We had phonics, which made no sense at all to me because I'd already figured out how to read as a sight reader. To get me to, for instance, learn that o-y made an "oy" sound, they couldn't give me words like "boy" or "toy" to read, because I knew both of those words without looking at the letters. They had to give me things like "foy" or "doy" to force me to actually look at the letters. (I can spell in spelling bees, but not on paper. My explanation is that I know how words look printed, so I can picture the printed word and spell it out loud, but I can't look at a hand-written word and tell if it's right. It's also easier for me to type with proper spelling if I'm using a serif font, because that's how words look to my brain.)

I'm the opposite--I'm a great speller on paper, but I absolutely suck at spelling aloud. Seriously. I got knocked out of the spelling bee in fourth grade for misspelling "jeep." Not that I didn't know perfectly well how it's spelled, but somehow what I said was "g-e-e-p." One of the great embarrassing moments of my childhood--I can still remember how loudly everyone laughed at me, the Smart Girl, for botching such a simple word! That was just a brain fart, of course, but with longer words I lose my place spelling aloud. If someone asks me to spell something for them, the only way I can be sure I'm right is to write or type it, and then read off the letters.

And I figured out how to read before starting school, but somehow I learned phonetically.

I got knocked out of the spelling bee in fourth grade for misspelling "jeep." Not that I didn't know perfectly well how it's spelled, but somehow what I said was "g-e-e-p." One of the great embarrassing moments of my childhood--I can still remember how loudly everyone laughed at me, the Smart Girl, for botching such a simple word!

"Zucchini." I meant z and said s. I felt awful. (to my classmates' credit, I don't remember getting laughed at.)

"Translate." I added an extra a after the s, and I actually could have saved myself if I hadn't continued on to the a after the l, but I only came up with that strategy after it was too late. I was in sixth grade, and I lost to a fifth grader.

I got phonics, too, and I'm a pretty good speller. Like Susan, though, if it's longer than six letters, I want to write it down to be sure. Hubby and I figure one reason we got married was so I could correct his punctuation and spelling and he could take care of tricky math concepts.

For me it was "fruit". I added an "e" to the end.

Apparently left-handed people are notoriously bad spellers, so I excuse it with genetics.

I got to the citywide bee twice, and twice got stage fright and goofed on my very first word. Rabies (added an "i" after the "a" ) and department store (lost my place and left out the "-ment" altogether) were the words.

I'm an okay speller but a lousy typist, now.

Any readers have impressions of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay to share? I bought it a couple weeks ago when I saw a copy on sale for a ridiculously low price, but I've since seen Spider-Man 2 and am beginning to regard reading Chabon as an obligatory homework project rather than something enjoyable in its own right.

I loved Kavalier and Clay. There were a few points were I thought the story dragged a little, but other than that, I thought it was great.

Loved it loved it. I could have done without the end, but I think I'm in the minority on that.