any rules that might be used for them.
I like that the next part of phonograms is review. We always bring in phonograms that have already been learned so that they are regularly heard and used. Phonogram practice consists of the teacher saying the SOUNDS each phonogram makes (all of them!) and the student writes down the phonogram that matches those sounds in their workbook. There are usually 20 phonograms in the review.

Once this review is done, there is typically a game played from The Phonogram and Spelling Game Book. We enjoy this portion, because we just love playing games.

Logic of English incorporates "Exploring Sounds" where you learn about how things are spoken or used to make up words. I like this section as it addresses how things are pronounced. Lesson one kicked off by having us test consonants and vowels on our tongue and lips to feel the difference.
This part of the lesson is where you really dive into the phonetics...which phonograms say the same thing, how do you know when to use which one, finding irregular useage, etc. I find myself doing a lot of whiteboard work in this section.

Learning sounds of long /a/

learning the broad sound of /a/

I really love that in this portion of the lesson they point out if there are a limited number of words that use a particular phonogram sound. For instance in the picture above for learning long /a/, they are taught that there are only eight words where /ea/ says a long /a/ sound. The students are encouraged to write the rare spellings in their Spelling Journal, though it's not part of the lesson assignments. We do it. This is very useful for Little Britches and he has a great memory for this kind of thing. If he can't remember, all he has to do is pull out the journal and look at the lists.

Some examples of rare spellings of long o

By the time this section on exploring sounds is done, the student has a good grasp on which spellings are the most common or rare and when they get used. 
Part Two of each lesson contains spelling dictation and analysis.
There is a spelling list right after the phonics work. I like that they call it a list rather than a test. It is very clear on how to administer it and with just 15 words--some easy, some teaching specific phonograms covered in the lesson--it is quickly completed.
One thing I really appreciate is that before every spelling list (if needed), there is a "tips" portion which reminds the teacher that certain words are spelled different than they sound so to make sure and say them to match the way they are spelled. Words like enjoy, secret, human, frozen...it draws your attention to them and explains the best way to pronounce them for student spelling success. 
Once the spelling list is done, the teacher then guides the student to analyze each word and mark them as directed on the Spelling List in the teacher manual under "markings". This is when they can correct any mistakes they made and marking the phonograms helps them to remember later. It also where spelling rules are listed (if they work for a word) so you can refresh their memory.

The instructions even include having them mark with tiny numbers corresponding to the sound the phonogram made when it wasn't the dominant sound. For instance when we learned the word bread...we marked the /ea/ by underlining it, but then put a small 2 over it to remind us that /ea/ is making it's second sound. This is very useful to remember that some phonograms have more than one sound.
Part Three of each lesson focuses on things relating to writing: grammar, dictation, composition, and vocabulary.
The grammar portion contains what you would consider grammar--sentence structure, learning about the parts of speech, etc. There are grammar rule cards that are used whenever something new is introduced. These are very very helpful to be able to reference throughout the week. 

These little holders work perfectly for the cards. I like to keep up all the spelling and grammar rules for the lesson for quick access during the week.

One of the first things that is done as part of grammar is to learn about the parts of speech--nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. Once the introduction is made and the grammar card is introduced, the student turns back to their spelling list and in the column "parts of speech" they note as directed any nouns, verbs, adj, et they see. Every part of speech taught gets a different color, so nouns are always red, verbs always green, etc when marking. 
The grammar section just continues with oral question/answer and discussion to teach the science of grammar and includes some exercises in the workbook. We had already covered a lot of the parts of speech in the curriculum we used prior to this review, but the review was definitely worthwhile.
Logic of English encourages identifying parts of speech in phrases and sentences, so the teacher will work through some in each section with the student. They will learn to note over each word what part of speech it is. This leads to increased writing fluency later. 
I can assure you that it is very detailed and thorough. We just completed lesson 12 and for the first time in my life I know what a transitive verb and direct object are--and what their purpose is in a sentence. I may have learned this at some point in the past, but if I did, I have no recollection of it! I really am enjoying the detailed grammar studies in this course.
Dictation is the next section. Every lesson contains phrases/sentences for dictation (about 6 of them). These phrases contain words from the spelling lists. There is also something related to what was covered in the grammar--maybe comma usage, or subject-verb agreement, or plurals. Once these are done, the teacher is encouraged to write them on the board so that the student can check (and correct) their work and you can review with them any rules they might have forgotten.
The last two sections of part three in the lesson are vocabulary development and composition. Not every lesson has both of these, but many do. Vocabulary development focuses on things like prefixes, suffixes, compound words, etc. Taking the words they learned in their spelling list and morphing them into something else. For instance, our lesson this week (lesson 12) worked with the suffix -er. We took our verbs from the spelling list and learned how adding -er changed them. 
The final section of the lesson (besides any extras that might be included for additional practice) is composition. Composition always has the student using their spelling words to make phrases or sentences following any grammar rules that have been covered. For instance in lesson 8, the composition asked that the student write short phrases using "a and an + adjective + noun using the sample words provided in the the workbook". This takes the principles they learned and lets them put them to work in short sentence form.  Again, this is building a great foundation for writing fluency.
Throughout the lesson you will find boxes with optional additional work...I like to check out what they are and sometimes I will include them--especially if it's just more practice on something I know Little Britches needs to spend more time on. 

