Spelling Software - Customer Testimonials


	Customer Testimonials 2/25/2009 I am a homeschooling mother of 5, 3 of whom are old enough to study spelling. They are in grades 6, 4 and 2. We LOVE Spelling Made Simple. I found your program by accident while searching for a web-based spelling program that a friend of mine was using (wizard spell, or something like that.) My then 3rd grader was floundering through his spelling lists. He needs a more multi-sensory approach in learning all of his subjects. My modifications in his spelling were not working. This was exactly what he needed: hear, see, type. It took him about two weeks to get comfortable with the program. After that, his test grades went from failing to perfect! My other children showed marked improvement in their scores as well. They really look forward to seeing the graph of their time and percentage correct at the end of the week. They challenge themselves to beat their own time each day. Additionally, I am a licensed teacher and I provide year-end assessments for local homeschoolers. I recommended your program to all of my clients. I have also told all of my other friends about it. I don't know how many of them decided to try it or not. I will find out when I see them for assessments again this summer! I love everything about the program. The only part that I have needed to work on are some of the audio files. Often, our spelling lists contain homonyms. Since my children pracitce their tests at least once per week on "audio only", I have needed to make all of my own audio files for those words. I include a short definition or sentence with the word, because it takes too much time for a definition to pop up on the screen. After all, my children are racing against the clock to keep that time graph going down! Thanks again, Kristen S. 2/21/2009 I have been using your software with my children for 9 months and am more than pleased with it. Best regards, Teresa K. 2/12/2009 My daughter (5th grade) and I both love your program. My second grader asked to start Spelling Made Simple, even though I don't have him scheduled to start spelling till next year, and he enjoys it as well. I loved not even having to come up with lists for him. I have recommended it to my homeschool groups on several occasions. It is so elegant and simple, yet so customizable. And I'm not just saying that for the password, either. ;-) Anyway, thank you for your consideration. I understand if I need to repurchase the software. Just thought I'd check with you first. Regards, Susan B. 2/12/2009 My age group is 13-19. I just started using it so I will try to let you know later what results I have. But my hyperactive child was THRILLED to start it as anything done on the computer REALLY helps him focus his attention and he did real well on the first spelling test I gave him after starting the program!! I will try to keep in touch with results. Sincerely, Jeanne 1/14/2009 The kids really do well with this program. I have 4 children using it this year and there is definitely a difference the weeks they don't use the program. They really enjoy it also, it is not something they have to do, it is something they want to do. Thanks for everything!! Pam 1/12/2009 It was worth the full purchase price anyway. My 3rd grader heads straight for the computer to take his “spelling test” each day, as soon as he comes home from school. He was averaging 30% on his scores at school until I put him in touch with your software. Now he has scored 100% each time for the last 4 weeks of tests! Thank you very much! Jon 12/7/2009 Your software is really great. We are using it with three of our kids: ages 11, 9 and 8. Our oldest daughter (11) has been a terrible speller and has done beyond poorly the last couple of years. She also showed very little interest in improving. I stumbled upon your software at our local homeschool bookstore (www.homeschooldiscountproducts.com) and we started it the next day. This year she rarely makes below a B and our other kids love the program and are doing great. Thanks for being such a huge source of help and encouragement to our family. Hope you have a great day! Dow 10/17/2009 We bought the program because both my children, 8 and 10, are dyslexic and have trouble reading and a great deal of trouble spelling. They've been using it once a night since the beginning of the year, to prepare for their weekly spelling tests. Their scores have improved markedly since last year, which we attribute to your program. Joel 10/1/2009 The mom and two children were impressed with your software. Have a Great Evening! Dave W. 9/22/2009 Hello Mr. Gerten, I am really thrilled by the opportunity to give my opinion on your product. First of all thank you so much for such a great program. I bought Spelling Made Simple for my son Drew. He is now 13 and dyslexic. He reads OK, which is great for being dyslexic but his spelling is not good...at all. We have tried many, many spelling programs in the past. Hands down my son prefers Spelling Made Simple. Before I sat down to write this I asked my son what he felt he liked and disliked so I could give you true user input. He said the thing he likes best about your program is that it can be tailored so perfectly to him. He can add his own list from school and still get audio for it. He can do it on his own without having anyone read the words off to him. He can then check his progress himself and see which words he is continually getting wrong. This in itself is big for my son because he sometimes gets a little forgetful (short term memory problems are part of the dyslexia) and can't always remember where to find what he is looking for in programs but Spelling Made Simple is so simply laid out and user friendly that he can handle the whole process himself which gives him a feeling of some control over his spelling issues. This is important because for so long his spelling had seemed like this elusive problem that he would never be able to tackle. He works separately on his phonics and rules etc... to improve his chances of doing better with each list but there is no better testing and tracking program out there than Spelling Made Simple. We tried Ultimate Spelling as well but found it was not nearly as well tailored to his weaknesses. Another thing we really like about Spelling Made Simple is the way we can pull up clear graphs and records of his tests to chart his progress. In fact, last year (7th grade) his mainstream teacher accepted weekly print outs of his Spelling Made Simple daily tests in place of a weekly spelling test because his dyslexia can make timed classroom spelling tests so much more difficult. What we found was that just having his Spelling Made Simple print outs took a lot of the stress off the Friday tests and he did a lot better on the in class tests as well. His confidence about his spelling was better, therefore he made less mistakes. Both Drew and I thank you very much for inventing such a complete program. Debbie M. 9/15/2009 Thank you so much for helping a military family that is a HUGE supporter of your software. Thank you! Tracie 9/11/2009 We've really enjoyed the program. There are still some ins and outs that I need to figure out when I have time to really sit down and go through the user guide, but so far so good. I'm using the software for my 9 and 11 year olds, and they enjoy it so much better than spelling workbooks. Thanks so much, Marcie 9/8/2009 I love the software and I am going to send an email advertising it for other moms as well. My son is now in the 8th grade and we have been using Spelling Made Simple since about 6th grade. It is a blessing for him to use it to study his words and also practice his skills on the keyboard. What a blessing Spelling Made Simple is to me. Thank you. Pam 9/7/2009 I think you have a great product and it can really make the practice time for the student very productive! Dennis 8/4/2009 What a great job! Thanks for persevering to create this software. I enjoyed the demo and found it easy to understand (this, from a non-techie mom). Beth H. 7/10/2009 My girls are 15 and 11. The 11 year old has Down syndrome so being able to hear the words and see them is very helpful. Repetition is also very helpful. My older daughter isn't the greatest at spelling, so being able to put in my own lists is very helpful for what she's doing right now. Thanks, Loretta B. 7/6/2009 I don't know if you remember me but I was the homeschooling mom that contacted you after purchasing another, less desirable spelling program. We have been using Spelling Made Simple and really like the program. Thanks, Lynn K. 7/2/2009 I have been using your software for about a month with my children, and love the program. Thank you, Teresa K. 6/9/2009 I just started working with Spelling Made Simple yesterday. My primary reason for using this program is because I am a tutor who teaches "foreigners" how to understand, speak and write English. I am a retired businessman and am doing this on a volunteer basis. I also prepare students to pass the citizenship test. My initial interest in the program actually relates to this, in that there is a specific writing vocabulary that prospective citizens must pass...and many of the words in this vocabulary are far beyond what beginning English students would normally learn. Words such as: independence, legislative, executive, etc. I have created a custom list with all of these words so that my students can learn and practice how to spell them. I discovered an "unintended use" for Spelling Made Simple which I thought you might find interesting. There are 100 civics questions which the citizenship applicants must be able to answer correctly. Actually, the examiner reads 10 questions at random and the applicants must be able to answer 6 out of 10 correctly. I discovered through a little experimentation that I could recreate this test in computerized form by using SMS. For example, the first question is: "What is the supreme law of the land?" The correct answer is "the constitution." When making the vocabulary list I typed "the.constitution" as the 1st word in the list. (Note the inclusion of a period between the words to make sure that the word is not already in one of the existing lists) Then I recorded the linked audio as "What is the supreme law of the land?" When running the test, my students would have the option of showing the answer while they listen to the question (using the text and audio option in user setup) or just hear the question. They could then simply say the answer and hit enter to see if they answered correctly. They could also type in the answer. I just thought you would be interested in this. Has anyone ever used a similar technique to create a verbal quiz for some other topic? This might be something you would want to explain as a capability of the software in your documentation. I think the idea that teachers and others could use your software to create quizzes/tests for purposes other than spelling could be quite interesting and could even create an additional untapped market segment for your