Help Your Child Become A Phonics Reading Pro

What is Phonics? Read this post to find out...

My favorite way of thinking of phonics is as a “decoder” of written language. Early on children realize that there are patterns in how we read words. These patterns can be made into rules and the rules can be taught in sequence. This is the main idea of phonics. Teach reading rules in sequence to help children attain the knowledge quickly and with less difficulty.

 

Phonics does not only help your child learn how to read, it also lends itself to greater spelling skills, better reading comprehension, and word identification. Usually phonics is taught from kindergarten through 2^nd grade, but programs are popping up earlier and earlier now and we are seeing parents teaching phonics skills before their children even reach pre-school. Additionally, if children are having more trouble than usual learning their reading skills, it isn’t uncommon for phonics to be utilized through 3^rd grade.

 

And that, my friends, is a quick summary of phonics! Any questions? Please post in the comments below…

Capital or lower-case?

Once book reading is commonplace in your child’s life, you will notice that they begin to recognize all letters can take two forms: capital and lower-case. In the early stages of reading it’s not important to explain when and why capital letters are used. However, as your child takes notice you should take the opportunity to introduce the rules of using capital letters vs. lower-case.

 

If you want to introduce this concept early, invest in alphabet cards that can be mounted to your child’s wall, much like those seen in kindergarten classes. These are helpful because they show the capital and lower-case letter next to each other, so if your child knows form of the letter they can deduce that the other letter is the same. There are also fun, colorful pictures to illustrate the letters so they make fun and useful room decorations!

 

“Sight words”—what they are and how to teach them!

 

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

 

 

Moving From Short Vowels to Long Vowels

So your little Phonics Reading Pro is all dome learning their short vowel reading lists and you’re wondering which lesson to teach next… the answer is: transition games! Now is time to break out the movable alphabet again and play a transition game that demonstrates the difference between how you sound out short vowel words and long vowel words.

 

1)   Build the word “rat” with the moveable alphabet. Have your child sound it out and read it to you. Remember that vowels are in red and consonants are in blue.

2)   Now add the letter ‘e’ to the end of the “rat”. It becomes “rate”.

3)   Explain the difference to your child in the following way: “When you add ‘e’ to the end of this word, it makes the ‘a’ say its name. So instead of saying ‘a’ like apple, it says ‘a’ like ‘ape’. Now let’s sound out the word with the ‘e’ on the end…”

4)   Keep practicing this rule with different words “fat” becomes “fate”, “can” becomes “cane”, and so on.

5)   Follow the lesson sequence by having your child write down the new long vowel words. Read books that feature long vowels and play games that use them.

 

The name of the game is reinforcement, reinforcement, reinforcement! And that’s another easy way to help your child become a Phonics Reading Pro!

Moving From Short Vowels to Long Vowels

So your little Phonics Reading Pro is all dome learning their short vowel reading lists and you’re wondering which lesson to teach next… the answer is: transition games! Now is time to break out the movable alphabet again and play a transition game that demonstrates the difference between how you sound out short vowel words and long vowel words.

 

1)   Build the word “rat” with the moveable alphabet. Have your child sound it out and read it to you. Remember that vowels are in red and consonants are in blue.

2)   Now add the letter ‘e’ to the end of the “rat”. It becomes “rate”.

3)   Explain the difference to your child in the following way: “When you add ‘e’ to the end of this word, it makes the ‘a’ say its name. So instead of saying ‘a’ like apple, it says ‘a’ like ‘ape’. Now let’s sound out the word with the ‘e’ on the end…”

4)   Keep practicing this rule with different words “fat” becomes “fate”, “can” becomes “cane”, and so on.

5)   Follow the lesson sequence by having your child write down the new long vowel words. Read books that feature long vowels and play games that use them.

 

The name of the game is reinforcement, reinforcement, reinforcement! And that’s another easy way to help your child become a Phonics Reading Pro!

Letter Writing: a fading skill

A really important activity you can do with your child is to teach them how to write and send a letter. In our fast paced internet-centric society it’s easy to forget how important writing a good letter is. I don’t know about you, but I still love getting an old fashioned handwritten letter from someone I love every once in a while. So pass the tradition on to your child!

