SpellQuizzer Review (with Giveaway!)

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, chosen by And The Winner Is: frugal science gal!  Hope your nieces enjoy the software!

Almost a year ago, I won a copy of SpellQuizzer spelling software at Free Sample Momma.  I installed it, looked it over, and set it aside for later, since my oldest wasn’t quite ready for spelling tests, yet. Since then, I’ve begun using All About Spelling to teach my new first grader his spelling skills. I’ve never been one to stick too closely to plan, though, so I’ve included SpellQuizzer in our curriculum. (All About Spelling is not affiliated with SpellQuizzer, by the way, but they do work well together!)

With SpellQuizzer, the teacher records a spelling list one time, then the child can replay it when he’s ready to take a quiz. Once I got over having to hear my own unlovely voice playing back, SpellQuizzer was wonderful! It saves me the trouble of having to sit there and dictate my student’s list each time. 

Since our spelling program builds on sounds first, I just record my own voice dictating each of the sound cards, then David takes the quiz, typing in the answers as he goes. As he masters each sound (or word), I remove that sound from my “review” list to the “mastered” list. We’ve almost completed all the sound cards this way in just a week, so next week we’ll start doing whole words the same way. David, like many boys his age, is much better at thinking than he is at handwriting, so this program gives us the advantage of building his spelling and reading skills while working on his weaker fine motor skills separately.

I do wish the software included a short sound or beep for positive reinforcement. When the student gets an answer correct, it moves too quickly to the next word in the list, without reinforcing the correct answer. My 6 year-old isn’t always quite ready for the new word because he is still thinking about the last one. (Note: the developer just informed your attention-deficient host that you can, in fact, turn on reinforcement sounds. I guess that means I have nothing bad to say about this program at all!) Otherwise, I’m perfectly satisfied with SpellQuizzer. Lists are very easy to build, and the program is self-explanatory. It’s super-easy to use, and I’ve had no problems with it at all. Even I can’t mess this up!

See it: View a video demonstration if you’d like to see SpellQuizzer in action before buying.
Try it: You can download SpellQuizzer and try it free for 30 days.
Buy it: You can buy SpellQuizzer for $29.95.
Win it!: SpellQuizzer would like to offer a free license for their software to one of my readers! Free stuff! Yay!

How to enter: Just leave a comment letting me know who the software will be for.

Extra Entries: If you’d like to increase your odds of winning, you can do any or all of the following things for one extra entry each. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

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Details: This giveaway will be closed for entries at midnight, August 6, 2010 . This giveaway is open to everybody! Please use a valid email address in your comments so that I can contact you if you win. Please use one email address per entrant, per household, per IP address. Cheaters will be permanently banned from this site, no exceptions, no forgiveness. Good luck!

Disclosure: Since I already had a copy of SpellQuizzer, I haven’t received compensation or samples for reviewing this product. I do, however, get increased traffic by posting giveaways, so I’m not really doing it out of the goodness of my heart. All reviews and giveaways on this blog should be understood by the reader to be advertising. My full disclosure statement is here.