I would love to hear comments from others on how they learned to read and spell correctly!!!

My mother got some phonics books from her sister (a teacher) and taught me to read, starting when I was 3 or 4. I was probably helped by a two-year interlude in Italy where reading = phonics, and then I returned to Canada in grade three. By this time I knew lots of (English) words and could read pretty fast, so I wasn't really resorting to phonics although it was in the name of the workbook used in school. It was still a good method when encountering a new word. I also can relate to the spelling tests, and good spelling in general on all assignments - all this was required of us up to grade six. Then I went into French Immersion, and things got confusing. Besides, I have since concluded that no one really learns anything in junior high school!

Somewhere in the years between my brother and me (only four years) this phonics thing was lost. Or else he is genetically a terrible speller; I'm not really sure. And judging by the terrible lab reports I am forced to mark every couple of weeks, the people younger than him didn't get much better instruction. I wish I could take off marks for poor grammar and bad spelling - but I am constrained by a marking scheme handed down from above - besides, then they would have no marks left! ARGHHHHHHHHH!