No stopping to sound out every third word. No losing their train of thought when they write. Just the story, and their own words, coming easily.
Squirk moves
500 to 1,000 words into long-term memory
this school year. Just 5 to 10 minutes a day, spelling out loud.
A typical classroom spelling program covers about ten words a week. Five minutes a day with Squirk clears that. Ten minutes a day roughly doubles it again.
A typical school spelling year
10 a week × 36 weeks
360
Squirk · 5 min a day
most days of the week
500
Squirk · 10 min a day
most days of the week
1,000
Words moved into long-term memory over one school year.
Squirk draws from the same lists schools teach from: Dolch, Fry, Common Core and Orton-Gillingham.
80%
of the words in children's books are the 220 Dolch words.
Squirk covers all of them, plus hundreds more at your child's level and above.
Spelling looks like the small subject. It is actually the one that quietly decides how well a child reads and writes, because all three draw on the same knowledge of how words are built.
Sounding out gets them started. Fixing the spelling in memory turns slow decoding into instant, lifelong recognition.
Attention shifts from the letters to the meaning, so they follow the plot instead of fighting the page.
When spelling is automatic, the thought survives the trip to the page instead of dying mid-sentence.
A child who is not afraid of the words picks the longer story, and writes more than the minimum.
Squirkies to collect and punch cards to fill, with a celebration every time one lands. Parents can add their own rewards on top, so a child earns something real for showing up.
66%
In grades 1 to 3, spelling and handwriting account for 66% of the difference in how fluently children write. Spelling is the most consistent predictor of writing ability from grade 1 through grade 5.
Berninger and colleagues, on transcription and written composition.
Reading and spelling are two sides of the same coin.
Squirk knows which words your child has proved, and stops serving them. Practice goes only where it is still needed.
Each word comes back just as it starts to fade, the point where a single correct answer does the most to lock it in.
Forget one and it slides back into rotation on its own. No red marks, no repeating the whole list, no boredom.
Nothing to plan, nothing to print, and nobody sitting beside them to check every answer.
Ten minutes, and your child could reach a thousand. Fifteen words in your first week, more than five hundred by the end of the year.
Check your inbox. We have sent you what you need to get started.
Try Squirk for free. No credit card needed. No ads ever.