Among Friends

[Foxxee]

Phonics.  It worked great for me.  I was an early fast reader and the school spelling bee champion.  

In my school, it was some of the boys who were slower to catch on.  

[Love my grandkids]

@chickenbutt I was and still am a fantastic speller. From 6th to 8th grade I won every spelling bee.

I was neurotically shy and got embarrassed at always winning so for the last one in 8th grade I made a mistake early in the bee. The teacher was really surprised and I know she knew that I "threw" the spelling bee.

[Brisky]

Phonics for me. I love to read also. I was taught by nuns, grade 1 - 6. Then I went to public schools and I was thrilled. I was always afraid of the nuns!

[Jackhound Mom]

Thank you for the great answers.  I'm 67 and I too learned to spell/read by phonics.  When I used to read I could spell but now that I have eye problems and no longer read as much my spelling has suffered.  This goes along with what most of you answered.

[bikerbabe]

I have no memory of how I was taught to spell. I do know I was an obsessive reader of books from a very young age, before kindergarten. Personally I think it matters less how you were taught spell but rather whether you read - a lot - as a child.

[Q4u]

Phonics.  My oldest son has dyslexia and if it weren't for phonics, he wouldn't have made it.  But he did make it and he still spells mostly phonetically to this day.  Interestingly later on he was asked to take 2 IQ tests and did so well that the school sent his results to Mensa, who wrote to him asking him to join.  He didn't but still has the letter....  

[Love my grandkids]

@bikerbabe About the one good thing my "father" (sperm donor) did for me was to teach me to read a bit from the newspaper when I was 5. We always did have books and newspapers in our home. I carried that one when I married and had a family.

I got my first library card at 5 but of course my mom had to sign for me. I was thrilled. I've always been a voracious reader. Can't imagine life without it!

[SeaMaiden]

I have some kind of spelling dyslexia ...I am just a terrible speller...spellcheck is my friend as is google.  I also have a terrible sense of direction.... I always wondered if theses two issues are related somehow in how my brain works?  I am an excellent reader.

[Still Raining]

Did elementary school in the 50s and no recollection of phonics at all.

[Buffalogal47]

@Still Raining  i also did grammar school in the 50s and yes we did do phonics, but it was not what passes for phonics now. Don't you remember learnig about dipthongs and vowel sounds and different consonant combinations? Phonics then was taught in the pramary grades 1 to 3 as a prelude to learning grammar. It was much harder  than the garbage the kids are being taught now.  That's why people who went to school from the 1970s to the present make so many spelling and grammatical errors. The teachers in the 70s were too lazy to teach proper phonics and grammar. I remember arguing with my children's teachers  because they weren't learning how the English language works and I ended up teaching them phonics and grammar myself.