Phonics Reading Pro editors remember playing hangman with friends on lazy summer days as a child! I bet as a child you didn’t realize you where helping your reading skills by playing this old classic! Hangman can be a very helpful game because it engages foresight and memory of word and sentence structure. It may not be the most popular after school game anymore, but it’s definitely worth it to introduce this old classic to your kids. Start out with one-word puzzles and eventually build up to sentence-long puzzles.

The rules of hangman are:

1)   Draw empty spaces that represent letters in a word, so that each letter has its own line to be written on.

2)   Ask your child to guess a letter that may be in the puzzle. If the letter they guess is in the puzzle write it in the space(s) it belongs.

3)   Draw a box under the spaces you’ve drawn for the words in the puzzle. This box is where you write any letters that aren’t in the puzzle so you’re child won’t guess incorrectly numerous times.

4)   Every time they guess incorrectly you draw a part of the hangman’s body on the noose (i.e. head, body, two, arms, and finally two legs.). So in other words, they have 8 incorrect guesses before the hangman is complete and they’re out of guesses.

5)   When they guess the word or sentence correctly, they’ve won and then it’s their turn to make up a puzzle for you!

This is a fun game when  you need to give your little Phonics Reading Pro some variety in the phonics reading games you’re playing with themJ

Even the smartest of the Phonics Reading Pros can have a hard time distinguishing between ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘p’, and ‘q’. Remember those picture cards we recommended you use early on with your child to teach them letter recognition? The ones with a letter on one side and a corresponding picture on the other… When you first used these you were teaching the sounds of the letter rather than the names. At this point in your child’s reading lessons, however, you are going to want to start testing whether they know the names of the letters as well as the sounds.

Go through the cards with your child and first have them tell you the sounds of the letters. When you finish, tell them that this time you want them to tell you the names of the letters instead of the sounds. You might notice that it takes a while for there to be a smooth transition between the sounds and the names of letters, but that’s okay. The more you practice with your child, the better it will get! Some common trip-ups happen with distinguishing the names and sounds of ‘b’,‘d’, ‘p’, and ‘q’, but that’s totally normal. Practice makes perfect and repetition is key! Choose books that focus on these consonants and build words together with your movable alphabet as well. Every bit of practice helps your child’s phonics reading skills.

Something Phonics Reading Pro has pondered in the past is: are TV shows for children a good idea? For example, we will always be fans of Reading Rainbow! I honestly think it made a big impact on many children because it facilitated them to have a love for reading and an appreciation for the way books can transport you from your daily life to places that you’ve only dreamt of. We’re sad that it isn’t still a part of the PBS line up. It’s a classic that will be missed.

How do you guys feel about reading programming? My worry is that they teach with “look-see” more than phonics. That’s not always the case, but I still worry that mixing such shows with what your child is learning in school may be detrimental or at least slow their learning somewhat. What do you guys think? Have you ever seen “Between the Lions” or “Word Girl” before? Let us know if you think they are helpful or hindering to your little Phonics Reading Pros.

Early in the Phonics Reading Pro blog we discussed a game and phonics reading tool called “The Ladder”. The Ladder is a game used to help solidify reading skills for children. The key is to find a popular word ending that can have many different beginnings. For example, -at is a short vowel word ending that can have many different letter beginnings. You can make many different words ending in –at including cat, mat, rat, sat, scat, brat, hat, and so on. The Ladder helps your child visualize this by laying the words out in an organized fashion.

Don’t just limit yourself to short vowel “a” words though. You can play the game with all of the short vowels. For example make the word ending –ot, so you can make words like dot, cot, got, hot, not, tot, etc. Now try words ending in –ed: bed, led, ted, fed, red, etc. Short vowel ‘i’ words ending in –id for example, could include bid, lid, hid, rid, etc. And finally short vowel ‘u’ words ending in –ut include but, cut, gut, hut, nut, etc. Use  the Ladder to help your little Phonics Reading Pro build confidence in their newfound reading skills!

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!

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!

Once your Phonics Reading Pro has a firm grasp of what makes up a story- introduction, main theme/story, and ending- have them begin to write short stories of their own. When you’ve taught them the word drop game that I discussed in a recent post, they’re going to learn how to write a proper sentence. The only thing you have left to introduce to them to is how to group together sentences to make a story. This begins early when you read them their bedtime stories! Remember how we talked about teaching your child to have a love for the library? All those story-times they went to and eventually checking out books of their own are going to come in handy for their writing skills. It doesn’t take long for kids to recognize the sequence of characters being introduced, the characters having some adventure or solving a problem, and the resolution and end of the story.

Encourage your child to draw a picture and then tell you a story about it. Once they’ve done this, you can suggest that they write the story down. Give them lots of help the first few times they do this exercise and then let them fly free!   Be sure to provide them with large pieces of paper that have a space on the top for their drawing and then pre-printed lines for them to write their story on. You can find sheets like this at any teachers supply stores or anywhere office supplies are sold. Seeing your Phonics Reading Pro draw, write, and read their own stories will be a joy!

Most people believe one of the first signs that your child is going to be a little Phonics Reading Pro is when they start singing their ABCs. I know it’s one of the coolest moments a proud parent can have when their child is able to sing the alphabet on command! However, if you are following a phonics curriculum make sure you teach them the standard alphabet song after they’ve learned the beginning short vowel sounds of a, e, i, o, and u along with the short sounds of all the consonants. Once they know these, it’s okay to move them on to the long vowel sounds and letter names for the consonants.

If you must have your child know an alphabet song before they reach the long vowels in their reading development, teach them a phonics version such as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWEiZ0IXOj8

Otherwise, wait it out and let them learn the traditional alphabet song a little way down the road Just remember, it’s all about staying consistent with the lessons you’re teaching your child. You don’t want to confuse them by teaching them one thing and then hopping ahead to concepts they haven’t been introduced to yet. Helping you child become a Phonics Reading Pro is easier than you think! It’s all in the way you present their reading lessons to them. Timing is key!

One of Phonics Reading Pro's missions is to help children have the best foundation for a successful start at reading as possible. That's why we give so many tips from experts that have been proven to help children learn to read with phonics. We support products that work toward this goal. We also try our best to spread the word that your child can be victorious in learning how to read whatever their current reading level may be.

Phonics Reading Pro would like to invite you to read an article written by one of this site's editors that asks the question "Why are Children Failing Basic Reading Skills in America?". Please let us know what you think of the article and also any topics you'd like us to feature on this site. Thank you  in advance!

Follow this link to the article: http://EzineArticles.com/?id=3580892

Here’s a fun game you can play with your children when practicing reading books starts to get old:

1) Tell your kids you’re going to try something different while you’re reading together today. Have a spare piece of paper and explain that you are going to make a word list while he or she reads the book. Make the list based on the predominate phonics word pattern that’s being featured in the book. For example: in a book called “Jake’s Cake” you’ll be finding a lot of words with a silent ‘e’ which makes the ‘a’ in the word have a long sound.

2) As your child reads the book, make a list of words that fit the phonics criteria that you’ve chosen.

3) When your child finishes the book, go through the list of words you’ve made you’re your child and see if they understand the phonics pattern.

4) Next, choose a similar book and tell them it’s their turn to write the list. Go through the list together and make any corrections if need be. Once this game becomes too easy, have your child make more than one list with each list having a different phonics pattern.