business. Thanks, Ken H. Stockbridge, Wisconsin 6/3/2009 Sorry it took so long for me to get back with you about our spelling year. For the most part it was successful - but not completely so. My daughter used SMS again this year and won the Marion County (Indiana) North District Spelling Bee and also the Indiana Home School State spelling bee. Unfortunately, she missed a word at the regionals and finished in second place (she went to the national bee last year). The only consolation is that she took the written test for the National Bee this year and scored 29/31 - which would have placed her into the National Semifinals! We're very proud of her and look forward to seeing her at the Nationals for two more years! She loves SMS and we continue to use the product. Thanks! Sincerely, Al S 5/21/2009 I have been using your spelling software for about a week with my 9 and 12 year old, and have found your program to be simple, thorough, and by far the easiest way to get my children to learn spelling. Thank you very much. My 12 year old has had problems with spelling for years, and I am hopeful that this program will help him become a better speller. Teresa K 5/8/2009 We love Spelling Made Simple and I have a suggestion on getting the word out...I suggest you enlist those on your mailing list to help you sell your product by providing an incentive to do so. Laura M 5/7/2009 Thanks so much for a great program! My son used to hate spelling. Now, it is one of the first subjects he wants to do. Our son is in 8th grade. The curriculum we used before was AVKO Sequential Spelling which doesn't get graded. However, I can tell that his spelling has definitely improved since we began Spelling Made Simple, and I really appreciate that he wants to do it rather than dreading spelling. Thanks again! Mari H 5/6/2009 Comment concerning another spelling program To whom this may concern, We recently purchased one of your competitor's programs called Ultimate Spelling. I actually thought I was clicking on a web-link for Spelling Made Simple in the search engine but it was actually the Ultimate Spelling website claiming to be a better product. After several hours of searching and comparing and against my better judgment, we purchased Ultimate Spelling. Without going into all the details of why we ended up purchasing Ultimate Spelling instead of Spelling Made Simple, I can tell you this: DON'T ORDER ULTIMATE SPELLING!! We have not personally used Spelling Made Simple but I can tell you that it has to be better than Ultimate Spelling. Spelling Made Simple Creator Comment on the following paragraph: Those that want the British pronunciations in Spelling Made Simple can easily re-record the desired words with the built-in audio recorder. Ultimate Spelling uses a British speaking voice which makes it difficult to understand some of the words. For example, dark is pronounced dock, sure sounds like shore, and etc. This has proven to be quite frustrating for my 12 year old son. We tried using the definitions to assist with the words but the right side of the definition is cut off so only part of the definition is viewed. Several of the online links of Ultimate Spelling used for additional features do not work or no longer exist. When I tried to contact the company for Ultimate Spelling support I discovered there is no phone number or email address posted on the website. So, I submitted a help ticket and waited. I received an automatic email response containing a link to log-in and check the status of my ticket but the log-in would not work. I have tried all week to contact these people at Ultimate Spelling. I decided to reply to the automatic emails with my list of complaints, which by now has grown quite extensively. Finally, I did receive a response stating they were sorry to hear that I wanted a refund and offered to let me use the software for a year before making the final decision to cancel. First of all, I never actually requested a refund. I originally asked for tech support to fix the software problems in Ultimate Spelling. I was willing to try to make it work. However, I don't want to use the software for a year the way it is operating. I also don't want to deal with a company that is so difficult to contact. If I can ever get my money back from Ultimate Spelling, I will be purchasing Spelling Made Simple. I am curious to see how the two compare. I will let you know what I think. One more thing: Out of curiosity, I decided to see if the people of Spelling Made Simple would be easier to contact. I was able to get a live person on the phone the first time I called. All their contact information is on the website. I hope this helps parents who may be trying to decide which spelling program to purchase. Lynn, Homeschooling mom of 2 4/27/2009 Thank you. My 11 year-old daughter has always struggled with spelling. She started using your product the beginning of this school year and is currently getting an A in spelling. She receives a list every week from her Teacher, which I input into your program. While studying she uses the audio and text settings. The night before her test she uses audio only. It creates independence for her and prevents the frustration that I get when helping her study her spelling. She has also started using the definition functionality to help with the rest of her spelling assignments. Thanks, Becky 4/26/2009 I like the program and use it every day. I love the recording feature. Cheers Jerry 4/25/2009 I have been using your spelling software for some time and have been transformed