– Oct 21, 2008 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL - The Parents' Choice Foundation, the nation's leading experts on quality childrens' media and toys, recently selected the SpellingCity.com website as a Parents’ Choice Recommended Award.

SpellingCity.com is that rare website that at first glance, provides a useful solution to a real educational need. Teachers, students, and parents immediately recognize how they can use SpellingCity.com, bookmark it, tell their friends, and start using it routinely. SpellingCity is an astonishingly “sticky” site with an average visitor time of twelve minutes.

Claire Green, president of Parents’ Choice says: “The Parents’ Choice Awards panel members noted SpellingCity.com as a fun way to practice for the weekly spelling tests. This practical and results-oriented site is cleanly designed and user-friendly.”

SpellingCity.com equips students to become better spellers by letting them practice spelling with their own personalized lists, rather than just random spelling words. The site allows the user to do a variety of things with their spelling words such as see them in flashcard format, hear them spoken by a real human voice, play games with the words, and even take practice spelling tests.

John Edelson, founder of SpellingCity.com, says this of the site's unique, personalized approach: "As a parent, I want the computer to be more than a game machine. Because spelling and vocabulary tests are a weekly reality for today’s elementary school students, they need educational tools that are applicable to their education. So I set out to create a site that fits into today’s educational model and which is truly useful to todays teachers and students."

This seems to be the case, as site usage by students and teachers has more than tripled over the last month. Many of the games are printable, and can be used right in the classroom. Teachers appreciate that they can input their weekly spelling lists into the site, and students can practice their words anywhere they have internet access - - at home, the library, or at a family member's house. Kari, a third grade teacher, says, "SpellingCity.com is so easy to use. It took me less than 15 minutes to add 6 spelling lists for my class. I can't wait to send home a note about SpellingCity.com so my students can start using it at home too!"

According to Mr. Edelson, SpellingCity has no intention of resting on its laurels. It continues to add new features and updates to the site. “I try to look at the needs of today's classrooms, and make additions to the site that will meet those needs. For instance, a teacher wrote me and said that in the younger grades, she tends to combine handwriting and spelling practice, could we help? So now you can print out your spelling list as a handwriting practice sheet." This attention to the details of what teachers and students want is the type of thing that the Parents' Choice Foundation looks for when choosing websites to recommend.

About the Parents' Choice Awards
Parents’ Choice established in 1978, is the nation's oldest nonprofit guide to quality children's media and toys. The Foundation's mission is to provide parents with information to participate wisely in their children's learning.