I've read posts where mothers have said that their child quit in 7, 8, and sometimes 9th. Is there a certain "grade" you don't do spelling anymore?

I think it mainly depends on the child?

We stop after 9th grade, but, by grade 7 the spelling turns more into a vocab/roots type thing. KWIM?

I agree with the above poster...depends on the child. My dc have not been good spellers, so we continue with Apples Spelling even in high school.

Susan

When I was in school, the last year I had spelling was 6th. Seventh was vocabulary; after that, neither one was a recognizable "subject."

Most publishers don't continue a separate spelling course after 7th or 8th grade.

Other than doing Spalding, I didn't do spelling. I corrected dds' work, but there was nothing formal.

I too think that it really depends on the child. I'm beginning to believe that theory that there's a "spelling gene", and my son (12) does NOT have it! LOL! Some people are just born natural spellers and are good at seeing patterns naturally. I have one of those too, yet for her in 9th grade this year, I still have her doing the Apples Spelling workbook just to get a final review of some of the rules (she tends to figure out patterns on her own, formulating her own rules...which can be a good thing, but I want her to understand that there are real rules behind what she's figuring out...if that makes sense). As for ds (12), we have tried just about every program, I think, that offers lists of words, exercises in seeing roots, etc., but nothing seems to stick with him when he goes to write something. He has a hard time seeing the syllable divisions, even when reading, which also contributes to the vicious cycle in reading comprehension. I just recently started him on the Sequential Spelling DVDs in order to try a whole different approach to seeing patterens, and I'm hoping this will work, because he likes it so far. Lists and roots are just not working for him, and I imagine we'll be working on those spelling skills (in combo with vocabulary) well into his high school education. It's back to some of the basics with him. I'm learning that with some children, it just takes a bit longer to mature, and I need to be "OK" with allowing them to work on things at their level of understanding, rather than throw advanced stuff at them just because they are at that "grade level". The jury is still out on my younger two where spelling is concerned.

I see the Sequential Spelling program as working sort of like the "Saxon" for spelling in a way...small increments of spelling patterns gradually building into longer, harder words... Ds does really well with the incremental programs, so I'm REALLY hoping to see some improvement soon. :)

Bottom line- It really depends on the kiddo!

Nancy

Agree with all the other posts, we no longer did spelling as of 5th with DS. He's a natural speller, and rarely had any wrong spelling answers, so I just did not see the point. But he does do vocab,Latin, and grammar, so I think there is enough wordstudt among those subjects to cover spelling. I'm not big into knowing the spelling rules either...I don't think I know them but I'm a great speller, IMHO, :).

DS6 tends to be completely different, so we shall see what his needs are in the next year or two.

My 9th and 10th grade boys are doing Abeka Spelling 10. It is a spelling and vocabulary program, and I am learning a lot. I will continue spelling throughout high school. Out of all the skills I learned, spelling rates up there as one of the most used on a daily basis.

I agree that it depends on the child. I started homeschooling my boys when they were in 4th and 6th, and I've never done spelling with my oldest. He is a natural speller and I never saw him get anything less than 100% on a spelling test in his life.
My younger son, however, I have been doing spelling and vocabulary with, and will probably continue it through 7th grade.