from a pathetic speller to an alright speller. Being in Australia we use English way of spelling, mine you I’m not that fussed spelling a word the American or English way, anyway is a step up for me. I have tried to create audio of my own with this software and found it simple. Warms Regards Aldo 4/21/2009 Hi, I purchased Spelling Made Simple last summer and my daughter has used it all year and it has been great. Thank you, Becky 4/20/2009 We're still using SMS. Not involved in spelling bees, but would be interested in helping you promote your program. I've already shared with folks I know, but, since moving to VA, I've started a new hs group. We currently have almost 60 families with access to another 40 through e-loops. I'd love to promote within the group. Lisa S 4/16/2009 My son uses your spelling software. This year, he won all the way to the county level so he is headed for the National Spelling Bee this May (his 2nd time). He was a semifinalist last year. Mrs. Medina 4/15/2009 My 11 year old daughter is heading to the NSB in May. We love your software and are using it like crazy. We tried to develop our own drilling system with Filemaker, but it was much less user friendly than yours. I wish I had known about this when our older daughter went to the NSB in 2007 & 2008. We are sharing the word with our home school friends. Since your program is so adaptable, it is great for any spelling studies. Kim W 4/15/2009 I love your software. What appealed to me so much about your software, and what I share with others, is that it can be used with ANY spelling curriculum. I also love that it saves me time from giving so many spelling tests. Melissa M 4/15/2009 I've been using Spelling Made Simple for a couple of years now and enjoy it very much. I recently started working for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine (a worldwide home schooling publication). I'd think it might be helpful for you to advertise your product with TOS. Thanks, Charlotte 4/15/2009 We use Spelling Made Simple for weekly spelling tests. I type the list in for my daughter for her to practice. There's no question that your spelling software works... when my daughter doesn't use it, her spelling test grades are much lower. Robert 4/8/2009 Article By the Joplin Globe about Christopher Smith winning The Joplin Globe spelling bee. They talk about the software but fail to mention it by name. What his father sent me: Thanks for the great software. As you can see, my son won the Joplin regional spelling bee. The software made it possible. Thanks, Brian S 3/11/2009 Things have been going well for Rebecca. She is making some progress. She still misspells several words in her writing and she likes to create lists of the words she misspells so she can work on them with the software. Teresa 3/5/2009 Right now, we are using it with my oldest 4 children (of 9) - 14.5yo boy & 12.5yo girl both with severe dyslexia, 10.5yo girl and 9yo girl also with reading difficulties. My oldest 2 who have struggled so much with other programs were unable to even spell words longer than 3 letters. They are both consistently scoring 85-97% on the review tests for 2nd & 3rd grade levels and we expect them to continue moving up! Our 5th grader never gets more than 2 wrong on a review and our struggling 3rd grader is working her way through the 1st grade lists with significant improvement! We all love it because it is simple and self-correcting. It takes minimal time and gives maximum results. We love this program! Thank you!!! Sincerely, Katie L 3/2/2009 Benjamin, I just purchased your program. I can see a big improvement in my kids spelling after using the program for 30 days. I want to know if I can down load this program on my other two computers. I home school my kids and we spend a lot of time on the computers. We use a program called K12. I think K12 would like your program. You might look into them and approach them. Thanks, Patti S Home School Mom 2/24/2009 The software is great, it even works with Spanish vocabulary, yes record the pronunciation and if you know the combination for the accents that are used in Spanish vowels you're good to go, one thing I haven’t tried is, record pronouncing the word, plus a sentence, that way when you have words pronounce with a short sentence helps identify the correct word. I will buy the software. Thanks for a quick response. Ismael S Audio Testimonial - Might need to be using Internet Explorer for this to play test 2/20/2009 The program is fantastic. I cannot say that strongly enough. We have my son studying with it. He is 11 years old. He first uses the words in text and audio (he sets the display speed). He reviews it that way several times, and then just using audio, and he is either getting 100% or very close every time. The program is great!!! Our 5 year old will be using it now also. She loves to spell, and any time you can have the kids use the computer it is more comfortable for them. It seems to relieve some of the pressure of having mom or dad review the list. No worries for the kids that they might disappoint a parent or get "in trouble" when the parent becomes upset for repeated mistakes. So it takes the judgment or feelings of judgment out of the equation and makes learning emotionally easier as well. Thanks for the great product. Brian S 2/19/2009 I downloaded the trial of Spelling Made Simple, and I really like the program. I love how the program works. Thanks so much for your help. I'm going to get my son on the program now to use it for the trial. I