You can see here that I highlighted one of the activities in the optional box at the top. I knew he'd enjoy it playing charades, so we did it.

After we attempted to use the suggested schedule of 1 lesson every one to two days (as part of the schedule for a struggling speller), we discovered it was just too much. We weren't used to spending that much time on English and it got overwhelming. This is especially true once we got past the stuff we already knew. Now I break the lesson down over 4 days so it looks something like this:
Day 1: Part 1 and Part 2 (spelling list) Day 2: Review spelling list; Part 3 Grammar Day 3: Part 3 Vocabulary and Dictation Day 4: Part 3 Composition and Challenge (if they have it)
By breaking it up like this, we have really pared it down to what Little Britches can handle. Doing it this way fills up 30-60 minutes a day depending on how much is in each section. This is much more manageable then the 60-90 minutes every day we were doing before.
But wait...what about assessments? As I mentioned at the top, this program includes an assessment chapter every 5th lesson.

I love the way that the program does the assessment and review. It is very non-test. It includes the student in the process of determining what THEY think they need to work on. Before the first assessment in Lesson 5, it recommends you remind your student of these things:

I love it. These really opened up discussion on why learning how to spell properly is important to Little Britches future...he had a LOT to say on that third question. LOL!

Each of the assessments consist of a spelling assessment and then a spelling word review.  

I really like the next part of the assessment where the student can see all the words they've covered in their spelling lists and THEY can mark the ones they think they need more help with. There is a matching list in the teacher manual where the teacher can note their own observations too.

In the spelling word review, the student is asked to write down the words they want more practice on or that they regularly miss onto 3x5 cards...underlining the part of the word they tend to miss. Now with these cards, the student can choose from a variety of practice activities to work on these words. Little Britches favorite is "Blind Spelling."

In Blind Spelling I read the 3 x 5 cards to him one at a time and he closes his eyes and writes the word on the whiteboard. Then he checks to see if it matches the card. A similar version of this is to take the stack of cards and look at each card, then flip it over and write the word down on a piece of paper. If you get it right, you put it in a different stack. If you get it wrong, it stays in your words to practice pile. He likes to hand me the ones he "knows really good now."
At the end of the assessment lesson, the next pages consist of games and activities you can do to review any of the spelling or grammar rules that have been taught. These are great for pinpointing areas needing improvement.

What Are Our Thoughts About Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set?

