Writing Road to Reading 6th Rev Ed.: The Spalding Method for Teaching Speech, Spelling, Writing, and Reading – Proven Multisensory Phonics for Children's Literacy and Handwriting Skills

The best reading program out there, I think! I taught my four children to read using it, and they could read complicated materials within three months. The first book my children read from was the Bible. Now we're using it for the grandchildren. This method teaches reading, handwriting and spelling, and the rules of spelling as you go. Using the method for the first time might seem a little complicated, but it's really not. Take the first step and the second becomes clear. The first step is learning the sounds of each letter, using flash cards. The child hears it, sees it, says it, writes it, so all the senses are involved in learning. The child learns all the sounds of each letter - there are three for the letter "a" for example. Second step is learning the sounds of letter combinations - again see it, hear it, say it, write it. Once the sounds are learned, spelling begins. With each word the spelling rules are mentioned, things like silent e's, and "a vowel says its name at the end of a syllable," etc. So those rules are heard and learned painlessly. It's an excellent "learning to read" method. I highly recommend it.

I home schooled 9 of my own children and helped with others. We did the phonics cards daily, learning the spelling rules on the back by memory. I did take classes in the 90's when I was implementing it. I am now using this program to tutor grand children to help with reading and spelling skills. Since I and my children have used it , for years we understand it and can interface it with each child as needed. The phonics is so sound and clear even just using the cards is so helpful.

This is an awesome way to teach 7 year olds to read, write and spell. I had the opportunity in the mid 90’s to attend training on the Spalding Method and it was amazing. The following school year I used the Spalding Method to teach my second graders along with the required curriculum. I can truly say that those children benefitted from that teaching. Those students today are teachers, engineers, pharmacists, college professors as well as blue collar workers. I attribute their successes to the good foundation they had in my class by me implementing the Spalding Writing Road to Reading!

My school district paid for my (and other Special Ed teachers) training in 1990, and several later times. I used the earlier manuals for the five year trial period in my classroom. It worked well with at least 80% of my Learning Disabled students. Teaching handwriting and phonics together made a tremendous increase in word recognition and spelling. Comprehension and composition must be taught separately. I got a Regular Ed student by mistake for one semester, and he went from third grade level to sixth grade in the time he spent with me. I cant recommend it enough for either classroom or homeschooling.

This is a phonics approach to teaching your child how to read. I liked the theory of teaching writing and reading at the same time. The author states that this approach will help prevent children from mixing up b and d. I also bought the phoneme flash cards. I think the theory is good, but I don't use the book because I found that this edition recommends purchasing their reader books to go along with this book to teach your child how to read. The lessons are scripted.

This is the book I learned to read and write from. I also purchased the phonics cards, which are a must! My grandparents are now using this book and the cards to teach an ESL class, and they cannot say enough good things about this curriculum. Before, they were struggling to find good ways to teach English as a second language to adults that didn't also come across as condescending or "kiddy" - they absolutely love this book and the phonics cards and are having a lot of success with it.

I enjoyed reading about new srategies for both reading and writing. I started using them immediately. The whole program may be time consuming to learn but any portion of it is practical and rich.

As a literacy teacher, I am beyond pleased with this book. This is the instructional manual that is needed to implement the Spalding Method. You need to purchase additional materials in order to implement this program. This method requires lots of teacher planning and a lot of time to execute but the results are well worth the effort. In addition, the support the Spalding Group offers for those implementing the program is phenomenal. I highly recommend the book and program!

valuable for teachers

Book was in excellent condition

This book helped me more than my child. I learned more about how to teach reading and my kids benefitted. However, this method as a stand-alone is not enough.