Monday, October 10, 2011

Review of VocabularySpelling City and a giveaway

A few weeks ago, I told you about an upcoming review of VocabularySpellingCity.com.  Well, here it is and the best part is, that I also have a 1-year Premium Membership to give away.  We have been using the free version of Spelling City for a while now and like it.  In the free version, you can create spelling lists and your kids can play some of the games to practice their spelling.  I had not thought much about trying the paid version, basically because no one I knew had used it and I did not want to spend money on something I was unsure of.  Then I received the opportunity to review the paid service and I am so glad I did.  We have been missing out on SO MUCH!!

There are so many more benefits of being a paid member of VocabularySpellingCitycom.  For starters, you will see that I refer to the free version as just Spelling City, that is because the vocabulary games are only available to those with a paid membership.  In addition to vocabulary, your students can practice parts of speech and synonyms and antonyms of the spelling words.  Another great benefit is the ability to create records and track progress for your individual students.  This is nice because all I need to do is go in and enter their spelling/vocabulary lists and then let them "play".  I can see their progress and address it as needed, but as of yet, I have not needed to.  They were learning with the free version, but definitely enjoy the paid version much more and are learning so much more as a result.  My 9 year old absolutely LOVES the spelling game Letter Fall, which is only available with the premium membership.  Both versions also offer spelling lists that others have created, so you also have options of using those.  There are also tests available for each list in both spelling and vocabulary, with only the spelling test being available for free members.  Another benefit, although somewhat minor, is that there is no paid advertising with the premium membership.  I say this is a minor benefit because even on the free version, advertising was never very distracting. 

So how much does this all cost, you ask?  For families and homeschoolers, it is a very reasonable $24.99 per year and allows you to register up to 5 students.  For a school classroom, up to 30 students, it is $49.99 per year and they also have rates for schools as well.  If you want to see more of the benefits and FAQs visit the premium membership page.

I am a very frugal homeschooler and really dislike spending money when there is so much available for free.  However, spelling and vocabulary are areas where I have not found much available.  In addition, there is a lot to be said about curriculum that allows my children to learn with minimal time spent by me.  The best part is that $24.99 a year, for 5 children, is an excellent price for this, so even my frugal-side is appeased.

How would you like to win a 1 year Premium family membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com?  Here is how to enter:
Mandatory entry:  Tell me which of the benefits you think would be the most helpful to you and/or which game you think your child will enjoy the most.

Extra ways to enter (leave a comment for each one you do):
- subscribe to The Happy Wife
- follow The Happy Wife on Google Friend Connect
- Like The Happy Wife on facebook (you can also click the like button on the right hand side of the blog)
- share this giveaway via your blog or other social networking site.
- Follow me on Twitter
The giveaway will end on Tuesday, October 18th, sometime after 9PM.  You can enter until I choose the winner.  The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me or a new winner will be chosen. 

Disclosure
I received a 1 year premium family membership to VocabularySpellingCity.com in exchange for my honest review.   No other compensation was received and as always, my opinion is my own.

9 comments:

  1. Spellingcity is such a wonderful site! I teach fifth grade, and have used the free portions of this site for several years. I would love to have a Premium membership, but just can't buy one more thing for my classroom. I think the Vocabulary section would be great for all content areas!

    Thank you for this give-away! I hope that I win! haha It's one of the best sites that I've found!

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  2. SpellingCity has been a great tool in my Special Education Resource classroom. I can upload all 4 levels of spelling words that I teach, students love the variety of games they can play while studying their spelling list at home and at school. I link their lists on our class website each week. I think my students favorite game is HangMouse! We play that on our whiteboard. SpellingCity has excellent reading list-dolch words, compound words etc for students and teachers to access. It is really a terrific site for home and school!!

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  3. I would love to have this! My kids would love the premium games. We've never tried them

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  4. I teach English learners and I feel that their vocabulary skills are weak. This program could help me to increase their vocabulary skills as well as improve their spelling skills. Thank you for this opportunity!!!

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  5. I think my children would "play" more if we had access to the premium games, especially Letter Fall and Speedy Speller.

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  6. My students love VocabularySpellingCity! We use in daily during our literacy centers on our interactive whiteboard. My students are also using the math vocabulary section during our math center time. http://www.spellingcity.com/math-vocabulary.html They love all the games, especially Hangmouse and Word-O-Rama!

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  7. Hi. I currently use the 'free' version with my son and it has helped him bunches. I homeschool my son and he is dyslexic and has a really tough time with spelling, extraordinarily tough. This is my most favorite site for spelling I've ever found. It's wonderful. But to have the premium version? Oh wow. I could actually keep track of his progress which would make my life way easier and he would have more fun games. I also really like the parts of speech matching and game. That is super. Thanks for the chance (fingers crossed).

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  8. I liked you on facebook. ;)

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  9. I also followed you on twitter (@Tea6767) Thanks again.

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