do expect I'll be purchasing it soon! Thanks, Debbie L 2/11/09 Thanks for these tips and updates. They really help. Great product. It’s great having one program that handles anything. Cindee G. Home Schooling Mom Boise, Idaho 2/10/09 Thanks again for the quick reply - and a very nice program. I appreciate the email reports to monitor how the kids do each day - great feature! I purchased your program last fall and am enjoying it very much. I am home schooling 7 children, ages 5-17 Chris 2/10/09 This is really nice software. This is a great tool, it even works with Spanish vocabulary. Ismael S. 2/9/09 I love your software. Once the trial period is over, I will buy your software. It is the best that I found up to date. I am living in South Africa and I am using the software to teach my kid, German, English, Afrikaans and one other Ethnic language. Greetings Hagen 2/6/09 Thank you for the quick response, I was able to register my new computer. My wife home schools both of our boys (9 and 10). She is also a former elementary school teacher. From the first time the boys used your program they enjoyed it. It is simple and right to the point. One of them likes the audio feature and uses it for every word. They use the program everyday for studying their weekly words. They also write their words daily and their end of week test is written. We have noticed an improvement in spelling since using the program. Mostly I think because it is 'fun' to study using the computer. Thanks, the beauty of your program is its simplicity. Now if you can come up with a "Math made Simple" that would be great. Thank You, Paul and Cindy R. 2/2/09 My kids are really excited about the program. I have a 3rd and 4th grader that home school. Thank you, Patti S. 1/26/09 Now that we've had some time to use the software, I definitely think you have something very strong here. It operates the same way we do flashcards with the kids. When they get one wrong it goes into another pile that we re-do. We keep doing them over and over again until they get them quickly. Then we run the pile again after a few days. Your software does much the same thing. The email thing is definitely a great feature too. To have the application push information out to me will definitely save me the time of having to go in and pull up a report. Thanks again! and please let me know how I can help. Steve C. 1/20/09 Hello! We have really enjoyed this program. It is a great way to reinforce the spelling skills the kids need. Currently Use it for a 3rd, 5th and 7th grader. We use Abeka, BJU and Christian Liberty Press. I am also going to use English from the roots Up and other Latin and Greek Programs for root words. Thanks so much for using your gift of programming to create a great spelling resource. Amy F. 1/20/09 Benjamin, Thanks for your help, in getting us back into your program. Your program is being used by our 10 yr old daughter. She is in the 4th grade. Spelling Made Simple has really helped her out. She has gone from C+ to A/A- in her spelling grade. On rare occasions and because of her busy schedule, she forgets to enter her words and study with your program. We usually see a performance hit on the next test, which my daughter is quick to correct and get the next set of words in and study with Spelling Made Simple. She really likes the voice function of your study tool. Thanks for a great program that is easy to use and fun to learn with. Also, thank you for answering my question yourself. It means more to have my question answered by the program creator rather than an automated response. It shows that you do care about your customers and your software. Keep up the great work! Sincerely, Mike A. 12/30/08 We just purchased spelling made simple. It's cool! Thanks, Steve C. 12/26/08 First of all, thanks for coming up with this software - a great product that I look forward to using for preparing my children for Spelling Bees. Thanks for your response! Mirle 12/17/08 Love the software. I looked at several websites and software. I think yours is superior to most if not all. We use it in conjunction with several other strategies such as dictation. We have seen an improvement. He is in 3rd grade. Sincerely, Kyle H. 12-08-08 Thank you for the fast reply. I am a DOD teacher over in Korea. I purchased it for my own child after hearing of it from a friend in New York. The first week of use, she went from 65 to 83. It does work. We have been off of it for three tests now and she has struggled. So I will be glad to get it going again. It really is a good help for parents and it builds esteem in the kids. Thank you, Celeste K 11-11-08 Hello, we love the software! I use it for a grade 3 and 4. The difference in my daughter is, if she has a week she doesn’t use it she does horrible, but the weeks she does use it(4-5 days) she gets no more than 1 wrong. I would try and market this in schools. My kids go to Surrey Christian in surrey BC and they use computers a lot. If you want to give them a trail run, I can get the resource teacher’s email? Let me know cause I have no problem promoting it. Susan 10-28-08 Thank you. We've used the software for several years with great results. Three of my children have used it for spelling tests from 3rd through 8th grade. It has been very worthwhile. John 10-25-08 Thanks. I purchased it for a 11 year old 6th grader. We tried it out and he really likes it, which is key. I spent about an hour getting familiar with the manual and installing software and adding first list (recorded the names until I saw you