Yes spelling is important when you are just learning to read...You cannot do that exercise until you are a fluent reader. Ask any 5 or 6 year old to do what you just did and their effort of de-coding and looking for context would be too difficult!
(trust a teacher to come on and spoil the fun)
Oh! and antonye is right...only interjecting coz I am sick of seeing that quip from e-mails and from the 30th time it's been posted on here!!!!!:P:P:P:P:P
