Spelling You See vs All About Spelling: Rules or Patterns?

Spelling You See vs All About Spelling: the short answer

These two homeschool spelling programs disagree about how kids learn to spell.

All About Spelling says kids should learn the system: the sounds letters make, the rules for when to use them, and the reasons behind tricky words. Lessons use color-coded letter tiles, flashcards and dictation, scripted for the parent.

Spelling You See says kids learn spelling by seeing words in real writing. Each week, your child reads a short passage, marks letter patterns with colored pencils, copies it, and later writes it from dictation. There are no word lists and no spelling tests.

If your child struggles or is dyslexic, All About Spelling is usually the safer choice. If your child is a visual learner who hates weekly lists, Spelling You See is gentler.

Teaching approach

All About Spelling uses the Orton-Gillingham approach across seven mastery-based levels. Level 1 teaches the first 32 phonograms and short vowels. Later levels cover silent e, r-controlled vowels, vowel teams, suffixes and prefixes, and Level 7 reaches Latin and Greek roots. Built-in review keeps mastered words fresh. It doesn't teach handwriting.

Spelling You See, from Demme Learning, follows five spelling stages. Levels A and B focus on letter sounds and nursery rhymes. From Level C, each lesson is a single passage on a theme, like animal facts in Wild Tales or American history in Americana, worked over five days. Rules aren't taught explicitly; kids absorb patterns by marking and copying them.

What a lesson looks like

All About Spelling: Review flashcards your child missed, build new words with letter tiles to show the new rule, then write words, phrases and sentences from dictation. About 20 minutes. Some steps take a week or more.

Spelling You See: Read the passage together and talk about tricky words. Your child chunks the passage, marking vowel teams or silent letters in color, then copies it for about 10 minutes and stops when the timer ends. Later in the week, they write it from your dictation. About 10 to 15 minutes a day.

Price and value

As of October 2026, All About Spelling level materials cost $49.95 to $69.95, plus one-time purchases of Letter Tiles ($25.95) and a Review Box ($17.95). Direct orders carry a one-year money-back guarantee, limited to 45 days on ESA or scholarship orders.

Spelling You See level sets cost $42.03 (Level A) and $65.43 (Levels B–G). Extra student workbooks are $52, and erasable colored pencils are sold separately. Workbooks are consumable for each child.

Per level, prices are close. All About Spelling's tiles and manual can be reused for siblings, while Spelling You See needs a new workbook for each child.

Who should choose All About Spelling

• Struggling spellers and kids with dyslexia
• Children who need to know why words are spelled a certain way
• Parents who want a scripted, step-by-step manual
• Families already using All About Reading

Who should choose Spelling You See

• Visual learners who pick up patterns from text
• Families tired of word lists and Friday tests
• Parents who want short, nearly prep-free lessons
• Kids who enjoy reading and copying real passages

Alternatives to both

• Logic of English: rules-based reading and spelling together.
• Sequential Spelling: word families built up day by day.
• All About Reading: the reading companion to All About Spelling.
• Spelling Shed and SpellingCity: game-based practice to add on.

See the best spelling curriculum and more spelling programs.

Can you use a scholarship for either?

Often, yes. Spelling curriculum is commonly an allowable expense in education savings account programs such as the Arizona ESA and Florida's FES-UA. Each program decides. If you buy All About Spelling with ESA or scholarship funds, its return window is 45 days instead of a year. Save your pick to your wishlist and apply once to the scholarships your family may qualify for.