could download audio) really cool. He tested it out and was impressed. Spelling is not one of his strengths, so this will help when I'm helping one of the siblings. I will be spreading the word. I'm already certain he will become more independent. Kevin D. 10-22-08 Thanks! I absolutely LOVE this spelling program. I bought so much over the years. I’m homeschooling 4 kids, and I don’t have time to read spelling lists! I did buy Spelling Doctor—that picks up misspellings from emails, Microsoft Word, but I don’t like it. It’s great at picking up misspellings, but that’s about it. Spelling Made Simple is so easy to use and I love that I can easily create my own lists! I couldn’t create lists with Spelling Doctor. Thanks for such a great product and making it so affordable to homeschoolers! Rita J. 10-1-08 We really like the program! I have three children that use it now, 10, 9, and 6. It is excellent! My 10 year old went from getting D's and F's to getting A's. Every time he misses a week I can definitely tell in his grades. He really struggles with spelling, but with this program he is really improving. My 6 year old has just started spelling this year and I started him on it right away. He has aced every test so far. They all really enjoy the program. I often hear "mom can I do my spelling now". Thank you so much! Pam C. 9-4-08 Benjamin, Thanks for the quick reply! I’m a homeschooler of 4 boys (ages 6, 8, 11, 13), and 2 years ago I searched for a spelling program that didn’t require my sons to wait for me to read them their spelling list and that gave my sons typing practice (since the keyboard is where they will do the majority of their spelling as an adult!). I wanted something where I could easily enter my own words and record sound files. I found several programs, including one monthly subscription program, but yours stood out as the best for several reasons: 1.Entering words is simple & quick: just click in the box and hit enter after each word is typed in. No wasted finger or hand motions by tabbing or clicking with the mouse, which I found on other programs 2.Spell Checker: as I recall, yours is the only program that had a spell checker. One of the other reviewed programs sure could have used that! They even had a misspelled word on the interface box. 3.Dictionary link: I really like this! No other program had this feature which I find important if you have never seen or heard the word before. 4.Sound files: your program has sound files ready to download easily from your web site. One other program required me to record ALL the words on each list, even if the word had been used on another entered list! The subscription program I tried used a computer generated voice which was extremely frustrating for my kids and me to understand, especially since the words were never used in a sentence to give contextual clues. Your program on the other hand has a very easy user interface that allows me to record words not on your site or record over words my sons can’t understand. No time limit is placed on the recording too, allowing me to use a word in a sentence, which is especially helpful and necessary for homonyms. Another reviewed program had a time limit for each recording, making sentence recording an impossibility. 5.The generation of error lists. I’m all for efficiency – why practice what you already have mastered?! 6.Statistics center: here I can see exactly what my sons spelled wrong and how they spelled it wrong. I can also make sure they did the assigned list on the assigned day! All in all, an awesome program that I have coupled with spelling lists from the Mega Word series that are logically related and not a disorganized conglomeration of words deemed age or grade appropriate. With the organized lists and your program enabling me to ensure my sons practice spelling everyday with immediate feed back, my sons spelling has improved drastically without a lot of time invested by me personally reading, rereading, and grading word lists with each child. Thanks so much for a wonderfully helpful spelling program. Your computer programming skills have been a blessing to me and my sons – though they won’t realize it until they are older. Sincerely, Linda M. 8-23-08 I am using this software with my 7th grader, which I home school. In the past we’ve used the Spelling Power curriculum. I like the idea of working on spelling daily and adding missed words to the next day’s list, until you master them. Your software has giver my daughter a great resource for spelling and given me a break from calling spelling words daily. Awesome! I will recommend this product to other home school moms. Thanks again! Carla S. 8-20-08 Hi Mr. Gerten, Guess what? I only thought I was done with spelling bees! My mom found out about a brand new spelling bee, the 2008 State Farm South Asian Spelling Bee. She called and asked if I could participate, even though I'm not South Asian, and they said yes! I participated in the Bay Area regional, where I won on the word treponemataceae! I was then qualified for the National competition in New Jersey, which was held this past weekend. There were actually six spellers competing at the nationals who had also been at the Scripps bee this year. I won the finals on the word biloculine and was awarded $5,000! It was quite an interesting bee, and there were more mispronunciations than I could count! They pronounced buccinator as beccinator, zumbooruk as zomborik, and protasis as prah-TAY-sis. They haven't updated their website with photos from Nationals yet, but