My personal favorite, to remember the spelling of the word "beautiful," my 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Ferbrush, taught us a little trick.

If someone stole your beautiful diamond necklace you would yell: "EE! Hey (A) you (U)! Stop thief!"

That is the order of the 3 vowels, E, A, U. Get it? I still think of Mr. Ferbrush every single time I write "beautiful." He also used to tell us "Ain't ain't a word because Mr. Ferbrush says it ain't." I wish my son would get a great male elementary teacher like that. He's in 3rd grade now. I try to make up tricks, whatever I can think of, to help him remember his spelling words, it's his toughest subject.

Then of course there was the classic "I before E except after C and when sounding like A such as neighbor and weigh." And "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking." (Like "read," you hear the e, not the a.) I thought those were common knowledge, but DH said he'd never heard them.

I really liked that poem on another post for parts of speech, I'd never heard that one. As a mom and an (off duty) English teacher that one will come in handy.

I always liked the "School House Rock" bits. I've seen those on video. I remember bits and pieces of them, "Conjunction Junction, what's your function" or "I'm just a bill, on Capitol Hill." I don't recall the entire lyrics to any of them, but I think I still learned from them as a child (and as an adult, LOL).

I had never heard "When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking." My son, 2nd grade, will like that one.

I loved School House Rock also!!!!! I bought him all of the tapes when he was younger. He likes those too!

I completely endorse SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK!! Even today that is how I remember things because I am back in school!!:)

All I remember is A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream = arithmetic. LOL I do recal a friend telling me how her professor explained the word or actually words 'A Lot'. It's hard to do here but he wrote the word LOT on the board and circled it and stated "This is a LOT". Trying to demonstrate that A lot is 2 words not one (alot). A LOT (LOL) of people make that mistake.

Did that make any sense to anyone

Lisa,

I got it and now I will remember it!!! I have made that mistake before.

When subtracting double digit numbers 10-19 by nine, just add the top two numbers together.

14 (1+4=5)
- 9
5

Strawberry Shortcake is a deSSert, there is Sand in the deSert.

If you LOSE something you are missing something (one O). If something is LOOSE it is big (two O's are bigger than one O).

"30 days hath September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31, except February - which hath 28." I don't remember what you do for leap years.

One my mom taught me to help learn the difference between principle and principal is "The principal is your pal".

I have heard all of the above and I also remember something about the diff between capital and capitOL. The Capitol has a dOme (as in where the state legislature meets). My HS english teacher was emphatic about two things... you REAR children, you RAISE corn. And a person cannot be "red-headed" unless they are red from the neck up. The grammatically correct would be "red haired".

stationary with an A as in "standing"
stationery with an E as in "letter"

I've heard the 30 days one, and I always put the wrong months in. The only ones I accurately remember are September and November. For April and June, I stick in May and July or something, so they don't help me any!

Here is an easy way to remember the planets and this actually helps you know the ORDER of the planets in distance from the Sun:
My Very Easy Method: Just Set Up Nine Planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. (You DO have to remember that Mercury is the first one because Mars also begins with M)

The weird foreigner seizes neither leisure nor sport at its height.--common exceptions to i before e.

Good, better, best; never let it rest, till your good is better, and your better best. How to use the degrees of superlative of good.

Mary did call Lou. The order of the Roman numerals--M= 1000, D=500, C=100, L=50.

Musical scales--every good boy eats fudge?? not sure I remember this one exactly.

It's "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge!" And, the planet one that my children taught me is: "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" (they wish!)

How about this one, Talley Sue, to help you with the lengths of the months. If you put your two closed hands in front of you, and start with the left knuckle as January (which has 31 days), then the small indentation beside it is February (short month) then the next knuckle would be March (31 days again) and so on. July and August will both be the left and then the right index knuckle, and they both have 31 days... it really works. Sounds confusing, but it's very simple. My cute hubby still uses that.

Oh, and "dessert" is the one you want a second helping of (the double helping of ss's).