AVKO Membership

TOS Crew Review 

Product: One Year Membership to AVKO

Publisher: AVKO Educational Research Foundation, by Don McCabe

Price: $25 a year for basic membership

*I received this product from this company (for free), for the purpose of sharing my opinion.*

From the Website:

“Who is Don McCabe? He is the Research Director of the non-profit AVKO Educational Research Foundation founded in 1974 and the author of over 20 books in the area of teaching spelling, reading, and handwriting.”

“Review:  It takes a dyslexic like Don McCabe to teach us what dyslexia really is.  It can be more a gift than it is a handicap.  What he has achieved, other dyslexics can achieve—with the proper help from teachers who understand the logic that school systems can use to teach reading and writing.”  Eldo Berman, M.D., Texas Reading Institute”. 

Benefits of AVKO Basic Membership

* Discounts on AVKO printed materials
* Hundreds of dollars worth of FREE e-books (PDF)
-The Patterns of English Spelling (All 10 Volumes) with Word Families in Sentence Context
-To Teach a Dyslexic
- Starting at Square One
-The Teaching of Reading & Spelling: a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.
- The Reading Teacher's List of Over 5,500 Basic Spelling Words
* Access to the Member Only section
* AVKO Newsletter with freebies, discounts, resources, and promotions
* Access to Don McCabe's most popular workshop recordings in MP3 format.
* Supplemental Curriculum Materials including word games, worksheets, activities, and more!
* Access to Pretests and Placement Tests
* Access to the Answer Keys for the Unscramblers and Family Reunion exercises of the Engaging Language Kits

My Overall Impression:

I ordered several products from this company a couple of years ago. I have one son who is dyslexic and really needed some help. I absolutely love their curriculum and materials. We have been using them successfully for quite some time.

Basically it is like studying the English language. We use the Spelling books several days a week. My son has made tremendous progress in his reading, comprehension and spelling skills. I don’t know where we would be right now, if it wasn’t for AVKO . . . Seriously.

As for the membership, it is pretty overwhelming. Honestly, I would much rather buy the actual books and resources to have in hard copy. I don’t particularly like e-books or internet resources. However, with membership, you receive a “25% discount on all printed AVKO materials.” You could easily order $100 worth of books and get all your membership money back. It is like getting the membership for free.

For example:

Sequential spelling 1 – 7 costs $134.95. At 25% off there is a savings of $33.74, which is more than the cost of membership.

Personally, I use sequential spelling for all three of my children. Only one of my children is dyslexic but I find their method of teaching spelling to be helpful to all of my children. I simply ordered two extra sets of “student response books.”

More Details of what you get with your membership:

-The e-books are in Microsoft Word files.

-Some things you’ll find: “Rules about spelling;”  “711 Fun Quotes for Dictation;”  “Rules for Life by Bill Gates”

Workshops on MP3 including titles such as “Creating your own spelling program that really works” and “You don’t need a Master’s Degree to Teach your Kids – Just a degree of caring.”

I really enjoyed listening to his workshop: “Phonics – the most Misunderstood Approach to Teaching Reading.”

After looking over the resources on the AVKO site, I realized the value of membership. It is like a support system to help you teach your children. I highly recommend this company.


To find out more about my reviews, please visit "Introduction to our Homeschool Parlor"