Early on when you are teaching your child to read, you will find that there are certain words that don’t fit the rules of phonics. We call these words “sight words” because they have to be taught to be recognized by sight and can’t be phonetically sounded out. Thus, when teaching sight words to your child you can make it into a game that focuses on rote learning. For example, have your child try to sound out the word ‘the’. When they have trouble figuring out what the word says, tell them that there are certain words that can’t be sounded out—you just have to remember what they say. Whenever your child reads to you and you come upon a sight word, gently remind them how to read the word and/or give them a cue like “Remember there are some words you can’t sound out?” and see if that will trigger their memory before you supply the word to them. In addition, make a list of sight words that you and your child can go over in between reading books. You’ll find that it won’t take long at all for your child to recognize sight words and before you know it they’ll be asking you when they come to a non-phonetic word “Hey, this word is a sight word isn’t it?”
Here a short list of sight words you’re likely to encounter right away in short vowel reading books:
THE
YOUR
OF
ARE
COME
TO
FOR
HAVE
WHAT
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