SpellQuizzer software review and GIVEAWAY!

    After reading the following list of words, would you conclude that this list of words includes:  a. medical terminology for nursing school; b. choices for a challenging crossword puzzle; or c. my child's spelling list?

1. vexillology
2. sciolistic
3. nephrectomy
4. effigial
5. thesmothete
6. borzoi
7. dyspepsia
8. iniquitous
9. apotheosize
10. paroxysmal

    If you guessed that this bizarre list of words is from my child's spelling list, you guessed correctly!

    No, I'm not offering spelling studies as cruel and unusual punishment, though at times one of my children may complain that it is so.   :) 

    Actually, my girls finished their spelling curriculum several years ago, so we began having them study for our community's annual spelling bee.  Our oldest daughter, Kelsi, came in 2nd place at the county spelling bee two separate years; 6th place one year; and in her final year as an eligible participant in the spelling bee, she won!  Along with a giant trophy, she also won a laptop computer and many accessories to go along with it.  With her two other second place wins, she also won a iPod Shuffle, an iTunes gift card, and a Kindle.  Nice!

Why am I telling you this?

    I mention my daughter's success at the county spelling bees because there are several techniques and study methods we've used to help her succeed with a minimal amount of help from Mom and Dad.  (Sounds wonderful, right, busy mamas?)

    One of these methods is to have my children use SpellQuizzer during the school year to practice their spelling words.

    There is a variety of educational software available on the market these days to help children learn to spell or to practice their spelling words.  However, we have been the most pleased with the results we've had from SpellQuizzer.  I've taken a look at a variety of spelling websites (free and/or subscription), and have even viewed some spelling apps on friends' tablets or phones.  None of them that I've viewed, however, does as great of a job as SpellQuizzer to help students learn new spelling words - or review past words from old lists.

    Many other spelling websites or software/apps only allow word lists containing words that are commonly used.  So, if your children are in a spelling bee, and most of the spelling bee words on their lists are rated G for genius, those spelling websites won't really work for you because the words you want to enter aren't recognized by their lists...or it will take an extended amount of time for the website to have a volunteer enter the new word lists into their database.

     SpellQuizzer is quite simple.  From the picture, above, you can see a simple main menu that allows you to enter a new list of words, get quizzed on an already entered list, or edit a list.  You can also export or import spelling lists to and from the SpellQuizzer website.

    So, here's what our family does.  The girls receive their new spelling lists on Mondays, typically, by dictation from me.  This makes them have to really think and analyze every sound in each word.  On Tuesdays, they will enter their lists into SpellQuizzer by using a microphone headset.  They use the "tab" key to quickly move through the menu as they are entering their words.  Our county spelling bee program contains sentences for each word, so my girls also verbally enter the included sentence with each word, although it's easy (and fun!) to make up sentences to make the program a bit more fun.

    If my girls attended public or private school, I'd have them bring home their spelling lists on Mondays and type it into SpellQuizzer themselves, that evening, unless they were very young and couldn't yet type well.  In that case, I'd type in the lists myself until I had trained them to do it.

     If a family absolutely cannot afford a microphone, the parent or child can type in a key phrase or question where the answer will be the correct spelling word.  This even enables deaf students to be able to use the software.  I do recommend having a headset or some kind of clip-on microphone that is "hands free" for ease of use, however.  Your child will get a lot more out of SpellQuizzer by using a microphone and headset.  If the replay volume on SpellQuizzer seems too faint, there are a few "tweaks" that can be done before recording the voice/words to make the volume louder and more clear.  Directions for that are on the SpellQuizzer website.

    On Wednesdays and Thursdays, the girls will practice their words by either wearing a headset (so we can work in the same room) or not, if no one else is working in the same room.  They hear the words on their list being spoken by their own voice or my voice (how cool is that?!!!), and then type in the correct spelling.  We don't have to worry about strange or exotic, unfamiliar accents from strangers.  Nice!

     On Fridays, they can even take their spelling test using SpellQuizzer software, although they are required to show me their grade they received on their first run through their weekly word list that day. 

---

     While SpellQuizzer isn't a super flashy program, it gets the job done - and it does the job well!  My girls haven't had any complaints about SpellQuizzer, and neither have I.

     The #1 benefit of using SpellQuizzer is that when our girls are studying from between 500 to 2,000 words for the county spelling bees, I don't have to spend many hours of my own time quizzing them on their words.  They are able to effectively quiz themselves in a minimal amount of time!  Hooray! 

    SpellQuizzer's website contains some demonstration videos to show viewers more about how SpellQuizzer works.  I think you'll find these as useful as I have found them to be.  If you have additional questions, Dan from SpellQuizzer has always replied to my questions quickly and carefully.  I love-love-love great customer service.

And now . . . for the GIVEAWAY!

Email subscribers may need to click back to the original posting to view graphics and photos and enter the giveaway. Just click on the title of the post at the top of the email.

    SpellQuizzer is allowing me to give away one free licensed download of SpellQuizzer software for your computer! 

    Wow!  One of my readers is going to be really blessed by this software program, especially if you have a child who needs lots of diligent and consistent practice each week on spelling words...or you have a larger family and it just gets too hard to help each child practice his or her spelling words each week. 

    This giveaway will end on Saturday, December 1st at midnight (Pacific timezone). 

    Curious about why this is such a short giveaway?  Well, SpellQuizzer will be having a special one-day sale on Monday, December 3rd, 2012 offering SpellQuizzer for just $7.99.  That's a discount of over 70% off of the normal price of $29.95!  I've personally never seen SpellQuizzer be sold at that low price - wow!  :)

    We thought we'd offer a free giveaway copy of SpellQuizzer here for you to try to win for yourself, but if you happen to not win the giveaway, you can more easily purchase SpellQuizzer for yourself at a greatly reduced price on December 3rd here at this link:  http://www.spellquizzer.com/OneDaySale.asp

    My family loves SpellQuizzer!  I think you will, too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Julieanne
Joy In Our Journey.com

SpellQuizzer has agreed to provide one of Joy In Our Journey's readers with one licensed copy of the SpellQuizzer software download.  No compensation to Joy In Our Journey has been provided.

---