I used wordly wise in 2006-2008 for my son. I loved all the activities. I assume they have revised it by now but if they keep their same philosophy then it will still be a quality program for vocabulary and there is no reason why those words can't be spelling words (but they won't form a phonetic pattern the words are grouped because they go in a particular article/story).

...reading is pleasure, not just something teachers make you do in school.~B. Cleary