by McGraw Hill

Spectrum is a series of books put out by McGraw Hill on a variety of subjects including writing, vocabulary, reading comprehension, math and phonics.

These consumable workbooks come with easy to tear out pages and the answers in the back. The lessons have the skill listed plainly at the top of the page and then give a short description of the skill in the directions. Each skill usually has 3-4 pages of practice allotted. The pictures are clear but not fancy.

REVIEW
We have used several books in the phonics series and really enjoyed them. I like that the lessons are simple enough for my boys to do on their own (after I have introduced the concept) and clearly list the skill each lesson is presenting. This way I can easily prepare for the lesson and not have to search for what particular skill is the focus of the lesson. There is also a nice list in the front of the book detailing each skill and where it is found in the book.

I also like that the books are simple. There are not a great deal of colors and unnecessary distractions on the page. The illustrations are clear and there are several pages to practice each skill.

The skills covered seem fairly complete.The topics covered usually include phonics rules, homonyms/homophones, synonyms/antonyms, alphabetizing, some vocabulary and dictionary skills.

We have used the Language Arts grade 2 in this series and liked it as well. The other subjects in Spectrum I have not personally used but I have heard that people like them for their simplicity, ease of use for both the teacher and the student and for practice on certain skills.

One note: Spectrum puts out a Little Critters series that I do not like as well as the plain Spectrum series. As with many other 'character' workbooks it seems a great deal of space is taken by the characters and pictures to the detriment of the skill. The colors and activity on the page also seems to distract children.