they probably will soon. The bee was taped by Sony Television Asia and is going to air in 150 countries around the world in October, but I think it will only be seen here in the U.S. if you have satellite TV. Just thought you might like to hear about the latest spelling bee I was in! And by the way, it was fun to see my name on your website! Matthew 7-22-08 I use ths program with are 8-15 year olds. My 12 year old was doing horrible in spelling. I have even kept her a year behind in spelling to help with her problems. She went from 50-60% with a few higher scores to making 80-90% and I believe she even got at least 1 100%. It has raised her confidence and I think the audio is what has really helped her. She has a problem with pronunciation and even after I would go over them with her she would forget the next time, so hearing it repeated each lesson has been the trick for her. I love the ease of using this product and have suggested it to several people. The price is also very affordable and reasonable. I believe I heard about this program through an email sent to me from someone. It has truly saved me of alot of tears and heartache as well as that of my children. We thank you so much for your program. And thank the Lord for blessing you with the gift to come up with such a program. Sandra C Georgia 7-14-08 My daughter is using it and having great results. Christy B 6-30-08 I just love the software and can't imagine NOT using it to tutor students in preparation for the NSB. I tell everyone I can to buy it! Obviously I love it. I am going to be using it extensively with my students. Michelle 5-22-08 My daughter is competing in the Spelling Bee next week. She has used your program extensively for study over the past 8 months. I can't even count the number of lists she has created for the purpose of study an drill. She is hoping that, with the change in written test format this year, the hours spent studying with your program will be even more useful because she has typed the words so many times. Thanks for a great product! Yvonne K 5-21-08 I bought it for my daughter who is a nursing student. She likes it and it also has a list of medical words. She wants to improve her spelling for charting. Thank you Connie B 4-7-08 LOVE LOVE LOVE THE SOFTWARE Bought Spelling Made Simple a few months ago and spelling test scores have improved greatly! You have a great product. Lori N 3-28-08 I wasn't very hopeful when I tried out your software because I had tried so many spelling programs, but after using Spelling Made Simple for a couple of months, I must say that I really like the software. There are a few things I like about it - it's simple, as it's name says. I can load lists very easily from my daughters' books, and the audio has been there for 99% of the words. If the audio is not there, it's easy to add my own audio. What I like best about it is that I don't have to stand over my kids and recite lists of words to them. My daughters are 15, 13, 11, and 7 and they all use the software. I love the software. You did a great job with it, and I'm thankful for a spelling program that may finally work for my kids. Thanks! Debbie G 3-25-08 I went ahead and bought the software. I am a special education teacher and I have been looking for a program that I could recommend for parents to used at home. So far it looks good. Also, I enjoy spelling so I will try the Spelling Bee words. Thank you for the great customer service, David B. Katy, TX 3-20-08 I purchase the download from Spelling Made Simple last fall and have been very pleased with the program. My daughter is currently using it to study for the National Spelling Bee. Thanks for a great product! You have created an excellent program with which I have been very pleased. Sincerely, Yvonne K. 3-11-08 Thanks so much for your quick response! What great customer service! I am so glad to hear that I can use it for both of our kids. I'll be ordering it this week. Thank you again, Lisa V. 2-29-08 I am a homeschooling mom who had tried numerous ways to help my son overcome his difficulties in Spelling. I looked on the Internet, for some help, and found Spelling Made Simple. This program has greatly helped my son - now he passes his spelling tests on his first try! He also loves using the program - to him it's a game and not "school". Thank you for this wonderful tool! Darla Jones Glendale, AZ 2-27-08 "This is the most awesome program!!! My son is so bright but can't spell worth a darn....so he has loved this. He is 12 years old. I will probably buy it today. I'm going to tell my family about this....it's amazing. Thank you very much!" Misty - South Carolina 2-22-08 "I sent you a chart a month or so ago showing the improvement in our 6-year-old (1st grade)'s improvement. She now gets a 100% every week, well except the weeks that she get 110% by getting the bonus right." Thom B. 1-10-08 "I have now ordered your spelling software. I am very pleased with your software and intend to write a positive review in CNET.COM/download as well as in Amazon.com. I appreciate the fact that it does not have all the children's graphics and games. It is already a little embarrassing when I am practicing spelling while sitting in business class on a flight. The only thing I was wanting was a "built in" voice recorder which I understand the newest version has. While I am at it I may as well tell you other things I like. 1. Like the spell checker for the manually entered lists. Removes the risk of memorizing the misspelling. Has saved me a few times. 