Interview with Merry Marinello: Homeschool Parent

All About Spelling: Customizable for Every Student

We interviewed Merry Marinello, a homeschool parent to two children, to find out how she discovered All About Spelling. Read on to discover the difference the program has made in her family.

Tell us a bit about what brought you to All About Spelling.

I'm a pretty average homeschool mom. I don't have a degree in education, but I do have a bachelor's in English. Unfortunately, my degree didn't help me when my nine-year-old son Zach started having spelling problems. He hasn't been formally diagnosed, but I think it's likely that he has dyslexia—for example, he would hear from, but he would write form.

Over the next two years, I tried several different spelling programs, but not one of them did what I was looking for. I was so frustrated that I finally decided to write my own spelling curriculum.

You tried writing your own spelling curriculum?

Right, and somewhere in the middle of that process, I learned about All About Spelling. I looked at the program at least ten times, but didn't order it. By then I was feeling burnt out on "wasting" money on spelling curricula, so I just continued working on my own and spent more than 100 hours on research and writing! Thankfully, a friend e-mailed and urged me to consider All About Spelling again.

On her advice, I looked at the system one more time and realized it already included everything I wanted to create on my own! I thought, If this does what I want it to do, it's going to be a gold mine. And so I ordered All About Spelling—and it really was everything I was trying to create and more.

Because I had tried to write my own curriculum—and knew just how much work went into All About Spelling—I was very impressed with the program. And two weeks after I started using it, my son came to me and said, "This is the best thing we have used for spelling"—and this was from a fifth-grader! Zach said, "This finally explains things in a way that I understand."

"Because I had to create my own curriculum—and knew just how much work went into All About Spelling—I was very impressed with the program."

After that, I started telling lots of people about All About Spelling because it was making such a big difference in our family, with both kids. I saw changes almost immediately in their spelling and how they were thinking about words. After a year of using All About Spelling, my kids' reading levels had jumped by two grade levels.

Two grade levels! That's great! What makes All About Spelling so effective, in your opinion?

The All About Spelling system makes review easy. Kids don't memorize words one week and forget them the next, because the words keep coming up in dictation. If they miss a word, even outside of their spelling lessons, it's really easy to just put a card back in the student's review pile. And one thing I have learned about kids with dyslexia is that they need tons and tons of review.

You don't have to have a degree in education to teach your kids how to spell. All About Spelling makes it so easy for anyone to be able to pick up and present the rules of spelling clearly. The lessons are scripted where you need them to be, but not overly so. With some programs, you have to wade through all the scripting to figure out what you're supposed to do, but All About Spelling isn't like that.

All About Spelling uses the Orton-Gillingham method, so it presents spelling rules that are reliable and that your kids can depend on. Some of the other programs I tried presented only some of the rules, or taught rules that would only apply part of the time.

All About Spelling is also effective because it's mastery-based, not grade-level based. Kids don't move on to a new level until they've really mastered their current level. But if your student is a fast learner, he or she can breeze through several levels very quickly. Kids can work at their own pace.

What level of the program did you start with?

I really struggled with the decision of how to start Zach on the system. I couldn't bear to start an almost-sixth-grader in Level 1—plus Zach already knew how to spell those words—so we started with Level 2. After a month, I realized that although he had memorized easy words, he hadn't internalized the rules or learned how to apply them to longer, harder words. We then spent about two weeks going over some Level 1 material. It really is foundational, and it's worth starting there to fill in the gaps!

You're never too old to benefit from All About Spelling. There are people in high school—and even adults—using the system. Older students who are willing to put time into it can get through three or four levels in the first year and all the levels in two or three years.

How did you start working with All About Learning Press?

I spent so much time talking about All About Spelling in an online forum that I caught the attention of Marie Rippel, the woman who developed this course. She told me that I answered questions about the program the same way she would—and she offered me a job as the official All About Spelling customer care representative.

What's your favorite part of the job?

When I can help someone else help their struggling student or help them avoid some of those struggles, that really excites me. Moms can get exhausted in the trenches of homeschooling, especially if they have a student who struggles, or if they're trying to use a curriculum that's confusing or overwhelming. I really want kids and parents and teachers to be successful. It's rewarding to me to know that other moms are getting great results from All About Spelling with their own kids.

Thanks for your time today, Merry!

Merry Marinello has homeschooled her two children, Zach, 12, and Anna, 10, for eight years. She discovered All About Spelling in an online forum, became a customer, and got such great results with the spelling system that she became an online advocate for the product. Merry's enthusiasm for All About Spelling caught the eye of the system's author, Marie Rippel, who created a position for Merry as All About Spelling's official customer care representative.

Interview with Merry Marinello: Homeschool Parent

Related Articles