Spelling Test Buddy’s story
Where this idea comes from?
Hi, I’m Jason.
Spelling Test Buddy started as a result of trying to solve my own problems at home. My daughter is 10 years old. She’s a good student overall, and generally gets As and Bs. But, even as early as kindergarten, we realized that she struggles with spelling. She would go through Write It, Draw It, Use It exercises for 4 days, and come test day, still end up getting several wrong out of ten. As parents who put a lot of value in getting A’s, this was painful to see.
So we started to quiz her at home on the night before the test.
This involved me arguing with her that she needs to practice, followed by me trying to read her words in between cooking, cleaning up, or bites of dinner.
It was not ideal, and painful for me, her, and the rest of the family.
In thinking through how to make this better, I realized that there has to be a better way.
They say that focused practice makes perfect. To get the outcome you want, you have to practice in a focused manner. You see this repeated frequently in so many domains:
Athletes who dominate their fields. Tiger Woods, Venus and Serena Williams, Tom Brady, Lionel Messi, and so many others are obvious people to studyJeopardy! streak-holder training systems, such as Ken Jenning’s incredible 75 win streakScripps National Spelling Bee winners
But, the needs of the top of the top weren’t exactly for us. I wanted her to do well on her spelling tests, not try to win the National Spelling Bee.
I started researching what I could use to help her.
There were lots of the typical stuff:
- Flashcard software, like Anki
- Generic word lists, like this
- Templates that I could fill out myself, like on Teachers Pay Teachers
But all of these required a lot of extra work. And let’s be honest, as a busy Dad, extra work means it will be even harder to build a consistent, repeatable pattern in our household, and simply won’t get done.
So, I decided to build a solution to solve this problem.
I am going to use advances in AI to make this a very simple process for me and other parents like me:
- Take a photo of the word list
- Upload it to Spelling Test Buddy
- Let it process (should only take a few minutes)
- Open a laptop, tablet or phone for your child to the word list, and hit “Go"The app will read the words, one at a time, and let your child write them down on paper. Once complete, you or they can grade them (and over time, we can support automated grading too!)
I truly believe that this is going to be the best way to improve her spelling at home. It will be easy to set up and use and increase repetitions before her next spelling quiz. She will walk in confident and prepared to her next quiz, and do better as a result.
I need your help
If you are a parent or teacher, and you find this idea interesting, I’d love for you to:
- Give the product a try! There is a free trial, with no credit card required.
- Reach out to me! I’d love to hear from you and learn more about what you are looking for.
My other projects
My writing and other projects can be accessed from my company’s site, jsdf, LLC, or through my bio link.