Scholastic Dictionary of Spelling Paperback – Illustrated, July 1, 2006

I purchased this spelling dictionary for my First Grade, 6 year old daughter, despite the fact that the recommended age range for it is 8-12 years, Grades 3-7. The beginning of the book does give a 4 step method to help you look up words that you don't know how to spell. However, with the English language being such a complicated one, this 4 step method quickly becomes convoluted after just the first step! After reading it, my head was spinning and I realized that there was no way my 6 year old would be able to grasp all the grammatical rules, necessary to use the method. I quickly decided to find a more simple, straightforward method to teach her how to use the dictionary. We simply use the first and second sounds, and when there is a word that is a little less straightforward, like "psychology" which has the beginning sound of an "s," but actually begins with a "psy," then I help her. My method does not allow her to use the dictionary completely independent of help, but she is becoming more proficient at finding the simpler words on her own. She really enjoys the fact that the spelling dictionary gives her more independence when spelling words. As she said "I love this book. It helps me." Take it from 6 year old. This spelling dictionary is an awesome resource for Elementary School children. Maybe children 8-12 will have better success navigating the book on their own, but I would still recommend it for younger children in First and Second grades.

This has been a great help to encourage my 3rd grader to write. She has a hard time sounding out words and spelling and to help her find the word she is looking for, she has to practice these skills. She is requiring less help with her writing projects

My 4th and 5th graders were at in in-between age for using dictionaries. They didn't need an elementary dictionary anymore but an adult dictionary was just a little bit too intimidating. They both love to write stories and were so excited to get this dictionary. I have the 1998 edition, but let me tell you that it has been one of the best books I bought last year (and I buy a lot of books!) My oldest says it contains every single word he has ever needed to look up. My youngest insists that it is very user-friendly. They asked for a second copy this year so that they each had their own to use. We homeschool and find it a very helpful addition to our cirriculum. But I am sure that kids in public school would find this book to be a valuable reference as well. Well done!

I love that this book answers the question, "how do I look up a word in the dictionary to figure out how to spell it if I don't know how to spell it?"It has great example, great tricks. The only thing I wish is that the part where they give the different sounds/spelling were less like an interesting chapter that I loved to read, but that is hard to have my child read.

Not only does my daughter love this book, but her teacher wanted to see it and loves it too. It's an excellent book for allowing a child to be able to find out how to spell a word by themselves. And since they do the work of actually looking up the word, it reinforces the spelling that much more within their minds.There are several pages of useful information on how to spell words and on how to use the book effectively. My daughter has read parts of this and has learned much about spelling. It has improved her spelling abilities in school (she now gets 106% on her tests) and made her more self-reliant, which is important to me.I'd recommend getting this book and Merriam Webster Children's Dictionary together, as one is good for looking up spelling, and the other is a great reference for definitions.

My soon-to-be 2nd grader has been loving this book and using it a lot. Part of me (the super frugal part of me😐😩) debated on buying it since I figured we could just use a regular children's dictionary... I'm glad I did purchase it. Not only is it easier to pick up and flip through than a regular children's dictionary but it also has many features that help in spelling and also has facts through out the book.

My 4th grader struggles with spelling and she was tired of asking her classmates for help with spelling words and she asked for a dictionary. I found this book instead and she absolutely loves it. She is able to carry it to her classes and states that she uses it everyday. She was writing out a word last week on her homework and stated that she is now able to spell it without looking. Apparently it was a word that she had looked up in the book on several occasions. Highly recommend

This is a great pocket dictionary for elementary kids. I love that instead of asking me constantly how to spell things, they can look words up on there own. I don't mind that there are not definitions. We have larger adult dictionaries for that. This is just to teach kids to be independent and learn to look things up rather than asking us.