SWR - spell to write and read

things have been going so smoothly that i felt it would be a good time to add to our lesson load. so we're going to begin studying spelling.
SWR is the curriculum i've chosen to begin this adventure. to teach most subjects, i need to brush up on my skills, and this is no exception. in fact, i've been going through the books myself and learning many new things. after learning a few other languages, i have said that english makes no sense. but SWR proves me wrong. i haven't memorized it all, but this method involves teaching 70 sounds used in the english language and 29 spelling rules with which my children should be able to spell 97% of all english words.
i'll let you know in 4-6 years if it's worked!
i am excited about getting started. SWR really appeals to me because it's not just memorizing words, but the rules behind it. i love when things are logical and language arts have never been logical to me. this may open new doors for me to enjoy english! i'm really building it up. hope i'm not expecting too much!
to get started, i have to DO what i'll ask of the kids. so i'm making my own notebook of spelling words and rules. we'll be using flash cards to memorize the phonograms (sounds) and the rules. and we'll fill in some charts together that classify words into phonogram and rule categories.
as i'm writing this it sounds even less intimidating than i originally thought.
over a year ago i started the boys on cursive writing. i thought that it would be good to get them used to practicing daily so that they may eventually have nice handwriting (unlike most boys i know). they have come a long way! we're currently working on shrinking the writing from the big "learning your letters" size to a more regular size.
the first step of SWR is to teach them to write. so we're already doing great. next we'll begin with consonants and vowels and learning "sounds" that aren't just single letters (like th or er). all the while they will begin their first spelling list (which sounds like a more traditional spelling program that i'm used to - so i'm looking forward to that).
because they can already read i was to give them a pre-test and they performed well. i was pretty surprised because i truly have taught no "spelling". most of their errors were consistent between them and it was obvious what they were thinking. for example, they spelled "all", "o-l" and they spelled "suffer", "suffr". so i am pleased that they know some good things and i'm hoping that it's easy to convert from what they know to real spelling.
looking forward to tomorrow! :)