That's interesting. It was Myranda's 3rd grade teacher who pitched to most horrible fit when I mentioned that she was reading Exodus in KJ. That ignorrant lady made it sound like I was abusing my child or something, but Myranda loved it. She liked the story and she felt a great sense of accomplishment at being able to read every other chapter herself (we took turns.)
I don't konw what the Spalding Method is. Guess that's what I get for not homeschooling. LOL. But, it sounds like it's excellent for you and elfboy considering the results you anticipate.
The Spalding method is an intense phonics program, where in the beginning, the kids learn 4 phonograms (sound/spelling) a day, minimum. The ABC's are the first 26 (/a/ = map, lake, all) . When they learn 45 of them, they get to start their spelling words from the Extended Ayers list. elfboy will end up learning to spell 30,000 words instead of memorizing about 900 sight words by the third grade.
http://www.spalding.org/index.php?tname=method