Little Britches thoughts: "I don't like that there is a lot of stuff in one activity, but I do like the games that are in it. Those are fun. And how you can practice the words you miss with Blind Spelling. And that there are only 15 words to know each lesson and that some of them are really easy each time. The rules do help me remember how to spell things...but I can't always remember them and that makes me frustrated."
My thoughts: Pros: *All inclusive systematic complete English program *Spelling Rules/Grammar Rules on Flashcards for quick reference *Games to practice what is learned throughout the book and in every lesson *Open-and-go material *Would work for more than one grade level *Notations on ways to include multi-sensory learning for your student *Lots of extras to add in if desired or to substitute exercises *Easy for Teacher--clear instructions and scripted lessons  *Assessments every 5th lesson *Teaches the WHY'S of English/Spelling *Can be paced according to your child *Includes schedule ideas based on the level of your child *Includes copywork, dictation and composition to assist with writing fluency *Workbooks for cursive and manuscript available *Spelling journal to record unusual phonogram usage for quick reference later *Price--so much is included in the complete set for a great price
Cons: *Very systematic and "classic textbook" in the approach *Teacher led, not much independent work *Minimal writing or reading outside of basic exercises *Price--it could be prohibitive to those on a tight budget, regardless how much you want it
In summary, I love that Logic of English is a complete systematic approach to understanding English. I love learning the rules for the spelling and rules for the grammar and I love having them for Little Britches to reference. I like the multi-sensory learning notations throughout the book, allowing me to find extra exercises that will connect with my sons auditory learning style. I love that the teachers manual has clear instructions and scripted lessons---though I sometimes deviate in order to make things more clear...but the lesson is basic enough to allow for that. I like that I can break the lesson down to fit the pace of my child--allowing us to move quickly through things we already know, in order to spend time on the things we need to learn.
The main things that I don't like is that there is minimal reading or writing included in the program. There are no pieces of literature or reading booklets included in this set to practice what is being learned. In my exploration of the Logic of English website, I did discover something called The Essentials Reader (digital) which corresponds with Essentials lessons. This is a reading book, but it is not included in the complete Essentials curriculum. I would really like to have something like that included in the set as the reading aspect is lacking. I feel the same way about the writing. There is a portion of each lesson spent for composition, but it is nothing more than just using words that the student has learned to make sentences. The writing skills are taught, but not really put into practice. There are notations in the teachers manual of places to encourage free writing, but it is part of the "extras" not part of the actual assignments. Essentials: Logic of English is light on writing; however, if you look at the description of the curriculum it does not say it's a complete Language Arts curriculum (like their Foundations curriculum), but rather a complete reading and spelling course. Writing would be the one thing I would add--as I can incorporate reading/literature on my own.
Why did I rave about the systematic approach to the program, yet put it in the cons? Because for a lot of homeschoolers, having a "textbook" or "classical" approach to English isn't going to be their style. This is very old school textbook in some ways, but the addition of the exercises for multi-sensory learning and the games scattered throughout the lessons break that up enough for me to really enjoy it. Because of this systematic approach it is very teacher led--there isn't much independent work beyond the exercises. Which is why having the games included and "extra" options is so important.
Price. I always like to include my thoughts on the price. For what you are getting with this complete curriculum, the price of $243 is outstanding. It really is an amazingly and thorough program for teaching the ins and outs---the science--of English. Once you buy the complete set, you will only need to purchase the spelling journal and workbook for future students. Everything else is non-consumable. But I also put price as a con because for some (many!) families paying over $200 for just one subject is not within their budget, regardless of how amazing it is--especially if they have multi-grade levels to buy for. If I had not had a chance to review this program, I don't know that I would ever have even considered it because of the cost...that is nearly half my annual homeschooling budget. I typically buy according to price when it comes to curriculum...especially if I don't know anything about it. 
I hope that by me sharing with you how awesome this program is, you will consider it even with the higher cost!
In regards to how it worked for our family...it worked. It worked fabulously. This kind of a program is just what my son needed--even if he doesn't "love" it. He always asked me "why? Why?" with our other spelling program, because it never gave reasons for words being spelled the way they were. Now he has the rules and reasons and he knows that these will always work and he'll be able to use them from here on out. It was a lot more work--each lesson is really best spaced over the course of 4 days and we still spend 45-60 minutes a day on it. But the results I see are definitely worth it. Did I mention that I'VE learned a ton? I discovered that I never knew half of these rules--I just did them because they told to me. I didn't know about non-count plurals, transitive verbs, or direct objects--much less the actual rules like English words never ending in an A, I, U or V! I love that I am learning right along with Little Britches. We will definitely be continuing to use this program.

Would I Recommend Essentials: Logic of English?

This is a program ideal for those who like the classical teaching approach to English, and those who have children demanding the "why" behind spellings/grammar. It's also great if you have a child struggling with phonetics and their usage in English words. It's also great for those who want a scripted lesson plan for teaching English as well something that becomes multi-sensory and paced to match the child. If you are an "open and go" teacher--preferring to have it all laid out for you, this program will be perfect. If you feel you are weak in the area of English and need something to do the "hard work" for you, this is DEFINITELY the curriculum for you.
If however, you are looking for a literature based English program, one that spends little time in a workbook, or one with a lot of independent work, than Logic of English might not be for you. If you are looking for a program with a good writing focus (not just writing basics) this is not going to work for you.

For More Information about Logic of English...

If you want to learn more about the Essentials: Logic of English Complete Set, please visit the Logic of English website! You will be able to see the scope of the program in a video, see what a lesson looks like, check out the teacher's manual, view the student workbook and check out some sample pages!
You can find Logic of English on the full range of social media sites including: *Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLogicOfEnglish  *Twitter: https://www.pinterest.com/logicofenglish/ *YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/logicofenglish/ *Pinterest: https://twitter.com/LogicofEnglish
I have shared our experience with the Logic of English Essentials program...there are 2 other programs (and some apps!) that were reviewed by our team! Why not head on over and check them out--especially if you have a child in the 4-9 age range!
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Thank you for checking out another one of my reviews! Don't forget that you can find the full list of the curriculum and product I review on my Curriculum & Product Reviews page.