Meet and Greet Times with Don McCabe Available!

Don McCabe will be available for meetings in various international locations. Please e-mail Don to set up a time to meet.

• Johannesburg, South Africa, August 10-12
• Cape Town, South Africa, August 13 -17
• Sydney, Australia (available in the evenings Thursday & Friday, October 21 and 22.
• Available from 10am to 4 pm Fjordland, New Zealand Tuesday October 26.
• Available from 10 am to 4pm Fort Chalmers, New Zealand Wednesday, October 27.
• Available 10 am to 4pm Akarroa, New Zealand October 28. Available 10-4, Wellington New Zealand 10/29.
• Available 10-4 Auckland, NZ, 10/31.
• Availale11-3, Suva Fiji 11/3. 10-2, Pago Pago 11/4.
• 11-2, Moorea, French Polynesia 11/7.
• 11-2, Papeete, Taihiti, French Polynesia, 11/8
• 11-2, Bora Bora, French Polynesia, 11/9
• 10-5 Honolulu, Hawaii. 11/14
• 11-2 Maui (Lahaina), USA 11/15

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New AVKO Resource for Testing Spelling and Reading Levels

Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@avko.org

AVKO has introduced a new e-book resource: a collection of diagnostic, prescriptive, and pre-tests for spelling and reading. This collection of 17 tests written by Don McCabe will allow you to quickly determine which spelling patterns your students need to learn, where they should be placed in Sequential Spelling (or another spelling program), and how to best remediate their spelling. This collection will also give you all of the information you need to quickly create your own spelling program. These tests can also be used for ESL instruction, special education, creating an IEP, and many other things!

This is available for purchase from AVKO for only $5.00 from the Scribd website. You can see all of AVKO's documents on Scribd here.

Spelling Remediation Test Kit

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New AVKO Materials: Engaging Language Kits!

AVKO is proud to announce that we have have introduced a new line of supplemental curriculum materials for language arts: Engaging Language Kits (by Brian McCabe).  Each of these seven kits corresponds to one of the levels of Sequential Spelling to reinforce the word families learned in that level.  Each kit has over 125 pages of activities for your students:

• Creative writing prompts
• Word games using the word families of the Sequential Spelling level
• Anagrams
• Word Searches
• Scrambled Words
• Missing Word Families
• Speech to Spelling Translation
• Dictation exercises
• Story writing
• Readings for Comprehension
• Helpful Appendix Items for Even More Activities and Prompts

Though these activities correspond to each of the levels of Sequential Spelling, one needn't be teaching Sequential Spelling to use these exercises with students.  They will complement any language arts curriculum or just for fun!  They ascend in level of difficulty with each volume (level of abstract thought, word families presented, etc.).

Each Engaging Language Kit costs only $12.95 and comes in a 3-ring binder for easy access to the worksheets.   Use the e-coupon code "blog" to receive a 10% discount on your order.  

Buy the Engaging Language Kit 1 now: 

or visit AVKO.org to purchase the other levels.

AVKO Recommends These Books

AVKO recommends these books to supplement your educational, homeschooling, and grammar experience. Let us know if you recommend any other books. We will be adding to this list continually.

Check out the list of AVKO-Recommended Books

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Last Chance for the Book of the Month Special

Today is the last day to get your copy of Starting at Square One at a drastically reduced price. The special ends at midnight tonight (the special has been extended to end at midnight of May 1st!). If you need a language arts curriculum for your kindergartner or first grader (K-1), ESL, or older student who needs help with phonemic awareness and/or word attack skills, this is the book for you. As the alphabet is taught, your student will learn reading, spelling, handwriting, and keyboarding. The book uses completely decodable words as the letters of the alphabet are taught.

Learn more about the Book of the Month special and Starting at Square One

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The (Complete) I Before E Rule

I'm sure you learned "The" I Before E Rule when you were growing up. But, I'm sure that you also experienced some angst when it came to spelling ie/ei words because the "rule" that you learned just didn't cut the mustard, so to speak. Luckily AVKO has you covered. We have the complete I Before E rule that will show you how to handle those "exceptions" and master the rule.

So, I Before E, except after C...but what what "science" and "weight"?

The Complete I Before E Rule - With Explanations

Memorize the following poem and learn how to apply each part of the rule.	Explanations
Use i before e	Unless you have a reason not to, use ie as in thief, believe, priest, etc.
Except after c	except after c Means: use cei as in receive, deceive, ceiling, etc.
Or when sounded as "EYE" or "AY" as in Einstein and weigh.	Or when sounded as EYE or AY Means: use ei in "EYE" words such as Einstein, Eileen, Heidi, stein, Steinbrenner, etc. It also means use ei in "AY" words such as weigh, eight, vein, veil.
Neither, weird, foreign, leisure, Seize, forfeit, and height Are Exceptions spelled right	And so are: protein and caffeine forfeiture, codeine, heifer, etc. Memorize these!
But don't let the C-I-E-N words get you uptight!	Means: cien as in efficient, ancient, conscience, and sufficient etc.

Read more about the I Before E Rule on the AVKO Website

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Using Aptitude and Admission Test Prep Materials for Self-Enrichment

Are you looking to increase your vocabulary or that of your student? There are many great resources out there besides simply the dictionary; try using the free resources available for the various admissions and aptitude tests out there. There are many tests out there: TOEFL, GRE, ACT, SAT, etc. Each of these tests has accompanying resource sites out there ready for you to download and access their resources.

If you are looking for high-level vocabulary words for self-enrichment, spelling bee preparation, etc., the college prep test materials are great (GRE, ACT, SAT).

If you are looking for materials to help for students who are struggling with the English language and who are still on the way to fluency, English as a Second Language (ESL) resources like the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) can be great to fill in those gaps.

Do a quick Google search to find a whole host of materials for free.

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Using AVKO Materials for ESL

AVKO's materials are not only great for homeschooling, dyslexia remediation, and school systems, but they are also great for ESL (English as a Second Language) training. An ESL learner can really benefit from the common sense, low-cost, and quick methods that AVKO's materials offer -- from basal curriculum (Starting at Square One) to fluency exercises (Word Families in Sentence Context; Readings for Fluency) to focusing on those tricky homophones and heteronyms (The Tricky Words) or other issues that give grief to even fluent speakers (Apostrophes, It-ss and Too'ze, and I Before E Rule)

Starting at Square One and Word Families in Sentence Context are available for FREE with AVKO Membership.

See the complete list of AVKO Materials on our website.

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