Is All About Spelling Overkill?

As I've written before, I am in love with the program All About Spelling.  (I am just a customer of theirs and am not affiliated with them in any way.)  I've often heard that people use it with their child who has trouble with spelling but that it is "overkill" for their children who are more natural spellers. 

Everyone has a right to their own opinion, of course, but I have one child who really needs the systemic and rules-based approach of All About Spelling and another who has an excellent visual memory for words and would probably be okay with any spelling program (and could get by in life without a formal study of spelling).  I use the program for both of them, and absolutely do not consider it "overkill" for my natural speller.

I had no problems spelling as a child.  I picked up a lot of words from reading and didn't have trouble with my spelling tests.  There are a few words I struggle to remember as an adult (who doesn't with our crazy English language?), but I would consider myself a better speller than most adults.  I have a bachelor's degree in English and Classics.  Even with all of this, I have learned a lot about how the English language works on a phonetic level from All About Spelling!  That is why I can't imagine that it is "overkill" for any child. 

There are a vast amount of phrases, sentences, and "extra" words that can be spelled in the program.  I think this is what confuses people.  Everything in the program is optional.  I don't waste my children's time on words that they already know.  I will often offer a pretest before beginning a step for words that I think they may already understand how to spell.  These go directly into "mastered" and are not reviewed. 

My 5th grader does 5 of the sentences per step.  My 1st grader has been writing 6 phrases per step.  I customize the program constantly in order to meet their needs.  If they miss a word in their sentences/phrases, I'll make a word card for it so that it can be reviewed again. 

What I like about the program is that it can be gone through very slowly and extensively or very quickly, depending on the needs of my child.  We spend around 15-20 minutes/day on All About Spelling, and normally take three days per step, but sometimes I will go down to 2 days for an easy step, and even 1 day if my child already knows how to spell all (or nearly all) of the words.  My youngest, who is a natural speller, wanted to start the program when he was very young (5?), but he did not have the attention span at the time to spend very long on a step, and it might take us 5-10 sessions to get through a step. 

Certainly, one spelling program is not going to meet every child's needs, but I think that natural spellers can benefit from the program just as much as struggling spellers.  I know I have benefited!