Review of Spelling City

While my kids have been using Spelling City for quite awhile, we have been using the premium features for the past six weeks or so.  We love Spelling City! Perhaps, like me, you have wondered if upgrading to the premium version of the site is worth it.  In my opinion, it is.

While you can get plenty of benefit from the free site, when you upgrade to the premium site you gain access to so many more features.  While the extra games are great, it is the definition, sentence, and paragraph work that really creates the biggest value.  In this way, Spelling City becomes just as much about vocabulary and writing as it is about spelling.  Also, if you are a homeschooling family, the ability to create lists giving different children different word lists and assignments is huge.  It takes all the guesswork out of creating a spelling curriculum.  You don't even have to find the lists - there are over 42,000 words on Spelling City, and they are composed into more lists than I can name.  There are topical lists, subject lists, sight word lists, geography lists, sound-alike lists and more.  If you want to make your own lists, that is easy to do.

Further, although ads don't bother some parents, the ability to use Spelling City ad-free may be worth the price of upgrading to some parents.  Really, the premium version of Spelling City has features to appeal to everyone, as can be seen in this graphic.

 While we always use the products we are given to review, Spelling City is one that we will continue to use on a nearly daily basis and, having been able to experience the premium version, I know that I will renew it when my time is up. Spelling City is something that my kids really enjoy doing.  I don't think that they actually realize that it is school.  Due to that lack of realization, we don't have to do Spelling City during school time - it can be moved to free play computer time, and *that* means...more net school time!

For my younger children (7), I used premade lists on Spelling City, primarily because I liked being able to choose words that are considered second grade words.  One always wonders if her children are where she thinks they are! For my older children, I entered words that I had already selected into Spelling City for them to study.  By the end of the review period, though, I was using premade lists for them, too.  There are just so many to choose from, and the themes (i.e., Geography) are so fun!

For each of my children, I entered specific information about their lists and assignments into their Spelling City accounts (they log in as themselves and I am then able to check their individual progress - a truly awesome feature of the premium subscription, and the reason I will be renewing) for them to use independently. It made my "job" as their spelling instructor almost irrelevant (which is great!).

At only$29.99 per year for up to five students, Spelling City is a great deal for kids who respond well to computer-based learning.  Because everything you need for a spelling curriculum is included, the price essentially break down to $6.00 per year, per student (assuming you use it with five children).  I really do recommend Spelling City premium.  All of my children from 7-11 have so much fun with it (and, yes, they absolutely do learn their spelling lessons!).

As always, check out the Crew blog for other experiences!



Disclaimer: I received a year's subscription to Spelling City Premium free in exchange for my review.  My children have gained spelling knowledge, but I have received no other compensation.