I discovered something whilst browsing the website today. Phonics! ( note I am not a homeschooling parent, I am an adult educating myself)
Some back story. I could read well before I went to school aged 5 in the Uk in the 1960’s, as I lived in an antiquarian bookshop. When I got to school they used a different language called ita (initial teaching alphabet ) It was different to the books at home and in the shop and I became confused and didn’t like school reading. I zoned out. When I was between 7and 8 years of age we moved back to the ordinary way of reading and writing. At this stage I had just about mastered reading and writing ita, and changing back was horrendous. I simply gave up writing at school. I read at home....anything and everything, but writing was a lost cause. I simply could not spell. Teachers told me to look things up in a dictionary....but that is impossible if you don’t know the first few letters. Take ‘beautiful’ for example. Starts with ‘b’ that’s ok. But what next? ‘u’? ‘o’? ‘a’? By the time one has worked through all the possibilities the lesson is over and one is getting yelled at for wasting time!
At the age of 11 my parents were worried about the modern education I was getting (ita was only the start of it....you should see what we did for maths!) and sent me to a traditional grammar school, classics, Latin, preparation, homework, the works! Well, all the other kids had come through British prep school. I was so far behind I didn’t know what to do. The fact I could read so well was a disservice for me. “How can someone who can read as well as you not able to write a simple sentence?” I was labeled lazy and stupid. We were doing Latin and I didn’t know what the subject of a sentence was....or even what a verb was. Given the choice of being bad and being lazy and stupid, I chose bad. End of my education! The only good thing about that school was they introduced me to a thesaurus! It was a miracle.....now I could look up ‘nice’ and get ‘beautiful’, ‘decorous’, ‘delightful’ ‘commendable’ and loads of other words. We were actually given it for synonyms....and told we must never use the word ‘nice’ in composition work, but always use a better word. So I dutifully looked up nice....which I could spell.....and found a treasure chest of language.
anyway, enough of that! I was looking at the spelling books idly wondering if I would ever be able to spell....you have no idea how being functionally illiterate cramps your style as an adult......even getting it close enough for the spell checker to catch can be a challenge.....and I saw 1:1:1 words. You mean there are rules about those doubles? As in why running has 2 ns and snowing only has 1 w? There are other rules? You can learn this stuff? I have no idea how I learnt to read in the first place, I’ve always been able to read, but I have never, ever been able to spell.
so....after all this blurb. Can an adult learn to spell? And if so how? What would one use? I have Lingua Angelica in my basket at the moment so I already have to pay postage. Should I add some phonics? Would it work for an almost 60 year old?
Runner.
Some back story. I could read well before I went to school aged 5 in the Uk in the 1960’s, as I lived in an antiquarian bookshop. When I got to school they used a different language called ita (initial teaching alphabet ) It was different to the books at home and in the shop and I became confused and didn’t like school reading. I zoned out. When I was between 7and 8 years of age we moved back to the ordinary way of reading and writing. At this stage I had just about mastered reading and writing ita, and changing back was horrendous. I simply gave up writing at school. I read at home....anything and everything, but writing was a lost cause. I simply could not spell. Teachers told me to look things up in a dictionary....but that is impossible if you don’t know the first few letters. Take ‘beautiful’ for example. Starts with ‘b’ that’s ok. But what next? ‘u’? ‘o’? ‘a’? By the time one has worked through all the possibilities the lesson is over and one is getting yelled at for wasting time!
At the age of 11 my parents were worried about the modern education I was getting (ita was only the start of it....you should see what we did for maths!) and sent me to a traditional grammar school, classics, Latin, preparation, homework, the works! Well, all the other kids had come through British prep school. I was so far behind I didn’t know what to do. The fact I could read so well was a disservice for me. “How can someone who can read as well as you not able to write a simple sentence?” I was labeled lazy and stupid. We were doing Latin and I didn’t know what the subject of a sentence was....or even what a verb was. Given the choice of being bad and being lazy and stupid, I chose bad. End of my education! The only good thing about that school was they introduced me to a thesaurus! It was a miracle.....now I could look up ‘nice’ and get ‘beautiful’, ‘decorous’, ‘delightful’ ‘commendable’ and loads of other words. We were actually given it for synonyms....and told we must never use the word ‘nice’ in composition work, but always use a better word. So I dutifully looked up nice....which I could spell.....and found a treasure chest of language.
anyway, enough of that! I was looking at the spelling books idly wondering if I would ever be able to spell....you have no idea how being functionally illiterate cramps your style as an adult......even getting it close enough for the spell checker to catch can be a challenge.....and I saw 1:1:1 words. You mean there are rules about those doubles? As in why running has 2 ns and snowing only has 1 w? There are other rules? You can learn this stuff? I have no idea how I learnt to read in the first place, I’ve always been able to read, but I have never, ever been able to spell.
so....after all this blurb. Can an adult learn to spell? And if so how? What would one use? I have Lingua Angelica in my basket at the moment so I already have to pay postage. Should I add some phonics? Would it work for an almost 60 year old?
Runner.
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