2. Like the ability to download and cut and past text from other sources. 3. Like the ability to track the words I misspelled over time. 4. Like being able to download the audio for my words. Again, I am happy with the program and price. Thank you." Mark G. 12-20-07 "We love it!! My daughter, 11, uses it regularly and I really think it is helping her spelling a lot. I love your new feature of taking the misspelled words from Word and putting them in her spelling lists. Thank Again" Deborah G. 12-14-07 "I downloaded and purchased Spelling Made Simple about 3-4 weeks ago. It works miraculously, after many, many other spelling programs have failed. Thank You" Cathy H. 12-10-07 "My wife has tried a lot of solutions, and your’s is the easiest and cleanest option for us." Garrett J. 12-7-07 "This program in just two weeks of use has taken my 2nd grader from making a 60 or 50 on her weekly spelling test to two consecutive 100+ spelling tests." Thom B. If you would like to share your progress feel free to send me your scores too. 11-6-07 "Thanks for the new upgrade. It has all the things I wished from the beginning. My daughter is in 7th grade and thanks to SMS, I can proudly say she is an “A” student. The program is great, and now with the select all and recorder added to it, everything I need is right in the program. Once again, keep up the good work. I hope you will still record words though, even though you have now included the recorder. Having the words provided is one of the best parts of this software. God bless all at SMS. I hope you sell many copies of this around the world. Thanks again." Andre A. 9-28-07 "I used the software last year and now again this year. It is a godsend. I can not always help my daughter with her spelling and this software makes it so much easier. She is in 5th grade now. (she’s 10) I will soon have my 6 yr old in 1st grade use it too. Thanks for the quick reply." 9-25-07 "As for the program, I love it. We bought it for our daughter when she was 10 because we were having so many problems helping her study for spelling. She wouldn’t like the way we said the word, we weren’t “helping” her, she would try to interpret looks on our faces when she got a word wrong and would accuse us of being disappointed in her and would call herself stupid. The program removed us (the parents) from the equation. That helped enormously. The program made the process very impersonal – which is a good thing. She either gets the word right, or it’s wrong. She can decide if she needs the word and audio, or just audio. I love the email reports – it lets us reply to her and give her positive feedback. Plus, we know she studied. She even runs through the error list when she’s done with the main list. Without us asking. She’s so proud when she gets them all correct. And, since she doesn’t need to find a time when we can help her with spelling, she feels more in control of her studying. It helps her plan her time because she knows this has to be completed by bedtime. This is an extremely helpful program for students with ADHD. Computer based learning seems to really click for them. I have told several people about it, and sent a link to your website to one of her teachers, who has recommended it to parents who are having the same issues. Anything that allows us to take a backseat and allows our daughter to be more independent with her studies is of enormous benefit. " 9-13-07 "I searched the web and tried multiple "free" trials of spelling software. I was searching for a product that I could use for my home-schooling middle schooler who was preparing for the National Spelling Bee. It had to meet several important criteria. It needed to pull my own word list with wav files that I could record that would be National Bee level difficulty. I had to be able to NOT show the words except if the word was incorrectly spelled. It needed to roll missed words into a file for review. The only product that not only met but exceeded my requirements, was the wonderful Spelling Made Simple program. I recorded all of the information that my son could request at the bee. I recorded all pronunciations, shortened definition, part(s) of speech and etymology (language of origin). I did not record a sentence. This really helped in our quizzing of new (and previously done) words! Rather than tying me to quizzing with him for several hours a day, I simply recorded a word once and he went from there. It made practicing for the bee much less stressful for both of us. I only wish that I had found Spelling Made Simple earlier in his spelling "career". How did my speller fare at the NSB last year? He tied for 8th place nationally. I am uncertain as to how his placement would have been had we not used Spelling Made Simple. (By the way, for the record, I recorded 13,339 words in ALL!) The added bonuses of this program are numerous! He could see how often he missed a word and how he incorrectly spelled it. I could see his progress and change things if necessary. I could change the settings on the program to better meet our needs. This program is now being used by his younger sisters for their spelling but in a different way. They are not needing his high level of difficulty but are quickly learning and mastering words in a much easier manner than in previous years. Who knows? Maybe one of his younger sisters will make it to the National Spelling Bee someday too! " 9-10-07 "I was speaking to a lady whose son competed in the National Spelling Bee and she said that your software was very versatile and effective." Next Page