The more ways you introduce your little Phonics Reading Pro to language, the better they will be able to grasp an understanding of the spoken and written word and how language works as a whole. This is why from birth it is so important to talk to your child, ask them questions, answer their questions and really develop their speaking skills in the process. I know it’s easy to get bogged down with day to day responsibilities, but remember that your child is a sponge wanting to soak up all the information around them. Don’t let the TV become a replacement for real interaction.

Here are some things all parents should do with their kids to immerse them in language early on and subsequently help them academically before they even make it to preschool:

–Read books and encourage them asking questions and predicting the course of the story

– Sing songs

– Teach them rhymes

– Play interactive games like “I spy” and “Memory”

– Start to teach them letters and their sounds

– Point out signs when you’re out driving to introduce word association

Let Phonics Reading Pro know if you have any other suggestions in the comments please…

Back when Phonics Reading Pro discussed positive reinforcement we were trying to make a point that a positive attitude and words of encouragement can go a long way in giving your child confidence. This confidence, of course, is going to go beyond their reading skills and help them become confident individuals as a whole. This might seem old fashioned, but something that teachers used to do back in the day should be carried on as a motivational tool and form of positive reinforcement: putting gold stars on their work!

Kids love stickers in general, but a star is representative of achievement. They are reaching for the stars in the academic world! Please reward them for all their hard work! The perfect time to do this is after they’ve written their ‘books’ of phonograms (short vowel words and long vowel words for example). When you make the cover, add a shiny star to show them how proud you are of their hard work J Try to stick with stars or ‘words of encouragement’ stickers ( ex: “Awesome!” “Great Job!” ) and stay away from cartoon characters and other images that might distract them from the book itself. Give your little Phonics Reading Pro the gift of encouragement with positive reinforcement in the form of stars and smiles J

The Ladder is a game used to help solidify  phonics reading skills for children. The key is to find a popular word ending that can have many different beginnings. For example, -an is a short vowel word ending that can have many different letter beginnings. You can make many different words ending in –an including can, man, ran, tan, scan, bran, fan, and so on. The Ladder helps your child visualize this by laying the words out in an organized fashion.

1) If you have a movable alphabet, lay out a small rug or piece of felt and use the movable alphabet to build each of these words. At the top of the rug/felt place the ending of the word (in our case this is –an).

2) Along the length of the rug/felt place five or six –an endings with enough space in front of them to add beginning consonants to make whole words.

3) Now ask your child to get involved. Using the movable alphabet, hold a ‘c’ up to the first empty space next to the –an word ending. Ask them “Does this make a word?” Then sound out the word: “c-a-n”. “Yes, this makes the word ‘can’!” Now try it with the letter ‘f’ at the next empty –an word ending.

4) Keep making words in this fashion until the entire Ladder is filled with words. Have your child write the words down and save the word list to be included in a book of Ladder word lists later on. 

*Note: if you don’t have a movable alphabet, the Ladder can be played by drawing it out on a dry-erase board and simply writing in the words as you go.

As you can see, this game can take you through short vowel words all the way through long vowel words and even blends! Now that’s a fun and easy way of helping your child become a Phonics Reading Pro!

A part of being a Phonics Reading Pro is learning the “write way to reading”, so here’s an activity you can do to get started! Teach your child 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 with your little Phonics Reading Pros! 

When your little Phonics Reading Pro has advanced through short vowel and long vowel reading it’s time to make that all important trip to the local library. We strongly encourage cultivating a love of reading in your child by taking them to the library at an early age. They can first go to activities like “story time” and slowly progress into exploring the library on their own.

Once they have an idea of basic phonics reading skills you should take them to get their very own library card! It will be a major event for them and a wonderful memory for youJ

 Here are some tips to get you started:

–Look for award winning books and classic children’s stories such as “Little Red Riding Hood” , “ Little House in the Big Woods”, and “Island of the Blue Dolphins”

–Ask friends, neighbors, and teachers for reading suggestions

–Get help from the librarian for book suggestions!

–Have fun exploring books with your child and be tuned into their interests and promote them with specific book choices

So as you can see, being a Phonics Reading Pro is easy with the help of libraries!

In becoming a Phonics Reading Pro an essential part of the reading process is learning how to predict storylines. Teaching your child how to do this early on makes successful reading a lot easier because foresight and predicting storylines is a critical part of the reading process. Luckily, teaching your child how to predict storylines is as easy as it sounds. In fact, most kids have a natural inclination for it. Have you ever read your child a bedtime story only to have them interject questions like "What happens next?!" or " Are they going to make it away from the witch and live happily ever after?", etc.

This is the time you can start planting the seeds for how to predict the outcome of stories. Always ask them "What do think will happen next?" when they ask you any questions about the outcome of the storyline. When they begin reading you stories, it's your turn to ask what will happen next Once you have their prediction you can tell them what you think will happen as well. If it turns out that their prediction is off you can ask them the question again after they read a few more pages if they still think the story will end the same way. Make adjustments to your guesses and teach them that it's okay to reframe your thinking as you read so they can understand that changing plot points will change the ending of a story. And there you have another stepping stone in helping you child become a Phonics Reading Pro!

Happy New Year from Phonics Reading Pro! Let’s start off the New Year with a bang! Remember how we believe that there is a “write way to reading”, that is having your child write out words as well as read them. Isn’t it true that everyone learns differently? Some of us learn best by hearing, others by reading, and some by doing. When your child is just learning to read it isn’t easy to know which style of learning is going to work best for them. Therefore, do a little bit of everything! Read the books, write the focus words, and build the focus words with a movable alphabet. Through one or more of these methods your child’s ‘light bulb moments’ will start happening with more frequency and before you know it they’ll be begging you for more reading time!

Keep your child’s word lists together so you can make mini books with them. For example, when your child writes out the most frequent short vowel ‘a’ words they read, staple them together and make a special cover for them. Have your child sign their name on the cover and read it to friends, family, and all that will listen! They will all be impressed by your child’s phonics reading skills!