Teach them the standard form of a letter “Dear____, {body of the message}, Love, _______”. Show them how to properly address and stamp an envelope, and have fun waiting for a reply… I’m sure Grandma and Grandpa would be happy to be pen pals with their little star grandchildJ Of course this is an activity you want to start around first grade or when your child has a lot of confidence in writing full sentences.  Eventually, you can take traditional letter writing to the computer and show them how to send emails as well. Happy writing!  

Reading tip of the day: Talk it out!

 

While it comes very naturally to people to speak, it’s definitely not as easy to learn to read. However having a firm foundation in oral communication is essential to learning how to read and write effectively at a young age. So one thing to pay attention to is how your child’s speaking development is progressing. A guideline as seen at http://www.readingrockets.org/article/28758 shows the typical progression of language skills for children:

Age range	Sound recognition
0-3 months	Coos, cries, smiles
4-6 months	Babbles are more speech-like, includes many sounds such as /p/, /b/, /m/
7 months-1 year	Imitates different speech sounds, longer groups of sounds, begins saying words such as bye-bye, mama, dada
1-2 years	Uses more words each month, puts two words together into phrases, asks questions like "Where kitty?"
2-3 years	Has words for almost everything, uses two to three words together, is more easily understood, especially by those who know child
3-4 years	Says sentences with four or more words, talks about activities and/or people, is easily understood by all
4-5 years	Uses clear voice, detailed sentences, sticks to topic, uses appropriate grammar, says most sounds correctly

 

Remember how important it is for you to talk and interact with your child! Speak properly so they learn proper grammar from the start and have fun seeing your child progress! When in doubt: talk it out! J

 

Schoolhouse Rock!

No matter how old you were in the 70s (or heck even if you weren’t alive yet!) you’ve probably heard of the Saturday morning  cartoons that taught American basic lessons that are important bits of knowledge, such as how a bill becomes a law.  Don’t remember? Check out this link:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ

Where I’m going with this is, there was a sub section of Schoolhouse Rock called Grammar Rock that taught everything from what a noun is to how to spot interjections in a sentence. One of the all-time favorites is ‘Conjunction Junction’ that taught kids that conjunctions do the business of “hooking up words and phrases and clauses”J

 

I know we eventually learn all those grammar rules the old-fashioned way, but isn’t it so much easier when the information is presented with catchy music and lyrics? That’s something to think about when you’re teaching your child their reading lessons. The more fun and interactive you can make it, the better and easier it’ll be for your child  to grasp everything!

Old Reading Classic: Little House on the Prairie

While we’re on the subject of old classics, let’s talk about a book series that many kids (girl’s especially) have come to love in their early readings: the Little House the Prairie books. Laura Ingalls Wilder chronicles her life as an early frontier girl in Minnesota. These books are so enjoyable and educational because they show a piece of American history that is often overlooked: the early stages in this country’s development where families had to hunt for their food, build their own houses, plant harvests and hope for survival during rough winter months. Laura’s adventures and life lessons have a way of resonating with children who can see similar situations in their own lives even set in modern times.

There are eight original Little House books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder and if you choose to have your child start this book series, try to have them finish the whole series so that they can experience the entire story arc. The book titles are:

 

Little House in the Big Woods
Farmer Boy
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake

Little Town on the Prairie
The Long Winter
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years

And for nostalgia’s sake don’t forget the classic TV series with Michael Landon and Melissa GilbertJ

Old Reading Classic: McGuffey's Readers

Do you remember the classic episodes of ‘Little House on the Prairie’? I don’t know if you paid close attention to details, but all the children in the school house read the same set of books. They’re called McGuffey’s readers and they were in fact used “…for three quarters of a century…by four-fifths of all American school children”. (www.howtotutor.com/guffy.htm) The original set consists of 7 books that begin with short vowel reading stories and eventually end with advanced reading lessons. Something distinctive about the way they lay out their lessons is at the beginning of each story/lesson they group the words that are predominate in that lesson and also include pronunciation marks and the words broken up into syllables. I’m not sure any modern reading systems include that much detail anymore.

 

Beyond that, McGuffey’s readers taught many moral lessons that in our politically correct times may not be as widely accepted as in the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ days. However, you should definitely give these books a look, if nothing for the nostalgia of checking out such a large reading movement that was so prevalent in the not so distant past. Happy reading! Do you have any old classics you loved as a child? Please comment below…